Spring Turkey 2020

    I decided to take a buddy of mine out to a few spots on an early morning hunt in May. He told me that he was interested in getting into hunting so I figured taking him out for a turkey hunt would be a better introduction to hunting than sitting in a tree, freezing your nuts off, for hours on end. This was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic so there were a lot of people out "socially distancing." A few of my money spots had gobblers sounding off, but too many trucks in the parking lot to make me want to compete.

    We tried a few other spots with little luck, just walking and calling. The wind picked up and it was hard to hear anything. We were about to try a final spot near another buddy's house. We pulled onto the road and saw what looked like a turkey farm in the neighborhood with several longbeards running around. We quickly and quietly grabbed our stuff from the back of the truck and did our best to sneak into the nearby woods. 

    I set up decoys and tried calling just outside the 500 ft rule. Nothing answered and I quickly realized that the flock was moving on. I moved as close as I could to the road, leaving my setup behind, and tried calling. I got an answer and then I suddenly saw a red head pop up from the tree line. I did an about face, slumped down, and tried to quietly move back to my setup, but my initial thoughts were that I just blew it.

    I sat down, put my gloves and face mask on and tried calling again. I got an immediate answer. I called a few more times to get him fired up and it became apparent he was coming in hot! I told my buddy to get ready and several seconds later he came strutting down the very path I was just walking on. He never saw the decoys but stopped at 30 yards to my right. I took a shot, but I think the pattern was deflected from a lot of ground cover. We were sitting in the typical Cape Cod scrub brush. He jumped up and took two steps into a clearing and I let him have it again. This time he dropped. We weren't able to capture it on video because he didn't cooperate with our window of opportunity, but we bagged one none the less. I'm glad I was able to get outside on a beautiful spring morning and had the chance to show someone who didn't grow up around hunting, how exciting it could be.

Ellie looks impressed