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| Welcome to the Turkey Hunting Article Page of Outdoors Louisiana. We hope you enjoy this article, and if you close your eyes, it's almost like you're there too!!! Especially if you are a turkey hunter. |
| It's a commom problem for many Louisiana Sportsman after the closing of the duck and deer seasons......go fishing, or go chasing the elusive wild turkey! Well, for this gobbler chaser there was only one choice! It was a warm day in March when I pulled my Remington 11-87 SPS-T out of the closet, and with some of Winchesters new "Supreme" turkey loads, headed out to do some pattern work. After testing a few rounds, I was quite satisfied with the results, and changed into my Mossy Oaks and starting hitting the woods! Aside from a few fishing trips here and there, I spent most of my free time scouting for turkeys on Bodcau WMA in the Northwestern part of Louisiana. |
| The weekend before opening day, a big long beard and two hens stepped out on a dirt raod some sixty yards from where I stood be side my truck. After they left, I back tracked them and found a pine ridge with more than ample turkey sign on it. The area had been control burned a couple months earlier, and dropped into a flooded hardwood bottom on the West side of the ridge. I had found my primary hunting site for opening weekend! |
| Friday night before opening day, was a restless, sleepless night! Visions of boss gobblers with thunderous gobbles and full fans made sleeping almost impossiable! I awoke just minutes before the alarm went off (4:45 am) and hurriedly got dressed, made coffee, loaded the ruck with gear, and headed off into the dark cool spring morning full of anticipation! |
| Upon arriving at the check in station I was greeted by two other hunters signing in. After a brief chat, I left them with the ol' phrase......"let the games begine" and headed to my chosen hunting area. As I hiked the four hundred or so yards to where I had planned to make my set up site, the adrenaline began to flow, once there, a roosted gobbler some two hundred yards away promptly answered my owl hoots! Quickly, I closed the distance and got set up to wait for the coming of daylight. After first light, a few soft tree calls was all it took from my mouth call to send that turkey into a gobbling frenzy that went on, non-stop for thirty minutes! Well, to make a long story short, the turkey went the other way and then shut up! A hour later I decided to make a move on him, I yelped again and he gobbled less than seventy yards away on the other side of a slough! After being deterred by the depth of the water, I had to find another way around. I decided the best way to deal with the situation was to make the bird gobble, pinpoint his location, then circle my way around till I could find a place to cross the slough. It was a good plan too! Everything worked to perfection, except the slough crossing. Unknown to me, while I was hunting a place to cross, the turkey was hunting the "hen" he had heard! Ducking under some low hanging limbs, I glanced up just in time to see a white and red turkey head darting away through the under brush......"BUSTED"! |
| Sunday morning found me set up in the same place as Saturday, I decided to use a different strategy this time......the passive one, I'll play hard to get this time! As I pourded a cup of coffee from my thermos, my watch read seven-fifteen and my plan was to yelp and cluck every fifteen minutes and be quiet the rest of the time. The gobbler sounded off at my first series of call......ah, the "game" was on again! At eight o'clock I caught movement eighty yards to my left, slowly bringing the Remington into position as the big bird was closing the distance at an agonizingly slow pace! When he was fourty-five yards out, he paused to gobble again, this time his gobbles shook the ground! I was frozen, heart pounding against my chest, watching the longbeard survey the area the "hen" was supposed to be. |
| Fearing the bird was going to hang up on the far side of a small creek, I clucked and purred as softly as I could with a dry mouth, just once, to get him to cross the creek. It worked! He dropped out of sight then reappeared on my side of the creek at thirty-five yards and was slowly walking straight towards me! Closing the distance to thirty yards, he began to angle to my right, my heart was beating so hard it made the cross hairs in my Tasco scope bounce up and down! |
| An adult wild turkey......in full strut, looks huge in a turkey scope at thirty yards! I couldn't shoot though, thanks to a couple of trees that blocked him from full view. The gobbler was starting to get nervouse, he hadn't seen the "hen" that he knew should be there. The bird broke his strut and started walking, examining everydetail in front of him. Then his fist sized head appeared from behind the tree at twenty yards, all I needed was a few more steps! Finally......another step, and his body started to materialize from behind the trees. All this seemed to take hours (it was actually minutes) but at last, there he was, standing in the clear at twenty yards! The Tascos cross hairs settled on his neck, and the Remington roared to life! Taking the full load of copper plated number fives, the bird just fell over, didn't flop or anything, just fell over, dead as a hammer! |
| After gathering my gear, the turkey, and making my way victory march back to my truck, I drove to the check out station to sign out. With tape measure in hand, his beard measured a full ten and a half inches, the spurs went one inch long and were very sharp, he weighted in at twenty and one half pounds and was two and a half years old |
| Now it's time for me to go, got to get this big ol' turkey bird back to the house and get him dressed! Maybe I'll even fire up the smoker, or get out the turkey fryer and fry him whole, or maybe heat up the oven and bake him with some dressing! Oh, so many decisions to make when things work out......till next time......Good Hunting! |
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