By Andrea Haas
While out turkey hunting this past weekend I called in 2 very
nice toms and came SO close to harvesting one of them. I couldn't help but
think of how successful that hunt was, despite of the fact that I didn't give
one a ride home in the back of my truck. It's so easy to get down and kick
yourself when a hunt doesn't go as planned. When this happens (which is quite
often), I think it's best to just learn from it and apply what you've learned
to your next hunt.
Saturday morning I got to my hunting property well before
sunrise and setup in the woods within 100 yards of where I knew the turkeys
were roosted. I called a couple times as the sun was coming up and the sky
started to turn pink. They answered me, so I shut up for a while until I knew
they flew down.
Once they flew down they followed a hen, which I definitely
couldn't compete with, and went into our field planted in Boneyard Seed clover
and chicory. I snuck down to the edge of the woods and watched them strut
around for well over an hour and waited, hoping once the hen left that I'd be
able to call them in.
The hen finally left so I started calling again. Both of the
Toms answered and started looking around for a hen. I tried getting my hen
decoy setup earlier, but the ground was so rocky that I wasn't able to get the
stake far enough in the ground to keep the decoy from falling over.
Unfortunately that hen decoy being set up would probably have sealed the deal
on this hunt.
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| #ProisHunting #MuckBoots #AvianDecoys #EvoOutdoors #FirstLite |
Both of the Toms made their way to the opening in the woods
leading them right where I needed them to be, but they got spooky without
seeing a hen and turned around, just a few steps shy of where I would have had
a clear shot.
As luck would have it, I wasn't able to harvest a turkey that
morning, but I was just as excited as I would've been if I had gotten a shot at
one. I did bring home some pretty great memories from my solo hunt, learned a
few lessons, and went home feeling like a million bucks, ready to try
again.That, in my book, was a successful hunt!
