Borch's Season A Adventure

[Borch]

Well the "A" season had highs and lows for my son, Travis, brother, Wes and myself. I had limited time for scouting but knew the properties we'd be hunting very well. Early scouting sessions were encouraging with several nice toms spotted and lots of sign. But as we got closer to opening day the numbers of sightings decreased as did the sign. Birds were in transition with flocks of birds passing through figuring out were they'd settle in. Opening day arrived and passed with a few hen sights and a few distant gobbles. Pretty quiet.

Thursday morning was a bit more productive. Travis and I shared a blind and my brother Wes sat in another blind. Travis and I had birds gobbling right away and with 10 minutes had a jake checking out the decoys as he gobbled and strutted. We decided to let him walk and soon we had another gobbler going a strutting behind the blind. But as soon as he saw the jake decoy he ran off. About 30 minutes later we had a hen come running through and I heard a gobble closer by. I let Travis know he'd best be ready. The tom presented a 35 yard shot and Travis let him have a load of 6 shot that put him down for good. Here he is with his nice gobbbler.

The bird's stats were 21.75 lbs, .75" spurs and a 6" beard.

After Travis shot his bird it was very, very slow with no gobbling. We saw lots of hens with one flock of 13 running around. What we were missing though were gobblers. They appeared to have moved off the property. By saturday afternoon I was covinced that we needed to try to make something happen away from plan "A' and "B" properties. My plan "C" was a property that I've hunted over the years but did not have time to scout it this year. In checking it out on Saturday afternoon I saw it had potential with lots of fresh turkey sign. Sunday morning found Wes, his son Charlie and myself hunting this new spot. We had multiple gobbers doing thier thing but couldn't get one in range. Wes and Charlie needed to head out shortly before noon but I was going to be there for the duration because I hate eating my turkey tags. Around noon I heard a distant gobble and decided to head that direction to finish up my season if nothing showed in my current set in the next couple of hours. At 4 pm I packed up and made a move to set up between the area of the gobble and a ridge that the turkeys liked to roost on. After 2 hours of silence I finally heard what I thought was a turkey yelp but it didn't sound right. But I heard it again and it was definitely a turkey but unusually low and raspy, Maybe a jake? So I start calling to see if I can get it to come over and check me out. The turkey now starts cutting and suddenly there are several gobbles errupting close by. Game on! We conversed back and forth and then the turkeys stopped talking. But they are now close enough that I can hear them coming. Problen is I'm sitting facing the wrong direction so I get repositioned kneeling next to a tree behind a blowdown and wait... and wait... and wait some more. It's obvious that the birds are feeding as I can hear some serious scratching going on. It takes them over 20 minutes to move the last 50 yards. Suddenly I see red. Yep a gobbler had snuck in from the side away from the group doing all the scratching. He started getting nervous as I had shifted slightly to relieve some to the intense shooting pain from kneeling on a tree root and he may have seen some movement. He was well within range. Once he stepped behind a tree and into a very small opening I let a load of #6 Hevishot it's way and folded him up on the spot. When I walked up to him to pick him up there were 6-7 big gobblers standing there trying to figure out what just happened. Not a hen to be seen so it appeared that it was a gobbler I had heard yelping and cutting earlier. No wonder that hen sounded wierd. I cut it close as the time of my shot was 6:58 pm on the last evening of our season. Here I am with him with a cruddy picture as my camera died and had to use a cell phone.

The birds stats were 26 lbs even, a 10 5/8" beard and 1 1/4 & 1 3/8" spurs. My highest scoring bird at 73.5 NWFT points. Not a bad tom when just about any legal bird would have gone home with me.

Now we're just waiting for "D" season for my dad and daughter's hunts. I saw 3 big strutting gobblers on one of our properties tonight that had none just a few days ago. Maybe it'll be full of them by then.

Things I learned from this season were don't be afraid to make a major change if things just aren't happening and don't give up until you run out of time. Both paid off for me this season.

[MJ1657]

Great story Borch.

[Sorgy]

Great Job- Persistance certainly paid off.

Steve

[hugonian1]

Great story and a bruiser of a bird.

[IceHawk]

Borch- Congrats on you and your sons birds. Yours is a dandy! Filled my tag with a decent tom this morning after sitting all day yesterday. Had 5 toms roosting a couple hundred yards away this morning and gave out a few yelps. The toms answered but didnt come in. Waited a while and called again and the birds gobbled going away. Sat for a while and putted and purred nothing. Was getting bummed when out of the corner of the blind I see a nice tom eyeballing my hen decoy. 15 yds one shot game over! Yesterday Saw a Tom in the morning to far and had one gobble at around 11.30 pm twice two my Calls but wouldn't come in. Glad I filled my tag this morning as the weather sounds a little rough ahead. good luck to all future hunters.

[Hoyt4]

Congrats Borch.Last day birds are great well worth the time put in.

[DrJ]

Great job Borch. Always GREAT to hunt with a son. DrJ

[DonBo]

Congrats to both of you. "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

[sticknstring]

Congrats Borch! Beautiful bird.

[mws4dux]

Nice birds, very nice last day bird good job to both of you

[Archerysniper]

Nice birds and great stroy as allways Borch.