This spring is a milestone for me.
I've been looking forward to turkey season because it meant my son was well on his way to putting leukemia solidly behind him. I gladly gave up the things I love to do to be with him and my family without a second thought. This spring means so much more than any other before.
We have been blessed to have him healthy enough and into our "new normal" with the daily meds (sometimes multiple), etc. Getting him to this point was the direction of my life for the last 10 months.
I told my lease partners to take first choice because I didn't care where I was, just being able to walk into the woods without so much weight on my shoulders was my victory.
Nothing was talking early so I worked my way along the river and owl hooted several times. Finally I got a response from a tom and jake so I snuck a little closer and sat down. They finally gobbled again at some crows but had flown down and were walking away. A hen must have seen me because she stayed in the tree until 7:45. I didn't realize that I was within 60 yards of her roost.
The jake must have liked what I was saying because he arrived first and stuck around the entire morning. Eventually the hen flew down and joined the jake with another hen scratching/feeding 30 yards away. One of the hens had a thin ~6-8" beard. The hens would slowly work away from me, but I would do some soft calling and they would come back.
Around 8:30 I heard a shock gobble at the lumber yard train. When the horn sounded a second time there were two gobbles. They stayed put for 20 minutes and the hens in front started to ease off so I did more light calling and more hens started to answer from where the gobbles came from. Long story short, they came out of some thick stuff onto an old overgrown road and strutted up to the bearded hen who was 60 yards away at this point. The jake came back down a berm toward the same hen. When the strutters got to the hen I softly called again and they left her and came closer. Once they crossed the "line" I had to wait for them to separate. As soon as the dominant bird came out of strut and the shot was clear I let it fly.
The only thing that would have made it more perfect was to have Colt with me, but we will have time for that.
19#, 9.5" beard, 1-1/8" spurs
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