Expectations Exceeded!

 

By: TJ Mallette and Rocky Leflore

When did the opening day of your previous hunting season go perfect? Mine wasn’t just perfect, it exceeded my expectations! The opening of turkey season started out different for me, I sat beside the gun and not behind it. My girlfriend wanted to shoot her first bird, so we set up in a bottom where I knew birds would be roosting close to us. We sat down and at 6:20, one fired off 80 yards from us from the direction we walked in from. We must have walked right under him! Then one fires off in front of us and then I hear another one within 200 yards to our right side. After a few clucks, two gobblers fly down and bust out in a full strut together within 55 yards of our setup…. Just far enough where she is not comfortable pulling the trigger. After putting on a show for a few minutes, they ease off the other side of the knob and here come the negative thoughts, “dang, there goes our chance for her to kill one right off the roost!”

Has your mind ever wandered off and something catches your attention? I look to the right and the bird we walked under that morning is at 30 yards and coming in like he’s on a string. At twenty-two yards, I stopped him, she smoked him, and there was quite a bit of yelling and fist pumps! She was jacked, but I was more excited because it was a dang good bird and her first!

11″ Beard
1″ Spurs
After several pictures and calls, we went home and cleaned the bird. She needed to get to work, but since I used a vacation day I headed straight back to the woods! I reached the afternoon setup and decided to sit down on the edge of a small food plot that was surrounded by pines next to a big hardwood bottom.

• 2:45 – Jake and hen decoys set out, ready to roll
• 3:00 – I waited until 3:00 before clucking and purring to let the woods settle. My initial series of purrs and clucks…. nothing.
• 3:30 – I started another sequence of clucks and purrs….. nothing.
• 3:40 – Another sequence of clucks and purrs….. No gobbles!
• 3:45 – Do you remember racing someone down a hill as a kid where your lower body outruns your upper body? That’s exactly what I saw! I looked to my left and saw two long beards SPRINTING down the hill on a mission to destroy my jake decoy.

In a matter of seconds, they are both jumping and whooping the heck out of my jake decoy within 10 yards of my boots. I was stunned, I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing, then it clicked….. Get the gun! I picked up the gun, shot, and whiffed on the first shot. As they are sprinting the opposite direction, I dust rolled one of them at about 15 yards. How did I miss the first shot at 7 yards? I guess you could compare it to throwing a golf ball at a jumping turkeys head! He was a solid two-year-old and before walking to pick him up, I thought about how it was one of the best day’s of turkey hunting I could have ever imagined!

But wait! I thought after opening day turkey season it couldn’t get any better. I was wrong! The second day I could go hunting was Saturday following opening day. My best friend, Adam, is getting married in April and we haven’t spent a lot of time together like we used to do. Adam had never killed a turkey, so when I told him about what happened on Thursday, he was fired up! Our hunt Saturday morning was completely different because the turkeys did not fly straight down out of the tree, to the decoys, jumping around with targets on their heads. One thing I have learned in successfully hunting turkeys, patience. I don’t know if it was the weather or just the birds, but early Saturday morning did not produce much action. We didn’t hear but just a few gobbles in the distance at daybreak. Through my scouting, I knew the turkeys were hanging out in this location, but I did not know their travel patterns this early in the season. Every 20-30 minutes I would let out a yelp, cluck, or purr. At 9:45, a few of hens started feeding out in front of us and then…..

Tj and Adam