A Momentous Occasion

When I started turkey hunting, Ronald Reagan was still in his first term. Ohio had a spring season, but you had to apply for a tag months before to get into a lottery. The closest place I could hunt a spring gobbler was 5 counties over. It took a 3 hour drive to get there. It was in Hocking County, one county over from Vinton where the last remaining flocks had been netted for breeding stock.

By 1995, Ohio allowed turkey hunting in Clearmont County. That meant you could now hunt one county over from my house. I was deer hunting that county, but never saw or heard a turkey in five seasons.

For every spring since 2000, I have been going out on my back porch in the spring and calling at sun-up. I live in a northern suburb of Cincinnati about 2 miles from the city limits. I knew one day the turkeys would find their way to me. It was just a matter of patience.

Yesterday I was at the barbershop and folks were talking about turkeys in the city park to my south and the county park just to my north.

I had tried last week with no luck. However, this morning, I went out about 10 minutes before sunrise with the Shamanic MK I box call and ripped off some yelps. I got a response. He was less than 100 yards out to my south and east. That would place him in one of my neighbor’s back yards over on the next street.

That puts it less than a month shy of 35 years since I first pulled on a box call and got a response from a gobbler. It still gives me chills.

This post has already been read 428 times!