AL gobbler season 2020
- Thread starter bamaranger
- Start date
stagpanther
New member
May the force be with you bama! I'm not generally a turkey hunter, but nonetheless my 870 is coming with me starting today for my target sessions in case they decide to blockade my view.
bamaranger
New member
Out w/ a bang....flop,flop, flop!!!!!!!!!!!
Anxious to capitalize on our extended season, and missing one day of it due to ignorance, I was cranked to hunt, so much so that I didn't sleep well Fri night and overslept Sat AM. Further compounding things is that I absolutely HAVE to be back home in good time for a certain party's wedding. No way I can risk getting stuck, ATV trouble, etc.
Day 28, 2May, Sat- very late, w/ time constraints and serious obligation that afternoon, I've got to pick a hunt based on convenience. I head to the Mud Club, it's close, and I can park and walk in w/o fooling with ATV, 4WD, etc. I'm so juiced up I've got to turn around and come back to the house, I forgot my vest! I'd put EVERYTHING up, thought I was done, had to pull it back out Fri night. Even parked the ATV in the shed and hooked up my fishing boat to the Bronco. I take our Toyota sedan hunting!!! I finally get in the woods at about 8:00AM.
I ease into a spot we'll call Beech Hollow. A narrow steep sided hollow with a creek, it often holds turkeys late in the season...'cause it's cooler in the warmer late season I think. A hardwood bench half way up on the south slope is a frequent spot for strutters and I've killed a few here before. I also had the same 3 get away from me on two separate mornings last year. I'm back to settle a score! At 8:45AM a pair of hens begin to cut and purr down on the hollow floor. They make quite a racket, but nothing gobbles. At 9:30, about 100 yds out, I see a black spot on the hollow rim on my side that was not there before. I scope it, and it's a turkey, but I cannot make out hen or gobbler. I cut and cluck at it lightly w/ a slate and it hotfoots it my way, about 40 yds, then stalls next to a big poplar. The turkey eyeballs the bench steadily, looking for the source of the calls. I keep thinking I see a beard, but the rest of the turkey does not look right. When it steps into the clear and I get a clear view at 5X, I can tell it's a bearded hen. She sticks around about 10 minutes, then retreats the way she came. I leave at 10:30 and make it home and to my appointment later, easily.
Day 29, 3May, Sun-With no church services, I can hunt w/ nearly a clear conscience. I elect to go back to Mud Club and Beech Hollow. There were a lot of hens there, maybe there's a gobbler, and honestly, it's easier terrain than anything on the Big Club, Pasture Ridge, and so on. I'm about turkey hunted out. In early, I owl twice w/o any responses, then slip onto the bench in the twilight. I lop some saplings and fashion a simple hide, and settle in. Very soon, I hear hens tree calling in the bottom. I respond and they answer, but no gobbles. I stay silent the rest of the morning, late in the season, gobblers have likely heard a bunch of calling, I don't want to push them.
At 8:45AM, a flight of geese launch of a farm pond in the distance, and a turkey gobbles in the hollow, about 300 yds out. I ponder whether to drop down to the hollow floor and call him up the bottom, or stay up on the bench. The pattern is the toms usually come up to the bench to strut. I'm in, comfortable, and I've got my simple hide, I'll stay put. I push a string of yelps out into the mild breeze....no answer, but about 15-20 minutes later, the tom gobbles at a crow, and he's closer, though still on the bottom. Again I respond, ....no answer, but as before, 15-20 minutes later, he gobbles at a loud truck out on the county road and he's a bit closer again. This time, when I call, he answers........OK, game on.
I call very sparingly to him with my old slate, he knows I'm here, and there seems to be a tendency for toms to ease up up to the bench anyhow, I'm not going to push him. For the next hour plus, he snaps out regular gobbles from beneath me on the hollow floor, as he strides back and forth 50-100 yds away. I cannot see him, the bank is too steep, but he cannot see up the sides or to the bench either. I answer every 5th or 6th gobble, maybe once every 15 minutes, and very softly. Finally, at about 10:30 or so, he double gobbles and goes silent.
