Spring Turkey Hunts

by
A. Sayward Lamb

The spring turkey hunts for my son Jim, and myself, ended with us both getting our turkeys, but the circumstances were quite different. When my wife and I arrived home from Florida, soon after the middle of April, we found two feet of snow on our camp road. We both knew it would be a few days before the snow melted, and the road dried up enough to enable us to drive our vehicle into our cottage, located eight tenths of a mile from the paved highway. Jim, and his wife Chris, invited us to stay with them in Oxford until we were able to make it into our place on the lake. We accepted their offer and made use of their spare bedroom for nearly two weeks.

The spring turkey hunt was scheduled for the month of May and the first week of June. I spent some of my time during the interim, prior to the hunting season, scouting for turkeys in the Oxford area. This was my year to hunt the “A” season, which occurred during the first and fourth weeks of May, while Jim’s was assigned to the “B” season, which allowed him to hunt the second and third weeks of May. If needed, both of us would be able to hunt during the first week of June.

I had no problem locating several flocks of turkeys, and almost every day I saw several turkeys. A few days prior to opening day, we set up one of Jim’s pop-up blinds in back of his house, at a site that we felt would enable me to see turkeys. There was one huge Tom in one flock that any hunter would be proud to place a turkey tag on. After the blind was erected, I even took the time to camouflage it more by using evergreen branches and other limbs from nearby trees. As it turned out, this was apparently a mistake, because we never saw that Tom or any Jakes after that, in the vicinity of the blind. Jim accused me of scaring all the turkeys away, by having that tent blind set up. One thing for sure; after the tent was in place, we didn’t see those birds again. Whether I was totally to blame hasn’t been determined, but of course I felt bad that it happened. Needless to say, the pop-up tent blind came down and was removed before turkey season opened.

I found another place in Oxford where I planned to be on opening day, and I was settled in well before daylight that first morning. Daylight arrived with overcast and threatening skies, and a few light showers. Occasionally I used my turkey calls, but all I saw were two hen turkeys, that circled completely around the site where I was sitting, and stayed well away from my decoys. By mid morning the rain started falling harder, so I headed back to Jim’s house well before noontime.

The following morning I was at my cottage on North Pond, and planned to drive the twenty-five miles down to Oxford to hunt. When I awoke I noticed the winds were blowing quite hard. I have never had much luck hunting any types of game on windy days, so I decided to stay home and do some scouting for turkey signs nearer home. Later that morning, I donned my camouflage hunting clothes, and after eating breakfast, I left home to do some scouting in the same area in Greenwood, where I shot my turkey the previous year. This site is some distance back in the woods, so I felt the wind might not be blowing as hard there. I did take my shotgun, turkey calls, decoys, and other hunting gear with me, but scouting the area was the main purpose that I had in mind when I headed out that morning. It was well after seven a.m. by the time I even started into the woods, so I only concentrated on looking for turkey signs as I walked along an old wood road. On the way in I did not see any signs of turkey tracks, scratchings, or feathers, that would indicate that turkeys were frequenting that area. I finally did see some turkey droppings, but no telling how old they were.

This trip was much different than I had experienced a year earlier, when I saw all sorts of turkey signs, and also saw turkeys while scouting that area. I wasn’t the least bit encouraged by what I had seen, so far that morning. The winds that were blowing across North Pond were not nearly as strong in the woods. When I arrived at the place where I shot my turkey last year, I stood around for a short time, trying to make up my mind about what I ought to do. I decided to erect a blind and then sit for a while to see what might happen. I laid up some sticks for one wall of the blind and in the front and on the other side, I used some camouflage netting. By this time it was after nine a.m., and with the sun shining, it was really quite comfortable. I had carried in my three turkey decoys in my back pack, so I decided to set them out for a while After placing them about twenty yards in front of the blind, I sat down and got out my turkey box call. I used this call to make four short yelps, and then sat, waiting and listening. With so little signs, I really didn’t expect to hear or see any turkeys.

I had been sitting for about another five minutes when I heard some loud hollering and screeching noises off to my right. Soon a pileated woodpecker (Cock-of-the- woods) came flying by, continuing to holler with its loud call. It continued on by, passing behind me, and disappeared from view. Immediately, I noticed some even louder screeching noises emitting from the same area where the woodpecker calls had orginated. I turned and looked in the direction of that noise, trying to determine what on earth it might be. I could not see any other animal or bird, even though I was looking in the direction of some fairly open hardwood trees, located on a side hill.

As I sat watching, I happened to catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. Glancing that way, I was surprised to see a large Tom turkey strutting in full display in front of my decoys. I had not heard any gobbles or yelps that would indicate that a turkey was anywhere in the vicinity of where I was sitting!

