Today was a Good day!!

Today was just one of those good days. It was the first day of spring and we had beautiful weather, the annual Wild Chicken Festival was held in beautiful downtown Fitzgerald, people were jumping out of airplanes all day at the airport, and the most important of all was that it was the first day of turkey season!!!

Big John (Dad for those of you who do not know) and I struck out this morning at 6:30 in pursuit of big toms. We were heading to our hunting club not knowing exactly how to hunt this year because they have recently cut the timber off a good portion of the property. We stopped to listen at our first point of attack. We heard one Gobbler and decided that we needed to move to cut the distance. Half way there we stopped to listen again. This time three gobblers sounded off and they were a little closer than we expected. We tried to get around to them without being seen, but we were in the middle of a clear cut. We got set up but the birds went the other way following hens and gobbling every other breath. We decided to move again and try our luck in the direction that the birds seemed to be heading.

As we got around to the other side we paused and listened in this small clearing in the corner of our property. The clearing had been made by the recent logging crew. We tried to strike up a gobble but had no luck. We started to ease up the hill a little to get a better view and that's when I saw him. Right in front of us was a strutting gobbler. I could see the top of his fan and his back was to us. We slipped into the row of pines next to us and tried to call him down the hill. He must have already had girlfriends with him because he paid us no attention. We again eased up the hill and sat down quickly to try and get another look at this tom. I could hear the turkey drumming in that low vibrating tone that I love to hear, but he was just out of eyesight. He eventually moved on and continued to gobble as he moved away from our position. We decided to slip out and come back latter that afternoon to set up in this same spot to see if he would travel this way again.

Since I did not see the need in me owning a brass belt buckle or a ninja sword, we cruised through the Chicken Festival pretty quickly. The kids did get to pet some goats and bunnies and got a bag of cotton candy. We headed to the airport to watch people jump out of a perfectly good airplane. They are having there own little festival out there this weekend and have been jumping since Friday morning. They are running three planes and people are here from everywhere. They have been trying to set some kind of record by having 60ish jumpers all hold hands and hook up during a free fall. So far they have not been able to link everyone up but it sure is fun to watch. It looks like pepper being sprinkled in the sky until you see all the shoots open up. Reid and Mia both liked it so we stayed for a while.

After a nap it was time to head back to the woods. Big John and I went back to the same spot and got settled in. We had been sitting for almost two hours and were about ready to give up when we heard one lone gobble. With blood pumping once more we started softly calling. In a matter of minutes Daddy saw the bird. The turkey was walking up the log road right to us and he was not alone. He had a buddy with him. I already had my Browning in position and Daddy moved to get his gun in place. The idea is to wait for both birds to get into range and take both at the same time. Daddy and I have "doubled up" three different time before. As the toms got closer I lost sight of the second bird. The first bird was well within range and stuck his head up right in my cross hairs. I pulled the trigger by instinct. One less gobbler in the world. Daddy thought I was going to wait for the second bird to clear and was not ready for my shot, but I had a feeling the other bird would not go far. I started calling to him on my mouth call and he came running back to check on his buddy. Daddy's Browning spoke and there are now two less gobblers in the world.

The tale of the tape equals one turkey with a 10.5 inch beard, 19 lbs, and nice spurs. The second turkey had a 9.5 inch beard, 19 lbs and decent spurs. Most likely a three year old and a two year old. I absolutely LOVE it!!!!

Yep! Today was a Good day! Hope the hump day boys are ready for some fine eating!