My Hunting Experience 2016 (My first post. Hope it goes well)

There is no secret that I love to hunt and I love the outdoors. I’ve been hunting since I was four years old with my dad. That is where my love of this great sport began, hunting with dad and learning how he does it. It now runs through my veins and is always in my mind. I’m always excited for the next season to open and just can’t wait to get back out there and do what I love most. Last year in 2016, I got into turkey hunting heavily for the first time of my life. It will be a year that I will never forget too.
I live in Iowa, so our turkey season begins in mid-April and ends in late May. There are four seasons in Iowa that a hunter can pursue turkeys. A hunter can hunt two seasons, but one of the seasons must be fourth season. Since I’m in school, I like to go during second season and fourth season. Second season is always during the weekend when everyone can get out and go. The best part of this year though, is that I found some private land close to home that carries a lot of birds. I usually go on the public access land that is about forty miles away.
The day before second season, I pack my things and went home with my best friend Tristan. We decided to go do a little scouting during the evening hours to see where the birds like to hang out. After seeing very few birds, we went home kind of disappointed. The first morning we went out and did another scouting mission to see where the birds would come off the roost. We saw a ton of turkeys the first morning and decided to go try and stalk a few before the day ended. We never got on that day or the first couple days, but on the last day our luck was about to change very quickly.
Tristan and I woke up way too late on the second to last day and decided to go do a little scouting with little hope and faith. With the morning being rainy too, we didn’t even expect to see any. On our way home though, the good Lord sent us a sign that we took full advantage of. We were driving past one of the public land areas where we had yet to see a turkey. Wouldn’t you know it there were two turkeys in this grassy field and they were both mature toms and they were getting ready to cross the road. I stopped the truck in the parking area and we walked to where we thought these birds were going and it worked. The only problem, was that the birds were about forty yards away. We decided to take the shot and Tristan landed his and I missed due to my spread being too wide and too much brush in the way. Tristan’s bird though, started hobbling away.
Tristan handed me his gun and we started for this sly turkey and had trouble catching up to him at first, but then I saw him trying to hide under some thick brush. I stalked him until I got to about ten yards and fired a shot. It was all over and our hard work finally paid off for us. It was a shared trophy with even more unique characteristics. We didn’t have a way to measure the beard or spurs at the moment so we drove to an area where I could get signal on my phone and call in to get my tag filled out and complete. I then proceeded to rush home to see how much this thing weighed and how long his beard and spurs were.
We got home at about maybe ten o’clock in the morning and began to measure our first turkey. He had a ten-inch beard with an inch and a quarter spur. I say spur because the other spur was broken off due to some heavy fighting that spring. The turkey weighed in at about twenty-three pounds and we decided to keep him for a fan mount.
The last day fell upon us quickly and I decided that we would go to my private spot that I had seen turkeys all over. We got into position early that morning and right away started hearing gobbles from two hot birds. I called very softly to begin and didn’t call back. Right before they flew down, they didn’t gobble at all so I didn’t know where they were until I heard on of the strangest noises of my life. I don’t even know how to explain it. It happened so fast though, a bobcat came flying out of the timber and attacked my decoy and made a little roaring noise that made the turkeys fire up again. This time he didn’t stop until he flew right to our decoy at ten yards. Tristan was very upset though because it was a jake and he didn’t want to shoot it. So, we just watched it walk off and didn’t see another bird in the area. We left and went back to the public ground to get a couple more opportunities, but they never came together and ended the season with one tag unfilled.
Since I already shot a turkey during second season, I decided that I wasn’t going to go at all during the fourth season until one of my buddies at school asked me to tag along with him. I woke up early the day fourth season began and decided not to go because I didn’t want to miss class that day. Now I had a random tag that I probably wasn’t going to use at all until I called my uncle and asked if I may camp out by his pond with my girlfriend at the time. He ended up saying yes that we could camp out for three days during the long season if we behave and mind our manners.
We got out there on a Thursday night and did a lot of fishing and sat around the camp fire and the tent. We came up with our game plan for the morning hunt on Friday and decided to stay close to home to get that jake to fill my tag. Thursday night though was horrible, because of the wind and the really cold weather that came upon the region over night. I got no sleep and was just ready for the morning to arrive to get out to the field.
The morning of May sixth, 2016 finally arrived and boy, was I ready to go. I woke Deanna up and told her to get ready for the day in the field and she was cranky that we had to be up so early. We get out to the field at about five forty-five Friday morning and walked about half of a mile across the corn field and right away one was gobbling right across the river. We sat next to a downed tree that made the perfect natural blind and I put my half strut jake decoy out at about fifteen yards away. I was going to start to call to him when I realized that I forgot my call! So instead, I just sat there thinking that we weren’t going to see any birds and might as well go back to the tent. It is a very good thing we didn’t though because what happened next is still one of the most amazing moments of my life.
At about six fifteen, I finally heard the bird fly down and to my surprise it was a hen! She started to cluck and yelp for me and about two minutes later, another turkey flew down to see her. It wasn’t the jake I was looking for, but a big mature tom that did not like the fact that a jake was on his territory. This tom immediately started strutting and his head turned bright red with anger and came to a full sprint right to my decoy. He then proceeded to walk around the decoy nudging it with his chest and he was using his fight purr to show how mad he was. After all of this he attacked my decoy and started jumping, spurring and purring at it. He finally turned his fan toward me and I raised my gun slowly so I didn’t spook him or the hen who was still yelping. He turned broadside and I shot. He jumped up and fell right back down and laid there defeated.
I couldn’t believe that this actually happened! I went to get a jake in order to fill my tag and I got the biggest turkey I’ve ever seen. I was so excited about it, that I went and picked him up and forgot about his spurs and it ripped right through my glove. The spurs were very long and his beard was even longer than the turkey I shot before fourth season. Deanna and I loaded him up and took him home to measure him and get his tasty meat. I measure his spurs and could not believe that they were exactly an inch and a half long! His beard was ten and a half inches long and he weighed in at twenty-eight pounds! I cleaned him up and took his legs, beard, and fan to be mounted on my wall so I can remember him forever.
Turkey hunting is one of the most fun things any hunter can experience out in nature. Waking up early, getting out to your spot, and listening to the birds gobble on the roost. There is nothing like hearing these birds respond to a call and nothing like them coming in looking for a hen or getting ready to beat up another turkey that took his lady. There is nothing like this feeling either, nothing like calling him in and nothing like shooting one. It is exhilarating and it will be the most fun anyone can have. I highly recommend turkey hunting and getting your friends and family involved for an unforgettable experience.