Final Hunt

Sleepy after eating a giant sandwich, chips, and some thing else I can’t remember. I coaxed Luke to go back out to the woods after eating in stead of taking a much needed nap. It was shaping up to be a 70 plus degree day. Which normally would have been nice, but when you are in full camo and have to walk over a mile to get to where you want to hunt it gets kind of warm.

Ok this time we decided to fallow the trail to the north to see if we could find any turkeys, or places to set up for our evening hunt. It was a long slow walk searching for turkey prints or scat along the trail. Of course you can’t for get about the heat, and the fact we were both so worn out.
After about a half hour of walking and just farting around Luke grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down to one knee behind a small oak tree. After we were both down on the ground Luke whispered big Tom around the bend on the trail in full strut.

“Here is my second chance”, I thought to my self. Luke started calling but he didn’t get any gobbles in return. After lying down in a ready position waiting for the Tom for what seemed like 20 mins. and not hearing a sound I decided to get up on to my knees and take a look. I saw him and he wasn’t walking in our direction.

I motioned for Luke to come up to my position. Knowing the Tom was walking the other way he could crawl on his knees as long as he was quite. We tried to figure out what to do. With lots of ground cover and not much for shooting lanes we decided the best thing to do was to move up behind a bush and wait.

After waiting, watching him strut and keep walking in the wrong direction I was getting frustrated. I crawled to the right of the bush to get a better view. Luke tried to calling again, but nothing he just kept walking away from us.

Then I heard a rooster pheasant crow off to the west in the direction we walked in on. This seemed rather odd to me, but I didn’t stop watching the strutting Tom. I lost him he went out of my site behind some tall grass I thought this was a great opportunity to get on my knees and find a better place to hide. Nothing close enough to move to, so I got back down (keep in mind this was all took only about 15 to 20 seconds). Then out of know where the turkey ran, like the road runner past my opening. I didn’t have enough time to get off a shot.

I thought I blew it and got busted by the bird. I couldn’t figure out why if I startled him why he would have run in my direction. I found out why on our walk back to the car. Some guy and his wife were walking their dogs on the trail. I normally wouldn’t have been mad because that is what you have to deal with hunting on state land. The problem was this guy didn’t have his lab on a leash and was using a whistle which is completely illegal. The law says you must have your dog on a leash when on state land from April 15th to August 1st.

Frustrated and tired we decided to go get an afternoon snack. After our snack we both decided to call it a season. Oh well no turkey, but lots of fun. I gained so much knowledge I’m primed for next year.

Ben G.