By Glen Wunderlich Member Professional Outdoor Media Association
This year’s turkey hunt opener was precipitated by a trip to Meal and More in Morrice, which now houses its own thriving firearms business, where the accommodating staff offers fail deals – buy, sell, or trade. My friend, Joe Reynolds, “coerced” me into a gun-shopping escapade few weeks ago. (You may remember Joe’s New Year’s deer harvested with the aid of his bullish Lab mix, Cocoa.) Why, I’m still not sure, but he came away with a 1954 High Standard bolt action 12 gauge manufactured for Sears under the Ted Williams name. It sported a patented Multy-Choke and a bad case of acne along the bore near the breach. But, for $55, who’s complaining?
Twisting the choke to full, it did a fair job of punching holes in our makeshift turkey head and neck target with 1 5/8 ounces of 6 shot in a Winchester 2 ¾-inch shell. With only a bead front sight, there was no means to adjust the slightly off center pattern, so Joe would have to compensate on his own for a chance at his first-ever wild turkey.
Our roomy portable blind was set up along the edge of known turkey strutting grounds, where several adult gobblers had been observed during the past week. At 7 am, I sounded the opening day salvo of hen calls with my 30-year old box call and almost immediately, three hens came from the woods into the spring clover and alfalfa field. Our lone hen decoy was 22 yards in front of us and I was hoping to motivate the ladies into an early-morning chat. No such luck. They seemed to be on a mission away from us, never offering to be neighborly.
Although we were really hoping for some female company, what we were really after was a guest appearance by a proud, male suitor. Within minutes, three beard-sporting fellas followed in the footsteps of the females. I knew it would be a good trick getting these guys away from their dates, but I had to try. Although they stopped and looked toward us, they also could not see the decoy from their position and eventually thought it best to stick with their initial plan – whatever that was.
We never lost sight of them, but everything I threw at them seemed to fall on deaf ears. Approximately an hour later, a lone hen meandered toward our deceptive female partner for a little company. At long last, we now had a live decoy, so I kept up the chatter to keep her interest. It worked.
About a half hour later, the entire clan began an about face, although still several hundred yards from us. When a couple more hens joined the conference directly in front of us, the guys kept their distance well out of range. I had them gobbling their fool heads off but they continued to maintain their uphill advantage at 100 yards.
But, a little sweet talk from the confines of the hideout stirred enough desire within one of the gobblers for him to break away from the bachelor group. Sure enough, he couldn’t hold back any more and I clammed up as he marched directly toward our decoy. He came within a few feet of the deceiver, never having a clue as to her plastic nature or the fatal mistake lying ahead.
Joe laid it on the two-year old bird and it went down in a heap. He weighed 17.85 pounds – not the bully of the gang, but plenty good for one happy hunter.
