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2005
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Day 7 (Mar 27) - Fred Gets Er' Done
Morning Hunt
 
Fred setting up the Matrix
360 ground blind and the Calley Morris Real Hen decoy.
Fred set his Matrix 360 ground
blind in the South East corner of the orange grove, where Shafter Crawford
had suggested we hunt. He adjusted the Matrix so he had a 360 degree view.
Wild boars (3) came out of the orange grove, crossed the road, nearby,
and went into the adjacent cow pasture. Two groups of deer were next, a
total of 9.
 Fred
collects box calls and when he gets a new one he takes a bird with it first
and then retires it to the collection.
Dave Mills had good success
lately with loud and aggressive calling Today Fred decided to use his one-sided
box call made by Scott Berry because it had the highest and loudest yelp.
For a slate call he selected the Woodhaven Cherry Slate, and also brought
the Doug Crabtree Sting Team signature diaphragm call.
At 8:00 he called aggressively,
alternating between these 3 calls. He still had the Woodhaven slate in
his hands when he saw 3 gobblers crossing the cow pasture. He closed up
3 sides of the Matrix 360 blind, leaving a shooting hole where his hen
decoy was. He clipped his release on the string. He was ready..
As the gobblers got close
Fred lost sight of them behind a palmetto patch. The first bird ducked
under the fence 60 yards away and trotted into the orange grove.
Fred said, "He didn't even
look my way. I realized I made a mistake by putting down my calls and I
grabbed the diaphragm call and stuck it in my mouth as the 2nd bird crossed
the lane. I just had time to get a couple of yelps out as the 3rd bird
stepped out. He stopped and looked my way."
"I made a few light yelps
and he walked toward me and paused underneath the last orange tree in the
row. That was 20 yards. He turned, looking for the other birds. He was
motionless and I wondered if he was going to join them. So I drew
back and shot him."
The hit knocked the bird
off his feet and he flopped around on the ground. Fred shot again but missed.
And he shot a second time and missed the moving target.
The bird flopped and disappeared
behind a nearby orange tree. In a minute Fred saw the turkey's wings moving.
Fred broke his cardinal rule,
he usually waits an hour on an arrowed turkey, but this time he unzipped
the blind and stepped out. Fred could not see the bird but he heard the
sound of its wings as it flew away.
He walked back to his truck
and got his binoculars and more arrows and eased along through a few rows
of the grove, checking for sight of the turkey. He didn't want to go to
far and spook anything that might be working my way and returned to the
blind and waited until I walked down to go for lunch.
We decided to walk up and
down each row of the grove and search. After 45 minutes, in 95 degree heat
and high humidity, we were exhausted. We stopped looking and drove to town
for lunch at the Pioneer restaurant.
Returning to the grove, we
were almost back to Fred's blind when I noticed a couple of black birds
way down in the 4th row, the same row where Fred last saw the bird. I told
Fred to back up. He did.
We looked down the row and
saw several black birds. We immediately got out of the truck. Because the
birds would fly away when we got closer Fred pinpointed a clump of grass
near them. We headed for this landmark. We got to it and there was Fred's
Osceola.
We had not walked down this
row far enough.
"I was thrilled to get
my first leg of the grand slam. Without the Osceola there is no grand slam.
We hunted hard. Had fun. And I'm looking forward to our rio hunt in Texas."
... Fred
EQUIPMENT COMMENTS:
-
Woodhaven
Cherry Slate - "It has the most realistic sound of any call I've
ever used. And it's easy to use. I get the best sounding "turkey" with
it that I've ever had from any call."
-
Cally
Morris Real Hen Decoy - "I bought this
decoy at this year's NWTF Convention. It's a taxidermy mounted hen
decoy. This was the first time I've used it. The gobbler investigated it
when he saw it and the decoy brought him in to bow range."
-
Venom
Peep Sight - "It worked fine. Since I first used this peep a year
ago I've used nothing else."
-
Double
Bull MATRIX 360 Ground Blind - "I can not say enough about it.
It's put a whole new dimension in turkey hunting. The Matrix combined all
the features you would want in a blind. The hard work that Brooks Johnson
and Keith Beam put into the Matrix makes it a blind that surpasses any
other. I really like the 360 degree view. It's never been possible with
any other blind."
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