From Turkey and Turkey Hunting

The hardest part for me?  That’s changed over the years.

It used to be just finding birds.  Then it became finding the time in my life to get out and hunt.  Then it became making sense of what the birds were doing.  That right there takes you through the first 20 years or so of my life as a turkey hunter.

Now I have my own land, I get to hunt a minimum of about 10 days a year, and even though the turkeys still laugh at me whenever I go out, I am starting to have a glimmer of understanding.  Yesterday I was out with Supercore and practiced putting him on a bird– no calls (KY prohibits calling prior to season), no gun, no nothin’.   BTW:  Supercore is also starting to have a spark of understanding on this. It is heartening to see him grow as turkey hunter.

The hardest part for me now a somewhat self-imposed restriction.  I have my own 200 acres, and it sort of limits me.  Here’s how:  I’m not sure exactly how many individual turkeys are coming on that 200 acres.  You see a flock here. You see a flock there.  They’re not wearing name tags.  I generally go by counting heads and sex.  But let say there are 50 individual turkeys that come on my place; that’s the biggest number I ever counted in a weekend, so that is the upward limit.

If those 50 turkeys are not in the mood, I can’t pick up and go somewhere else. I’m just going to take a rough guess and say there are 12 huntable gobblers and jakes out of them.   If a poacher comes on the property and kills a couple I’m down to 10.  There are now 4 hunters sharing the place — 2 sons and Supercore.  That’s 10 huntable turkeys for 4 hunters.  By the end of the Opener, those turkeys have seen our best stuff.  They’re now wise to us. Furthermore, these are not captive birds. They float on and off the property, and most of my neighbors hunt as well.  Some hunt better than others, and over the course of the few weeks we have to hunt, these gobs get a pretty good idea of what we are all up to.  For all the shots you hear on Opening Weekend, there ain’t that many birds showing up in the Telecheck register.  They’ve been called to and shot at.

I am somewhat reminded of the cartoon with the  Coyote and the sheepdog.  Every morning the two meet at the time clock and punch in and go to work.  Coyote spends his day trying to nail a sheep. Sheepdog tries to nail the coyote. At the end of the day they grab their lunchboxes trade pleasantries and punch out. That’s kind of how it is with me.  Somewhere in the midst of it all, I’m supposed to convince one of these well-schooled birds to walk out in front of my shotgun.

I’m sure y’all have it just as bad, especially on public land.  I’m not trying to complain.  This is 200 acres of heaven. However, I have to realize that my game on one contiguous 200 acre parcel is considerably different than a pro who travels to 5 states, or even a regular guy who hunts 4 50 acre parcels.  The turkeys and I are locked in together.  This is a turkey hunting cage match.  I’m not going to be able to travel 10 days and hit 10 different parcels and give each group my “A” game.  “A” game is over on the Opener for me.  I have to come up with a new look and feel to my routine every day.

For those of you who look at this as a “by-calls-alone” sort of thing, I see y’all’s point.  Believe me, I treasure the memory of the days when I thought I could walk out of the cabin with a noble swagger, lay down a couple owl hoots and go to work.   However, somewhere along the past 9 seasons I found  I’m not the best caller who can charm two mature gobblers in on the first weekend of season. My realization of the  situation changed.  In August 1914, the Germans thought they could take Paris in a matter of weeks.  4 years later they realized that wasn’t going to happen.  This is trench warfare transposed to the rolling hills of the Trans Bluegrass.  I try an artillery barrage followed by a  lightning break-out. The turkeys counter by mining no man’s land.  I try tanks. The turkeys resort to gas.  Lately, I have suspected the turkeys of trying to tunnel up to my trench lines.  I now have the Acme Mfg. catalog in front of me.  Did you know they have a Wile E. Coyote signature series of turkey calls?

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