Wild Turkey Bowhunt April 4 & 5

Champ and I drove, and then walked, to a high spot on the bank of the river. We laid 2 fold-out chairs on the ground and I popped up a Double Bull ground blind over them; besides being great ground blinds for wild turkey hunting the Double Bull is simple and fast to erect and most importantly quiet. Champ and I quietly and quickly set out my 3 decoys; a Dave Constantine Jake, a standing hen and a sitting hen. You can see them in the picture above.

We positioned our fold-out chairs inside the blind and got inside ourselves. We sat down  and listened for Gobbles. The first one was surprisingly loud. It was only 40 yards from our blind. The close gobbler attracted nearby hen yelps and some occasional purrs and soft clucks. When the hens flew down the Gobbler loudly joined them. The hens walked to the river’s edge and flew across to the other side and walked in the direction of a nearby small pond. The gobbler followed behind them.

During the first half hour of daylight we heard over a dozen different gobblers sound off to the South, West and North of us. We listened and waited for an hour and then we broke down the Double Bull and collected the decoys and went to my truck.

I drove to a strip of woods that is regularly used by by our sizeable wild turkey population and set up the Double Bull at the edge of the woods and put out our 3 decoys.

I waited half an hour and took out my Woodhaven Doug Crabtree Signature V-Cut call and made some purrs mixed with soft yelps. A few minutes later we heard a gobbler getting with it in the woods to the east. I yelped at him, he in turn blasted me with a gobble and in no time three gobblers walked into view.

The gobblers were a little too far for a comfortable bow range shot and Champ waited with his bow ready as I attempted to coax them closer to us. But they ignored me and they casually moved into the area next to us, a wild turkey Strut Zone.

Above is a picture from the start of the Strut Zone area. It’s 800 yards from the Roost Area where we hunted this morning. Our freezing cold, winter weather froze out the ground level natural grasses and ground cover but last weeks warm spell and a good rain sparked green growth immediately and you can see that new grasses and ground level growth is happening right now.

When we were finished with our morning hunt we walked a ways down the Strut Zone area and I took another picture. This particular area is a huge and dense cedar break and these rare open pockets here join up and create this sturt zone that is at least 1,000 yards long.

At 11:00am we took down the blind and decoys and drove back to the hog wallows we saw yesterday. But there was nobody home there today. I drove back to the house and we ate sandwiches and drank cream sodas.

When we were almost ready to leave for an afternoon hunt Champ’s mom, my step daughter, phoned and needed me to meet her at the hard road so she could take Champ with her. After I did that I drove the dam on our largest stock near the river and heard a handful of gobblers at roosting time.