He's either landed a real hen, or he's moving. I hold fast, scanning the lip of the bench immediately to my front where I heard him last. A gobble blasts out close by, hard off my left shoulder, he's up here with me!
The rascal sliced across the face of the ridge and has surfaced on the bench, but I'm pointing downhill, not out the length of the flat.
I rock my eyes left till my head throbs, not daring to move my head, but I don't see him. Ever so carefully, I mean forever so slow, I ease my head left, looking for that devil. He gobbles again and it's deafening, he's right here...somewhere. 
I'm lucky, my little makeshift blind has concealed my movement let me roll my head far enough left that I pick up movement, it's his tail, lowering down from full strut,and the rest of his head and body is obscured by a big red oak. He's just 25 yds away, but the big tree lets me swing the gun left and cover him. He steps forward and his head appears, and I center his wattles and shoot. Head and neck catch the whole dense pattern, and he goes down hard.
He's huge.....THREE beards, a full 10" main, a 6-1/2" thread , and a 4-1/8" thread. Later, on my old spring scale, he'll weigh 20-1/2 lbs, that's very heavy at the end of the season, and the spurs are thick and chunk like at 1".
My phone is dead, no pics on the spot, but bamawife takes some pics at home, perhaps I can post them using her device.
NOW the season is over, what a finish.
Anxious to capitalize on our extended season, and missing one day of it due to ignorance, I was cranked to hunt, so much so that I didn't sleep well Fri night and overslept Sat AM. Further compounding things is that I absolutely HAVE to be back home in good time for a certain party's wedding. No way I can risk getting stuck, ATV trouble, etc.
Day 28, 2May, Sat- very late, w/ time constraints and serious obligation that afternoon, I've got to pick a hunt based on convenience. I head to the Mud Club, it's close, and I can park and walk in w/o fooling with ATV, 4WD, etc. I'm so juiced up I've got to turn around and come back to the house, I forgot my vest! I'd put EVERYTHING up, thought I was done, had to pull it back out Fri night. Even parked the ATV in the shed and hooked up my fishing boat to the Bronco. I take our Toyota sedan hunting!!! I finally get in the woods at about 8:00AM.
I ease into a spot we'll call Beech Hollow. A narrow steep sided hollow with a creek, it often holds turkeys late in the season...'cause it's cooler in the warmer late season I think. A hardwood bench half way up on the south slope is a frequent spot for strutters and I've killed a few here before. I also had the same 3 get away from me on two separate mornings last year. I'm back to settle a score! At 8:45AM a pair of hens begin to cut and purr down on the hollow floor. They make quite a racket, but nothing gobbles. At 9:30, about 100 yds out, I see a black spot on the hollow rim on my side that was not there before. I scope it, and it's a turkey, but I cannot make out hen or gobbler. I cut and cluck at it lightly w/ a slate and it hotfoots it my way, about 40 yds, then stalls next to a big poplar. The turkey eyeballs the bench steadily, looking for the source of the calls. I keep thinking I see a beard, but the rest of the turkey does not look right. When it steps into the clear and I get a clear view at 5X, I can tell it's a bearded hen. She sticks around about 10 minutes, then retreats the way she came. I leave at 10:30 and make it home and to my appointment later, easily.
Day 29, 3May, Sun-With no church services, I can hunt w/ nearly a clear conscience. I elect to go back to Mud Club and Beech Hollow. There were a lot of hens there, maybe there's a gobbler, and honestly, it's easier terrain than anything on the Big Club, Pasture Ridge, and so on. I'm about turkey hunted out. In early, I owl twice w/o any responses, then slip onto the bench in the twilight. I lop some saplings and fashion a simple hide, and settle in. Very soon, I hear hens tree calling in the bottom. I respond and they answer, but no gobbles. I stay silent the rest of the morning, late in the season, gobblers have likely heard a bunch of calling, I don't want to push them.
