One Tough Turkey

One Tough Turkey

Tommy Garner

Today was the day. It was not daylight yet and would not be for another 45 minutes. But today was the day I had determined that the old call shy gobbler and I were going to meet face to face at shotgun range. In the last several days, I had tried everything that I could think of to entice the big Ozark turkey into shotgun range and all had failed. This bird had been called by me and others until, upon hearing a diaphragm, box or slate turkey call, he would not gobble again. Sometimes, after 45 minutes or so he would gobble again, but would always be on another ridge. Having tried all else without success on this bird, today was the day I would hunt him like a whitetail buck.

As a light blue spot began to emerge on the eastern horizon as night lost it's hold on the landscape, I stood on a ridge near what I hoped would the old gobblers roosting place. He was always somewhere in this area but he had no specific spot where he roosted every night. Today I would let the gobbler start gobbling on his own. I would not entice him to start gobbling by hooting with my owl call. Something would cause him to start. Maybe a coyote yelping in the distance. Maybe a crow or a rooster would set the tom to gobbling, but it would not be me today. I wanted this to be as natural as possible. My plan was to locate the roosted gobbler, get a good fix on his location, get as close as possible without spooking him, wait for him to fly down and then get in front of him. As daylight became a reality, the longbeard's clear, loud gobble thundered across the forest. I did not pull out my compass out and take a reading as I normally do because the turkey was roosted on the backside of a nearby wooded knoll where he had roosted many times in the past. Good!! It would be convenient for the gobbler to drop off in any direction but most likely he would fly down to the uphill side of his roost before choosing a direction of travel. I headed though the thick brush in the direction of the roosted gobbler and before reaching the creek bottom I ran into a herd of deer. Flared white rumps could be seen headed towards the top of the knoll where the wise old bird was roosted. "Well, that will be the end of this story," I thought as I listened to the deer crashing through the brush. Much to my relief the turkey gobbled again. Apparently, he had been around long enough to know that the sounds made by running deer are not always bad and it didn't bother him. A crow winged its way overhead, calling to others in the distance. The longbeard responded with several resounding gobbles but they sounded different than they did a few minutes ago. He was now on the ground. Good! I started up the knoll and came to a small clearing near the top. The old turkey gobbled again. He was close and by the sound of things, he was headed in my direction. I laid my shotgun down so I could put on my camo head net. As soon as I had the headnet in place and my shotgun back in my grasp I saw a white head on a periscope like neck headed towards the hillside opening where I was kneeling. The gobbler entered the sage grass of the opening and I could see his long, black, rope like beard swaying gently as he walked. As the gobbler went behind a bush I raised my shotgun. When he stepped clear of the bush, I squeezed the trigger of my turkey gun. At the blast, I saw the big gobbler go down on his face as I was falling over backwards from shooting steeply uphill while off balance. The short barreled, tight choked, hard kicking turkey cannon simply sent me tumbling over backwards. In a flash I was back on my feet ready to send another load of #4 Magnums on their way if needed. They were not. In seconds, I was admiring one of the most beautiful Ozark turkeys I have ever seen. He weighed 23 pounds, had a thick 10-inch beard and spurs longer than one inch. A good mature bird which had eluded me and other hunters in the area for a long time.

Standard turkey hunting tactics would not work on this bird because of the pressure he had experienced. To bag him I had to resort to my knowledge of the turkeys, their habits and the terrain and apply my whitetail hunting experience. Every experienced turkey hunter either has run into a bird like this or will do so in the future. I have heard that this type of turkey hunting is not quite like the classic setup and calling in of a turkey. That is exactly right. It is more demanding most of the time. And most of the time it results in a long walk back to the truck without a turkey. When all attempts to harvest a call shy bird fail, you most likely will have to resort to your deer hunting tactics if today is going to be YOUR day.

Reprinted With Permission Paxton Media Group