And one for grandpa

[deadeye]

After Fishing a fishing trip Sunday - Tuesday morning I spent Tuesday afternoon preparing gardens and planting canna bulbs, potatoes, and onions.  Too tired to get up early Wednesday to turkey hunt to I went up in the afternoon.  Pulled cards from a couple trail cameras to see if there were any turkeys around.  Pictures showed lots of toms and hens at one location usually in the morning.  Another showed turkeys later in morning through early afternoon and again in the evening.  I grabbed my stuff and walked to a blind about 110 yards from my cabin and was setup by 4 PM.  Less than 1/2 hour later a hen showed up feeding about 100 yards up the field and eventually fed out of sight.  Then around 5:00 PM a big tom popped out of the woods near my cabin.  He wasn't interested in my decoys and simply walked past the cabin (yes, it would have been a great choice to sit on the deck) and eventually out of site.  I was a little disappointed but still excited after seeing turkeys. Around 5:30 I looked up from sending a text and there was a turkey looking at me (or at least looking at the blind) not 10 feet away.  He was so close I could only see his head.  I could see it was a jake but way too close for me to do anything.  After a while he turned and started feeding away from me. I took the opportunity to raise my gun and look around. I saw a hen nearby but no other turkeys.  He never raised his head as he fed away from me so when he go about 20 yards away I shouted "hey, I'm over here" this prompted him to raise his head and I pulled the trigger.  The hen ran over and jumped on him then went to my hen decoy and started to beat it up.  I waited about half hour for the hen to move away before I left the blind hoping a big tom wouldn't come to check out all the commotion. 

Supplies for an afternoon sit 




No shooting at the cabin


Hen beating up on my hen decoy

[Jerkbiat]

Nice job! 

[deadeye]

I was alone when I shot the turkey so I just walked in front of a trail camera to get the photo. 

[Dotch]

You were just being a model of efficiency...

[Jerkbiat]

Nice!!

[snow1]

Nice D.E. how many trip's from the cabin to the blind with all that gear? or did you use a wheeler not shown,all the comforts of home,I like it.

Now how will you prep the bird for dinner? skin or pluck,soup ,roast or smoke? curious

[deadeye]

snow1,
It's only 110 yards from the cabin to this blind.  Somehow I managed to carry all the gear in one trip.   
No plucking for me.  I lay the bird on it's back, rip the skin off the breast bone and carve off the breasts. Then push the leg down until the hip bone pops out of the socket, grab the thigh and put it out.  Done in minutes.  To cook my wife cuts the breast into small chunks and slow cooks in crock pot for a while and then adds ingredients to make Wild Turkey/Wild Rice soup. It's thick and the best ever.  One turkey can make at least 4 big batches. 

Dotch,
I suppose I could setup my cell phone for a delayed shot but was close to this trail camera so you are right, just efficient.

With all this turkey action in front of this camera, I probably should move the blind so I could shoot them. For some reason the big toms walked by the camera but wouldn't come to my decoys which were set up about 80 yards away.