This Eastern is my first bird of the year:
Read the full story below, with some bonus pictures after that.
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I was at the end of a long stalk, had shot, and the turkey was flying straight at me. Look one in the eye as they're flying full out towards you and turkeys look like helicopters! My thoughts turned to shooting in self defense as he closed the distance...
But how did I get to that point? It began several days earlier, when I'd arrived at the family farm in southeastern Oklahoma for a long weekend of turkey hunting, looking for deer sheds, and fishing with family. I'd been skunked repeatedly earlier in the season by a longbeard I nicknamed "Tank Romero". Given how much my family likes to eat wild turkey meat, this weekend I'd decided any legal bird, longbeard or jake, was fair game.
I drove down to the farm with my father on Thursday afternoon, and we noticed a hen in the field south of the house as we unloaded the truck. Soon enough, a strutter joined her. Long story made short, I decided to make a flanking move east of them until I got up into the clearing on top of the hill to their south, then move closer and see if I could get into a workable setup. I made my move, but they stayed too far west and that evening's attempt was a bust. Nonetheless, the motivation to go after any gobbler that followed hens into that field was hatched...try it a few times, and one of the attempts might just succeed.
The next day, three hens slowly fed their way around the field for several hours in the afternoon and early evening. We watched from the house with binoculars, but no tom joined them. Maybe tomorrow.
Tomorrow came and two of the hens returned that morning. This time they fed up to within a few yards of the back fence behind the garden, but again no jake or tom. Where were all the gobblers? I'd hear one or two on morning hunts a couple of ridges south, back in the creek bottom near the Spring pond, but I hadn't been able to get a shot. Meanwhile, no gobblers joined the hens near the house. We kept hunting the more remote gobblers while keeping our eyes peeled for a farm house field opportunity. (Some excitment did ensue in the interim, however: I nearly stepped on a copperhead laying across a trail I was walking and then later the same day had a close encounter with a cottonmouth while fishing with my wife and daughter. Not the kind of excitement I was wanting!)
The next day, Sunday April 19th, I slept in as a storm passed through. It culminated several days of frequent rain showers with a heavy overnight thunderstorm that dumped 1 1/2 inches of rain in an hour. While everything was drying out late that morning, we noticed a jake had joined two of the hens back in the field near the house. I decided to watch them and see if there might be a time and place I could get to for an ambush.
They fed east down the field from around 11AM until close to 3PM, when we noticed they were back at the east pond and acting like they might feed back up the gently sloping field to the nearby hill they would roost on. I decided to go after the jake, by now dubbed "Farm Field Jake". I made my way quickly across the field to the hill bordering it on the south, then climbed up through the woods a safe distance into the trees before turning east and hustling 400 yards to the far end of the field near them. I setup where I could see both the field and the nearby north-south property line fence so that I might be able to get a shot or make a move whichever way they fed. After hanging around the pond for a long while, they started moving west back up the field. I waited until they'd gotten a safe distance past me, then beat a fast retreat back up the hill to the clearing on the top, practically sprinting at times to get back in front of them.
I made it to the road running up the hill from the farm house field just as they were approaching. I used a brushpile for cover as I setup against trees on the east side of the road right where it starts up the hill. I waited. They fed slowly by. Farm Field Jake came as close as 90 yards, but not any closer. They started feeding away from me to the west, and I saw that they were going to feed behind a different brushpile on the other side of the road.
Time to move again! I got up and made my way carefully over to the brush, then slowly around towards its west side, looking through the bois d'arcs trees growing along the old rundown fence line running up the hill. I saw one hen, then two, then just as I eased up to brace on the fence wire, the jake. The hens must have seen some movement because they sped up and turned more directly towards the hill, obviously headed for the brush.
In quick succession, the jake starting walking faster to follow them, I moved about five yards closer to brace on a limb, and he got close to cover before I could shoot. Suddenly he was just gone, vanishing as turkeys sometimes do. I stood still for a bit hoping he'd reappear. I'd just about given up when I saw him, probably forty yards distant, and walking slowly away while looking around as if trying to figure out why his two ladies were so concerned about being in this place at this particular time. When he stopped and raised his head, I shot. And then he lept airborn, turned 180 degrees hard right, and was suddenly flying right towards me!
I don't know if he saw me or not, but about halfway to me he turned to his right, towards the woods, and landed a couple yards into the treeline. He low-walked a quick pace about ten or fifteen yards into the woods, pausing behind a log to survey the situation. I had a clear shot, braced on a tree limb, and let the second round of number five pellets fly. He dropped and the deal was done!
He may be "only" a young one, but I'm proud of the Farm Field Jake. I've never done so much stalking and had several different setups on a group of birds in such quick succession; the struggle of the hunt was fantastic, and getting the bird was icing on the cake!
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Farm Field Jake working his way down the field earlier in the day:
Short walks back to the house or hunting camp are always nice:
Copperheads should *not* lie in wait on trails!
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