At 8:45AM, a flight of geese launch of a farm pond in the distance, and a turkey gobbles in the hollow, about 300 yds out. I ponder whether to drop down to the hollow floor and call him up the bottom, or stay up on the bench. The pattern is the toms usually come up to the bench to strut. I'm in, comfortable, and I've got my simple hide, I'll stay put. I push a string of yelps out into the mild breeze....no answer, but about 15-20 minutes later, the tom gobbles at a crow, and he's closer, though still on the bottom. Again I respond, ....no answer, but as before, 15-20 minutes later, he gobbles at a loud truck out on the county road and he's a bit closer again. This time, when I call, he answers........OK, game on.
I call very sparingly to him with my old slate, he knows I'm here, and there seems to be a tendency for toms to ease up up to the bench anyhow, I'm not going to push him. For the next hour plus, he snaps out regular gobbles from beneath me on the hollow floor, as he strides back and forth 50-100 yds away. I cannot see him, the bank is too steep, but he cannot see up the sides or to the bench either. I answer every 5th or 6th gobble, maybe once every 15 minutes, and very softly. Finally, at about 10:30 or so, he double gobbles and goes silent.
He's either landed a real hen, or he's moving. I hold fast, scanning the lip of the bench immediately to my front where I heard him last. A gobble blasts out close by, hard off my left shoulder, he's up here with me!
The rascal sliced across the face of the ridge and has surfaced on the bench, but I'm pointing downhill, not out the length of the flat. I rock my eyes left till my head throbs, not daring to move my head, but I don't see him. Ever so carefully, I mean forever so slow, I ease my head left, looking for that devil. He gobbles again and it's deafening, he's right here...somewhere. I'm lucky, my little makeshift blind has concealed my movement let me roll my head far enough left that I pick up movement, it's his tail, lowering down from full strut,and the rest of his head and body is obscured by a big red oak. He's just 25 yds away, but the big tree lets me swing the gun left and cover him. He steps forward and his head appears, and I center his wattles and shoot. Head and neck catch the whole dense pattern, and he goes down hard. He's huge.....THREE beards, a full 10" main, a 6-1/2" thread , and a 4-1/8" thread. Later, on my old spring scale, he'll weigh 20-1/2 lbs, that's very heavy at the end of the season, and the spurs are thick and chunk like at 1".
My phone is dead, no pics on the spot, but bamawife takes some pics at home, perhaps I can post them using her device.
NOW the season is over, what a finish.
Jim Watson
New member
Got wedding pictures and report?
stagpanther
New member
What a way to finish! Congrats!
Colorado Redneck
New member
Thanks for the very interesting and well worded journal!
bamaranger
New member
2020 pics
Trying.......
Nuts....., I got pic attachments to post on the test forum, 2 anyhow, but am getting repeat failures here, I dunno, sorry
Try again later
Trying.......
Nuts....., I got pic attachments to post on the test forum, 2 anyhow, but am getting repeat failures here, I dunno, sorry
Try again later
bamaranger
New member
pics
Just to clarify, I did get pics to post on the test forum. One is of my second gobbler, the jake killed on the ROW near home.
The second pic is of gobbler #3, killed on Pasture Ridge and is a the best pic from the season. I will try and post others later, but I am having trouble w/ systems.
But if you want to see 2 bamapics, go look in the test section at the bottom of the forums page.
Best to all......'bama
Just to clarify, I did get pics to post on the test forum. One is of my second gobbler, the jake killed on the ROW near home.
The second pic is of gobbler #3, killed on Pasture Ridge and is a the best pic from the season. I will try and post others later, but I am having trouble w/ systems.
But if you want to see 2 bamapics, go look in the test section at the bottom of the forums page.
Best to all......'bama