What started out as a plan ‘B’ turned out to be a memorable hunt for a very nice young man and two of us old well seasoned hunters. It would be memorable for a host of reasons which I’ll explain further.
Since the inception of the New York Spring Youth Turkey Hunt, there have been plenty of memories made, and lots of pictures of young adults with smiling faces. For my hunting partner Paul Walling and I this has been our experience, and something we look forward to. Although my children were grown adults before the inception of the special youth season, I would take out a young hunter as the opportunities presented themselves. Like many of you, we would take out young hunters in regular season as well.
For this particular hunt, Paul and I would be taking Keller Pai out for this morning’s hunt. Keller has taken several gobblers in prior hunts, and has a few seasons under his belt. As much as Paul and I enjoy each other’s company while hunting, we would agree that taking out a young hunter is the highlight of the season. Paul grew up learning how to hunt while taught by his father, and that is something I appreciate very much as I did not hunt until my mid 20″s. My father was an Adirondack deer hunter, but gave that up after joining the Navy. The experience for us to take out Keller is especially rewarding as the morning would be full of lessons of the turkey woods, and recounting of past experiences of our escapades and that of Paul and his father.
Our plan ‘A’ for the morning was to visit one of our favorite haunts that we affectionately call “Shorties.” There is a lengthy story behind the name, and technically there are two possibly three separate stories depending how one parses it. A chapter in my first book “Hills of Truxton” was dedicated to this “special” gobbler and so named. Disclosing the exact location is of course misleading on purpose but I can tell you that it is a piece of state game lands south of Cortland, or was that northeast of Truxton? I arrived ahead of Paul and Keller at 5:16AM, only to find another truck parked there, and they had already headed in. As good as the place is, we very seldom run into other hunters there. I let Paul know that we needed to go elsewhere as we would not intrude on purpose, and would give them the courtesy that is due. We would regroup and try our luck at another favored spot a little more than a mile from where we were. We would find our plan “B” choice to be unencumbered, and appeared to had little vehicle traffic nor any one parking there recently. As a side note, we saw no other vehicles parked at the side of the road or at trail heads the remainder of the morning. In some respects the 2nd location and the logging trail along the bottom of a hill would provide an area shielded from the predominate wind that morning, allowing us to hear a ways off. Rain had tapered off long before daylight, although cool temps greeted us, it was much more comfortable being out of the wind. The morning would remained overcast and cloudy, no bright sunny day to warm things up today. A base layer, and light hunting jacket would suffice.
We would slowly work our way into the woods as the regrouping had us going in as the sky began to change and was getting light out. Paul knew the traditional roosting areas very well,and we could cover some ground without disrupting the birds as they waited to fly down. We quickly called up an owl, which did elicit a gobble from parts unknown in distance and only a general direction. The owl favored Paul’s rendition of an owl more so this morning, and would occasionally answer my efforts. Paul and I learned long ago, that with two callers, favored responses will switch back and forth over the course of the morning. It mattered little, as long as we got a response. For the first 30 minutes we would occasionally hear a gobbler, not at all close but in a direction that we figured to be where Plan “A’ would have taken place. I personally thought we would hear a shot come from there. Something that we never heard during our time there this morning. A slow start to be sure.
We eventually got out to a spot that overlooked a large drop off along the state land border. A few calls got a round house of gobbling and hen talk from a flock we figured to be a good quarter mile or further down the bottom of the overlook on private property. We sat down and decided to see what if anything the flock would do. By auditory appearances my guess would be several mature gobblers, a few jakes and at least a hen or two willing to talk. Most likely more hens than what we would like. They would gobble at any call we made, so we decided to wait a bit, and see if their feet were moving or just their beaks. Probably less than ten minutes, I did a short sequence on a mouth call that Paul makes for me, and got an immediate response, not more than a few hundred yards below us. We got an answer we were happy about. Wasting no time I moved back and over some from Paul and Keller. A few calls later the gobbles in response to our calls ceased and I figure either they were coming or working out the steep bank. After making a call with no response, I decided to hold off and see what they do. Paul and I read each other’s next moves pretty well, and when he called shortly after I had stopped it surprised me, even more so, the call was a very soft first yelp and finished just as soft. That is when I notice Keller’s shoulders tighten up. The game was on and target was in sight. The gun came up, and a moment later it roared. I was far enough back that I could not see the approaching bird.
We all got up, with Keller reaching the bird in mere seconds. It was a good sized jake, and he had wasted no time coming up the steep bank to get to us. Paul’s last call turned the bird enough to bring his path in front of them and within 30 yards. With the woods wide open which is typical for early season, it was great to not have the bird hangup 50-60-70 yards below our location. After tagging the bird and taking pictures we walked back only a little faster than we came in, listening for other gobblers as any intel is welcomed for the opener on May 1st. We did hear a few gobbles, but nothing close. Given our location, we were surprised to hear no other shotgun blasts, although Keller thought he heard one, far off and early.
Keller got a quick lesson as to how fast things can go from a gobble way over yonder to fast action with an even faster conclusion that can occur in the turkey woods. Something Paul and I have experienced many times and I would suspect that goes the same for many of you.
We concluded the hunt with a great breakfast at the local diner (location not disclosed) and then parted ways, headed for home. A short nap later that morning was most welcomed. Big congrats to Keller and a big thank you to Paul for what continues to be one of many great and memorable hunts.
© 2014 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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