My first turkey hunt
June 25th, 2005 by Administrator
My first turkey hunt - Lois Davis of rural Angola bagged this 16-pound jake last year on Mother’s Day. It was her first turkey ever, and one that came on the last day of the season. Photo contributed.
It was my first year turkey hunting and like many others, I bought a lot of different calls to practice on and use. I read magazines and watched videos to learn the basics. I had a week and a half of vacation planned just for turkey hunting. Whether I bagged a big tom or not, I knew it would be fun just to be able to hear the ol’ gobblers and hens.
I hunted every morning and afternoon. I would call and get toms to answer and come closer and into view. Two different times during that week I called in a hen close enough to have reached out and touched her. All of this was very exciting for me and very rewarding but, as the season was coming to an end, frustration started to set in with the lack of seeing any beards at all.
My fiance knew a guy who did a lot of turkey hunting and called him for advice. He told us we needed to get aggressive with our calling to get a tom to come in. So I tried for two days with no luck. But I was still hearing them gobble fairly close. We called my fiance’s friend again to let him there was no success yet. So he offered to go the last morning of the season to call for me.
It was Sunday — and Mother’s Day, no less. I felt kind of guilty having him do this since he had a wife and kids at home, but he said, “We all hunt too, and we have our birds, and they won’t mind at all.”
Now, granted, my two children were enough of a gift for me for Mother’s Day, but I knew it would be extra special if I could get a turkey too. We left early that morning to get his blind set up in a low spot in the woods. We were ready.
He called and got an answer. Then we waited. He called again and got an answer — the gobbles were closer. He called one more time. Soon after I saw two birds fanning and coming over the hill in front of us. We were both excited. They were two jakes. They weren’t big toms, but I didn’t care. It was enough for me.
They got within 45 yards and I shot one! I had my first successful turkey hunt and what an extra special Mother’s Day for me! My jake was 1 year old and weighed 16 pounds. It was beautiful! We were done by 6:05 a.m.
I must give “my guide” Darrel Antrup the credit and my many thanks for his time and effort to help me bag this bird.
Contributed by Lois Davis