He and two other gobblers and one hen came walking right into camp on a beautiful sunny morning October 3rd, while Arlene, Mary and I were sitting having coffee.
I was so excited that I ran around the trailer looking for my shotgun and shells like a crazy person.
I made so much noise that I scared them and they ran to the end of the clearing. I had to sneak out of the trailer and stalk them. They were about 80 yards away and I had to keep a small grove of birch in between me and them.
I managed to get within about 25 yards and when the gobbler closet to me lifted his head way up to look around, I shot. He immediately went down and I thought I got him.
Much to my surprise, he got up and flew away. I took a shot at him on the wing and was sure that I had hit him.
Mary came out to help me and we started to look for him. Mary spotted him on the ground with another gobbler perched on a log watching him. I had to walk up and finish him off.
It made me feel a little sad that the other bird was staying with him. Mary thought that it was his brother, which of course made me feel even worse.
Arlene thought that he was the lead or head bird and that's why the other bird stayed there.
In any case, I found out two important things about wild turkeys, well, actually three things: 1. they are really big birds, 2. they are really hard to kill, and 3. I don't know enough about wild turkey behavior and need to study them more if I'm going to hunt them.
I think that he may be a younger bird but since I don't know how to age a wild turkey, I'm just guessing.
But, I'm still pretty proud of my first Wild Turkey!
3 comments:
Hey, Sis, congrats! Nice looking bird.
I'm no expert, but I'd say he's at least two years old, judging from the beard. Congratulations, though. If you stalked ANY turkey and got a shot, you "done good!"
Congratulations!. Turkeys are always more of a challenge for me than whitetail. That's a nice one, and you did VERY well.
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