This turkey huning thing.......some of us are out there learning the hard way.
Louann and I set up in different locations first thing this morning. All I saw was one spooked doe and a hog walk by ( 20 feet! )that had future BAR-B-Q written all over him. Louann saw nothing.
About 9:30 we met back at the truck and went looking for a new spot. Didn't take long to see a hen cross the road and while we're watching her a tom steps out 200 or so yards further down. He walks down the road a ways and turns into the the edge of a stand of very small ( 1 foot ) pines. We hopped out of the truck and hustled down the field and got set up on one of the push-ups left by the loggers.
Called a while to no good avail. As we got up to move Louann lets out a yell, something about a snake under her. Sure enough right under the limb that's sticking out of the pile that she is sitting on, not a foot from her feet, is a big old ugly water moccasin. Managed to shoe him off without her getting bit. Amazing thing is that he'd been there the whole time.
Went on down a mile or so and while turning a corner at a intersection Louann sees a bird run out of the edge of the chop into a small stand of pines. I figure that he's spooked but she demands that we set up, right there in sight of the truck. In the interest of domestic tranquility I went along.
So she sets the decoy up right in the road and we slide off into the ditch and make a few calls. After 15 minutes of so I finally convince her that he was spooked and besides that he would NEVER come across the deep water along the road. She picks up the decoy and we start to walk back to the truck which is about 200 yards down the road in full view.
We go about 30 yards and I hear a cluck off in the direction the bird had originally gone. She jams the decoy back down and we dive back in the ditch. I scratch at the call (Trust me here, what I do on a call is scratch! ) a couple of times and the next thing we know that crazy bird comes running out of that deep water, yes that water I told her he would NEVER come across. Pops out of the woods not 12 yards in front of us just as the decoy, which was none to solidly placed in the hard dirt of the road, topples over.
He looks at the decoy just long enough for Louann, who had the gun up, to take a shot...............but there is no BANG! The bird slips back into the thick stuff and spends the next 10 minutes running about clucking and yelping and making all kinds of noise. I scratched at the call a few times and it did seem that he answered. Once we even saw the bushes move as he came back to us a ways. Finally though he went on off, crossed right into the road and RAN for about 300 yards before flying off.
The butt chewing started right then. For the next 15 minutes it was explained to me in no uncertain terms that it was my fault........no I can not explain exactly why.......that we had no turkey in the truck. Something about me not letting her put the decoy where she wanted and my rushing her to get ready which resulted in her not being able to hold the shotgun up any longer when the turkey arrived and on and on and on.
After 30 years of marriage I'm about immune to the Irish temper. But I'll never get used to a loaded shotgun being waved about by a irate woman........
That's the opposite of how it,s suposed to be done..................
But it was exciting.
Louann and I set up in different locations first thing this morning. All I saw was one spooked doe and a hog walk by ( 20 feet! )that had future BAR-B-Q written all over him. Louann saw nothing.
About 9:30 we met back at the truck and went looking for a new spot. Didn't take long to see a hen cross the road and while we're watching her a tom steps out 200 or so yards further down. He walks down the road a ways and turns into the the edge of a stand of very small ( 1 foot ) pines. We hopped out of the truck and hustled down the field and got set up on one of the push-ups left by the loggers.
Called a while to no good avail. As we got up to move Louann lets out a yell, something about a snake under her. Sure enough right under the limb that's sticking out of the pile that she is sitting on, not a foot from her feet, is a big old ugly water moccasin. Managed to shoe him off without her getting bit. Amazing thing is that he'd been there the whole time.
Went on down a mile or so and while turning a corner at a intersection Louann sees a bird run out of the edge of the chop into a small stand of pines. I figure that he's spooked but she demands that we set up, right there in sight of the truck. In the interest of domestic tranquility I went along.
So she sets the decoy up right in the road and we slide off into the ditch and make a few calls. After 15 minutes of so I finally convince her that he was spooked and besides that he would NEVER come across the deep water along the road. She picks up the decoy and we start to walk back to the truck which is about 200 yards down the road in full view.
We go about 30 yards and I hear a cluck off in the direction the bird had originally gone. She jams the decoy back down and we dive back in the ditch. I scratch at the call (Trust me here, what I do on a call is scratch! ) a couple of times and the next thing we know that crazy bird comes running out of that deep water, yes that water I told her he would NEVER come across. Pops out of the woods not 12 yards in front of us just as the decoy, which was none to solidly placed in the hard dirt of the road, topples over.
He looks at the decoy just long enough for Louann, who had the gun up, to take a shot...............but there is no BANG! The bird slips back into the thick stuff and spends the next 10 minutes running about clucking and yelping and making all kinds of noise. I scratched at the call a few times and it did seem that he answered. Once we even saw the bushes move as he came back to us a ways. Finally though he went on off, crossed right into the road and RAN for about 300 yards before flying off.
The butt chewing started right then. For the next 15 minutes it was explained to me in no uncertain terms that it was my fault........no I can not explain exactly why.......that we had no turkey in the truck. Something about me not letting her put the decoy where she wanted and my rushing her to get ready which resulted in her not being able to hold the shotgun up any longer when the turkey arrived and on and on and on.
After 30 years of marriage I'm about immune to the Irish temper. But I'll never get used to a loaded shotgun being waved about by a irate woman........
That's the opposite of how it,s suposed to be done..................
But it was exciting.