Must Have Outdoors

Turkey hunting isn’t as easy as some people may think. This Missouri turkey season Andrew and I hunted, and hunted, and hunted….and hunted some more.

We had a lot of close encounters, but finally the morning of May 7 we both got our shot. My sister-in-laws family has a great farm that they allowed us to hunt at in North East Missouri. We sat up in a wooded draw in the middle of a large field, and heard 7 different turkeys down the creek bed that lines an edge of the field. We had our decoy out but nothing ever decided to come in.

Andrew decided to sneak around to the other side of the draw to see if any turkeys had come out in that end of the field. He saw three strutters and two hens about 800 yards away. We decided we could use the farms terrain and sneak down the creek bed to get in close on them.

Off we went trying to be as quiet as we could walking through water and creek gravel. When we were getting close, we heard a gobbler that didn’t sound like he was where we had anticipated the turkeys to be. We stood and listened for a minute and heard him again. This time he was close. We quickly sat down next to a tree in the creek bed, and Andrew quietly called. The gobbler hit again several times and we could tell he was coming in.

I saw him fly off the bank into the creek bed about 50 yards away. He walked behind some brush, and Andrew whispered to me to get my gun up.

It all happened so fast I didn’t have time to get nervous until it took the bird so long to come out from behind the brush. I know it was only a matter of seconds, but it seemed like eternity. Andrew was sitting a little farther to one side than I was, so he could see the bird step out before I could. Whenever I heard him whisper “Take him whenever you’re ready,” I knew he was close. I bore down on my gun and watched him walk out of the brush and into my sights.

I shot and he rolled. Relieved, I brought my gun down only to see him lift his head back up. To both of our surprise, he took off.

I’ll never forget the sequence of events that happened next. Andrew took off running after the bird. By the time I got to my feet, I looked up to see Andrew fall. He completely disappeared into the creek bed. The last thing I saw of him were hands flying, and then I heard him hit…hard. I took off running after him only to see him pop back up and continue after the turkey in hot pursuit.

When we got to the creek bank we discussed the possibility of the other birds still being out in the field. We knew my bird was hit hard, so I stayed in the creek bed while Andrew snuck up the bank. I watched him pop up and shoot taking his Missouri bird.

Then we went on the search for mine, and found him further down in some tall grass.

Our 2011 season was definitely a season I’ll never forget. We hunted hard, and were blessed with two big birds.

Hunting is more than luck; it’s having the right place, the right gear, and the right knowledge. Because we had these things, we were able to achieve another successful turkey season.

Here’s hoping yours is successful too.

-Katie