I held still until the gobbler’s head disappeared behind a large maple tree. Then I quickly turned a quarter turn to my left, and at the same time brought my twelve-gauge shotgun up to my shoulder, ready to shoot. When the Tom’s head and neck appeared again I was ready and squeezed the trigger, ending the hunt. I had myself a nice Tom turkey, and as I said before, no one could have been more surprised by what had just happened than I was! I doubt if the turkey had been making any screeching sounds, because it was located to the south of me while the noises I heard were coming from a westerly direction. So, I will never know what the strange screeching noises were that I heard that morning. What I do know is the fact that the turkey must have come in silently, from a direction that I was not watching. Nevertheless, I was pleased to have gotten my gobbler that windy morning, on the second day of the season. Lady luck was with me that day, for sure.

I still had to wait a few weeks before the “B” season of turkey hunting began. My plans were to help Jim by doing the calling for him. He had surgery on his left shoulder a few weeks before turkey season began. Jokingly, I kept asking Jim if his shoulder didn’t get healed before his season opened, would I have to shoot his turkey for him? Jim is blind in his right eye, so he has to shoot left-handed. When I quizzed him about how he planned to shoot using his left shoulder, which had been operated on, all he said was: “I’ll have to figure out a way that I can do it.”

One thing for sure, Jim realized his left shoulder was too sore to try firing a shotgun.

Of course, he still had a few weeks to go before his season opened, and as Jim said: “I really don’t have to go out on the first day, or even the first week of my season. I may want to wait until the shoulder heals longer, and gets feeling better.” Then he continued: “Don’t worry father, I’ll figure something out.”

A short time later, when I was down to Jim’s house, he told me that he had figured out a way that might work. He said he planned to use his single barrel, twenty-gauge shotgun, with two and three-quarter inch shells. This would be a lighter load than using his twelve gauge shotgun with three inch, or three and a half inch shells, that he would normally use when turkey hunting. A few days later, when I was talking with Jim on the telephone, he told me he had tried shooting the twenty gauge gun, by holding it on his right shoulder, and sighting down the barrel with his left eye. He also told me that he had found out he could hit a target forty feet away. Then he said: “If I can call a turkey within forty feet, then I feel pretty sure that I can shoot and hit it.” I told him to let me know when he was ready to go hunting and I would come down and do the calling for him.

Only a few days went by when he called me and said he planned to go turkey hunting the following morning. I told him I would be down to go with him. The next morning I arrived at his house about 4:45 a.m., which was a bit later than I had planned. Jim was ready to leave when I arrived, so we packed my gear into his truck and headed out. We had to ride only a short distance, and then take a short walk to get to the field where we planned to set up the pop-up blind. It was quickly getting daylight, so Jim sat up the blind while I set out the turkey decoys, only ten yards out in front of the tent blind. This is about half as far as we usually set out the decoys, but we needed to do it this way in order to get turkeys to come within the forty-foot range of Jim’s shooting distance.

We quickly settled inside the tent blind and used our box calls to gobble a couple of times. No turkeys answered these calls, so we sat quietly, waiting and watching. About five minutes later two turkeys came flying down from their roosts and landed around seventy yards away, across the field from our blind. We watched as the two birds walked along the field and soon they disappeared down over the backside of the small ridge. We used our slate calls intermittently, calling softly, hoping those two birds would come our way. About ten minutes later they reappeared, and once they saw our decoys, headed our way. By now we could see they were two Jakes, and it wasn’t long before they both were directly in front of us, intently looking at the decoys. They began to walk from our right towards the left, about forty feet from us. Jim slowly placed the twenty-gauge shotgun on his right shoulder and sort of “screwed” his neck around in order to be in position to sight down the barrel of the shotgun with his left eye.

Taking aim at the turkey to his left, he pulled the trigger. When he fired his shotgun, the second turkey took flight and headed back to the right of us. At the same instant Jim said: “ I got him!” The front of the tent prevented me from seeing the Jake that Jim shot, so I hurriedly went out the back door of the blind and saw the Jake, lying on its back, and flapping its wings rapidly. I jumped on top of it to be sure it didn’t get up and run away. I was as elated as Jim, and also proud of him, knowing that even though he was handicapped by the sore shoulder and his blind eye, he had managed to shoot his turkey! It only proved that his determination overcame his adversities, which ended in a successful hunt.

One other thing I should mention, is the fact that when Jim fired at his Jake, four other larger turkeys took flight from the left side of the field. I would estimate they were about sixty yards away when they took flight. Jim and I were so intent in watching the two Jakes approaching that we never noticed those four turkeys that were heading our way. It was an interesting morning for both of us. No telling what might have happened if we had seen and waited for those four turkeys to meet up with the two Jakes. No doubt, it would have been interesting to watch all the action. Our spring turkey hunts ended early for both of us; under unusual circumstances in our respective hunts, so we have a lot to be thankful for.

Copyright 2007
A. Sayward Lamb