My cousin Christopher was more excited about this turkey hunt that I think I was. He had a bunch of turkeys on his land and he wanted me to come down and exterminate one. All spring long he had been planning and scouting them. Yesterday April 21 was perfect weather and Chris was going to be home so Don B and I decided to head east of Kindred to try and fill my tag.
Chris told us to get there around 4 PM and I think we got there right at 3:30. Chris filled us in about the set up and where the turkeys should come from while Don B got my gun mount attached to my wheelchair and got the trigger on the shotgun. We made our way to the food plot where the pop-up blind was set. As we were still chatting, Don B noticed a lone hen working her way towards us slowly. We panicked. They lifted the pop-up blind and I drove in. Chris skedaddled back towards the house and Don B snuck into the blind with me.
That hen walked around and walked around the whole evening. She even took a nap 5 yards from us for a while. She had no clue. Evidently she was knocked up earlier and was just looking for food.
My cousin Christopher who is the landowner was about 100 yards behind us running the electric call. The speaker was about 20 yards behind us. It worked perfectly. We had four decoys in front of us; one jake and three toms. In front of us was a food plot, it is a couple acres. Behind that was some trees and then the Wild Rice River. On the other side of the river is a huge grove of trees, really thick stuff. It was a perfect set up.
Every time he would call the four toms across the river would start bugling. We played with them for 2 hours until they made the mistake to jump the river and head our way. They hung up for about 30 seconds and then came right into the decoys.
They came like a string to the decoys in front of us. They first picked on the standing jake and then they moved to the tom laying on the ground. They did their little dance with their fans up around that decoy numerous times. At this time I was trying to maneuver my chair without making too much noise in the blind. They were less than 10 yards away. But they were making enough noise that they didn’t hear me when I engaged my chair to move.
They were completely twitterpated. No care in the world except for beating up that decoy. This gave me plenty of time to get the elevation right for my shotgun to be lined up. I just needed them to move to my right a little bit and I could take a shot. They were zigzagging in between each other strutting their stuff. It was hard to pick just one out. I didn’t want to kill two of them or all four. Then one made the mistake of coming directly in front of me and I pulled the trigger. He dropped like a sack of taters. After the shot the other three toms didn’t even move. They started beating up on the dead one now. Don B and I were smiling ear to ear as I think we were both amazed at what just took place and I actually killed one. Don B has been along with many of my failed turkey hunts. It was great to have him there. He was also videoing the whole thing. Shining times.
The three remaining toms didn’t leave until Don B got out of the blind and Chris and his son Carter came to congratulate us. I was just about to give up because it was warm in the blind but glad I didn’t. It was 71° but it was like a sauna in that blind.
Now it was story time and we went over how everything happened. Then Staci Chris’s wife, Ellie Chris’s daughter and Ellie’s boyfriend Jack came with the side-by-side and we started taking pictures and some shenanigans happened.
After pictures we all made it back to the house as there was roast beast in the crockpot along with pasta salad. That didn’t suck. It was also Staci’s birthday that day so we celebrated that also with well-deserved cocktails. It’s always fun hanging out with them. Good people.
Don B and I stayed for little over an hour and made our way west. Don dropped me off at home and then I called my cousin Luke, my next-door neighbor and we cleaned the turkey in his garage. Going to make a fan mount with the beard and the spent shotgun shell. Now I need to find room on my wall…
Thanks Don B for always being there when I ask to go on any kind of hunt. Thanks to my cousins who let me on their land and made the day truly memorable. You all don’t suck…
