Report from Turkey Camp — Sunday – Genesis9:2-4 Ministries

Angus and I went out this morning to hit the Honey Hole again. SuperCore went back to the Jagendehutte. About 0815 a gobbler came up to the blind and due to the steep contours, he was invisible until he got within 10 yards. Angus saw a head pop up out of the grass and then heard wild putting. I was watching the back door of the Honey Hole and had several come fairly close, only to drift off before they could show themselves. SuperCore had a jake come in at one point, but he just could not bring himself to take it.

We all rallied back at camp around 10. Angus and Junior had to get back to town, so KYHillChick put them in her car and took off, leaving me with SuperCore and the dogs for as much of the week as we can hack. Right about the time she left, the wind started coming up and pretty soon we were taking 20 mph out of the West. We took naps. Lunch time came and went and we still could not make up our minds whether to go out or not. I’ve hunted successfully in wind, but nothing ever quite this strong. Finally, the gay turkey herd popped out by the Jagendehutte, and that convinced us to at least make a try of it.

It took a good half hour to go the 400 yards out to the last barn at Broken Corners. The gay herd– three gobblers that do not seem to have an eye for anything but each other kept popping up in the pasture and sending us scurrying for the dirt. After several long stays in the tall grass waiting for them to leave, we went in the back way to the barn and set up in my favorite spot: an old gate, about waist high put across one opening of the barn. I sat with my back to the barn wall. I gave SuperCore the old tobacco stripping table to lean against.

We both have Dixie Darlin’ box calls that Toby Benoit makes and sells through Heirloom Calls. Mine is the older version. SuperCore’s is the newer laminated version. Both are loud– loud enough to get over the 35 MPH gusts we kept taking. Sometimes it sounded like the old barn was going to fall in on us. However, after 2 hours of alternately yelping and cutting every 10 minutes we had a hen, a gobbler and a jake show up. The hen came up on the side of the barn; we saw her through the siding boards. She drifted off. Then a sturdy 2 year old showed up with a jake in tow. SuperCore shot gob and dropped him at 30 yards. The jake panicked and skittered off towards the Jagendhutte, looking to set a land speed record.

That now leaves us with a tag each left to fill. The weather sounds positively horrid after tomorrow morning. We’ll see what we can stand.