Along comes Sunday morning; I go to Starbucks in Ellijay and I'm their first customer and head to the roost spot in the woods with my grande mocha. LOL I get about 100 yards from it and he is gobbling hard on the roost (20+ times) and cutting me off as I do tree yelps and I figured he would finally fly down to my roost setup. Nope, he flew down the opposite direction and moved away from me. Ugh!
Plan B; I setup on the log road above this roost and hope something comes along (I hear & see nothing). Plan C; I go down to where the barn is and listen and hear a gobbler on the other side of the landowner’s house and proceed to get on him. I got him fired up with my calls and he is gobbling his head off up on a ridgeline (of course) and the above mentioned disappearing act happens after I go after him. The chase is off, so I go get lunch and come back to setup in the area I heard that gobble on Saturday (plan D). I thought maybe he will stick with the same routine and come through there again. Thus, I proceed to setup on the hillside but think better of it and setup my doghouse blind for the first time at the end of this plowed up food plot (chufa & peas going in soon). There is an old chimney there and it happens to be exactly where my father-in-law setup about 3 or 4 years ago and killed a Jake (his 1st turkey). I guess I got the blind up just before 3PM and did some yelps, purrs and cackles with my Supreme Talking Dirty pot call (thanks Steve Reeves) and follow it up with some gobblers with the Primos gobbler shaker (figured it was worth a try since I had a jake & hen decoy out) . I waited awhile longer and gobbled some more & waited (still no gobbling in return). Now I'm getting very tired after a 4:30AM wake up and chasing him earlier in the day, so I start getting sleepy around 4PM when I hear some rustling in the leaves toward the opposite end of this 1/3 acre food plot. I figured it was some squirrels but I decided to go ahead & take a peek, and I see a redhead pop out of the bush (semi-silent approach)! Game on! I hurry to get my red dot on & my 870 pointed his way. He proceeds to cross the field (paying no attention to the decoys 20 yards from me). He passes by this big tree and I have the red dot on his neck/waddle area. Then he comes out from behind that tree and before he gets behind the next big tree (my shooting lane)…I drop the 870 Hevi-13 #6 hammer on him & it drops him in his tracks! He is now taking a dirt nap @ 50 yards (preseason patterning & practice paid off)! So, I run up to him and he stopped flopping and figured I didn't need to stand on his neck. Just then he flops big time and travels 10+ feet down into a creek, and proceeds to get muddy & wet. Grrr! I stood on his neck then and he took a creek nap. I picked him up and was surprised at how heavy he was…I should have weighted him but we figured he weighted at least 21 pounds and was 3+ years old. I got in my car and drove up to the landowner's house and got his camo Kubota RTV900 (just happens to be the product I work on) and Tommy took his 1st ride in the cargo bed, so I could go hose him off. I got him iced down and headed home and a good friend of mine meets me at my house to show me how to clean it (many thanks to Stephen Wilbanks!). We took the hair dryer to his tail feathers and took some photos! LOL
Needless to say, I'm a tired happy camper and I have told many folks about my 1st turkey. This is the hardest I have worked at anything in a long time and I finally have a prize to show for it. I plan to get a nice display for the fan, beard, spurs and more. I thought about a full mount, but we wanted to get it dressed/cleaned and I have already spent a lot of $$$ this season on turkey gear. Plus, I want to try wild turkey for the first time (turkey fryer style). It's in the freezer now and plan to fry him up around my birthday next month.
That's my 1st turkey story…thanks for your time!
BTW, my shot placement was spot on! I put all of the shot in or around the waddle (what I was aiming at)...a few hit his head and 1 appeared to enter his temple and none in the breast. The temple shot probably got him, but after skinning him we could see the pattern very well on his lower neck around the waddle (hard to see till then). My 870, .670 Pure Gold & 3.5" Hevi-13 #6 combo is a certified turkey killing machine now!
It's starting to set in now and I could not be happier!
BTW, here are all the photos & more comments (be sure to click on the photos & read the notes):
http://www.flickr.com/gp/82738151@N00/qZ6dL0
Here are the details:
I harvested him on Sunday, May 6th @ approx. 4PM
21+ pounds
1" & 1 1/8" spurs (someone told me to get a flexible ruler so I could get more length to account for the curve in them)
9 3/4" beard
