Turkey’s Anyone?

Lucky stiffs, the closest that I got was 3 feet from the windshield Sunday as one flew across the road in front of me.
 
Yesterday was our last chance at turkey for the youth spring season. Saturday while I was at work I saw a gobbler so that evening my son went and roosted him. We only had til 10a to make it happen as I had a burial to do at 11a and then off to rivercats baseball game. So we set up closer than usual to the roost to hopefully get it done in the first hour. Well the birds came down and started our way as was the usual for this spot. Sat down and with gun shouldered we waited. Nothing. After a bit he gobbled. Still out in the same spot we last saw them. So I stand to look and see them go back under the roost tree and disappear out of sight. We waited patiently because I’d seen this before but this time they did not come back. About 7:15 we heard him gobble across the highway in another orchard we have access to. So we swung around to try to get close. Crossed highway and sat under a tree to get eyes on the scene. Immediately I see his two hens. But he wasn’t with em. He gobbled beyond them in the alfalfa. We waited for the hens to leave to move up but it took enough time that the gobbler ghosted on us. So again we move to a spot we can see over the alfalfa and start looking and listening. Finally I pick him up with two other hens about 4-500yds away in the alfalfa. By now it was 8:10. We made a move around to get to the closest point of the orchard we could get to him and watched him. The hens eventually went out of sight and I thought they had left him. We waited til he was acting lost to make a call to him. He responded with gobbles, red head and a pop strut or two but then he went across another county road. Now in the open I can see why. His hens had crossed and he went to join em. Now it’s 9a. We knew it was going to be now or never so we made a move to try to see where they were going but as we did one hen doubled back across the road and into the alfalfa. He didn’t follow. So we kept moving to get into a position to see him again. When we reached the road edge my son saw him coming back to the road. I knew he would likely go to the hen but we had no way to get closer. Still 200yds of open field between us. So I went hard on the call and he fired up but angled the direction of the hen. Eventually he caught her and then put on a show for us, full red white and blue head, gobbling and strutting. He was extremely interested but was seemingly telling us, “busy, try again later”, but we didn’t have any more time to give him. So we sat and watched her lead him away, eventually going out of sight near a willow tree. It was 9:45a. It was a fun morning but everything seemed to work opposite of how it has in the past. I’ve been in both of those setups several times and 99% of the time they come straight in. Unfortunately we didn’t have all day or one more morning to try him again. Maybe we’ll run into him again next spring. 2023 turkey officially done for us. 4 birds in the freezer.
 
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