Spring Turkey 2014: Part III

Matt was back from Toronto and we decided to try some more hunting at Darcy's. His Dad had them pick up a Jake decoy from Bass Pro while up there for my to try. He agreed that the Tom decoy may have been scaring him off. 

We decided to sit out in the open on a sand hill with a bit of brush coverage. There is a path they tend to walk on so we set the decoys right across from it. We called and saw a hen early on. She crossed right in front of us probably 5 yards away without any idea we were there. We called some more and there was no gobbling from anywhere. All of a sudden, I saw red out of the corner of my eye and poked Matt. The tom had just come out where the hen came from. We sat quiet and Matt called a little bit. He looked towards the hen but was uninterested and left in the opposite direction. After that we had no luck and turkey hunting was coming close to an end.

My last chance to go hunting was May 30, the night before end of season. I finished work and had to work early in the morning. I didn't really feel like going out, but I wanted to spend some time with Matt, so texted him to see if he wanted to go back out. He asked me where. All season I spent hunting at Darcy's but his good friend Roger (Wing-Ding), said I could hunt at his property. I told Matt we should try Wing-Ding's. I had hunted there in the Fall and he told us some Toms and a Jake were out in the fields when he was discing his fields. Matt agreed and we were headed to Wing-Ding's for my final hunt of the season.

We had an old box call that Wing-Ding had left in the blind and a mouth call. His son had shot a Tom earlier in the season at the same spot. The grass was high where we were hunting but the field was all turned up from discing. We put our decoys out right in the dirt in a sunny spot across from the blind. Matt was tired too, he was resting beside me in the blind. I started calling with my mouth call. It was maybe a half hour and we heard a gobble really close by. Matt was excited when he heard it and started to call more with the box call. He gobbled back. It was to the right of me and I had a lot of bush concealing the blind we were sitting in, I couldn't even see the hen decoy well from where I was sitting. We decided to stop calling to see if he made himself visible. Matt said he could see him and he locked on to the decoys and was beginning to come in. I got my gun ready, safety off, and a really nice Tom came charging in full-strut. He passed the hen decoy and did a lap around the Jake. He circled him like he was ready to beat the decoy to the ground. It reminded me of something I've seen on Wild TV. I waited for him to clear the decoy and face towards me and as soon as he was just about the kick the Jake decoy I shot him and laid him out flat. It was a good shot and I finally got my first turkey. Matt was just as excited as I was and I couldn't believe after all the hard work I put out this Spring it finally happened. 

Once we knew he was good and dead I approached my trophy and couldn't be more happy with my first Turkey and first animal I have successfully harvested. 

My first Ontario Tom weighed 20.5 lbs with a 8.5 inch beard and 7/8 inch spurs.

Definitely a great first trophy.

Thanks to Darcy, Matt, Cory and Wing-Ding

 Benelli, Zink Avianx Decoys, Primos and Badlands Packs for making my Spring Turkey hunt.

Spring Turkey 2014: Part II

I have put a lot of time and effort into tagging a turkey this Spring. I have hunted Darcy's field hard. When Matt was away for work I went out a lot on my own. We moved the blind to a location where the birds were constantly crossing and left it there for several days for them to adapt to it. Several things I have learned after many close encounters. 

The first thing I noticed is that it is really hard to split the Tom up from the hens once he finds them. Almost immediately after hearing that gobble in the morning and him entering the field, he locates the hens and is stuck to them like glue the entire time. The Jake was different. He didn't really care about the other turkeys. Sometimes he would go near them, but majority of the time I saw him on his own or feeding with deer, which I found funny. 

The second thing I noticed is the hens don't care about the decoys. Only one crazy hen put a show on for me where she ran across the field almost in a zig-zag motion. She ended up nesting in sand right next to my hen decoy and sunbathing. She drew the other hens in on this particular hunt. The Jake was with the Tom and approaching my decoys. This is the closest I came to shooting a Tom at Darcy's field. I almost had him come in, but he was cautious of my Tom decoy. I think he was a little intimidated by it. Him and the Jake began crossing and was coming into range. As my luck goes weather changed and it began to downpour rain as soon as they started to move. Instead of continuing into shooting range the ran off where they came from and I lost any chance I had. After this hunt I decided that was it and it was time to put the Tom decoy away. 


I completed a few hunts with just a hen and I called the Tom in close a few times, but he never quite made it to range. One early morning just after sunrise I had a Jake gobble back at me. It was really exciting he was responding to me really well and I saw him come out from the far side of the field. He was probably 500 yards away and he heard me and came running. I had my safety off and gun ready, but he came around the side of my blind. I had the windows up (of course!), but tried to stand and sneak to see if I could open the window and get a shot. He was still on the move and ended up behind the blind. Later he came back out from the left of my blind and still never gave me a shot. 

After this hunt I figured I was finished. I knew I just came as close as I would to getting a shot at a bird and all I could do was hope that Matt would shoot one this Spring so one of us would fill a tag. 

Spring Turkey 2014: Part I

This Spring Turkey hunt was the most challenging hunting I have experienced since beginning the sport. Tons of turkeys have been coming to Darcy's field over the last few months and we knew there were several Toms and some Jakes in the area. With the scouting finished, I knew we would have a good chance of tagging a turkey, but after opening night I knew right away it would not be as easy as I hoped.

First night out was pretty exciting. Matt and I sat in a blind we had set up at Darcy's. There isn't a lot of coverage in the field so a ground blind works really well for us. It was pretty windy and we had a Tom decoy set up and a hen. The wind was so bad it blew the Tom over so Matt decided to try sneak out and set the decoy up before any birds entered the field. Of course as soon as he leaves the blind a Jake appears straight across in the bushes. Matt was busted and he ran away. I figured that was all we would see for the night.

Soon after some hens came out and were feeding, we watched them with no sign of any beards. After calling for awhile longer we finally heard a gobble. A Tom came out and headed for the hens. These turkeys were about 75 yards from our decoys. The Jake appeared again a little scared of the Tom he didn't get too close to the hens. Matt got a neat video where you can see the Tom kick the Jake out of his way. We tried to call the birds in, but there was no separating them and the hens definitely weren't interested in our decoys. That was it for our first night of Spring Turkey hunting in Ontario.