Turkey Call

It was a cool April evening as I finished putting the blind up for hunting tomorrow. Tomorrow was the opening day of turkey season and my crew was coming up in the morning. My daughter collected some sticks to prop the camouflage mesh up for the blind. We finally got it perfect and headed back for camp.

We sat around the campground eating can made stew and bread, the perfect dinner for a day of hunting the next day. It was quickly getting dark and as we curled up in our sleeping bags we could hear the turkeys gobbling as they made their way to their roosts in the far distance. We set the alarm for 5:00am the next morning, because the early bird, after all, catches the big old tom turkey. We quickly fell asleep and slept peacefully throughout the night.

The shrill beeping of the alarm clock pierced the chilly silence of the morning air, waking us immediately. I quickly got dressed in my many layers of icy cold pierced clothing and went outside the tent to get our guns ready while my daughter dresses. As we stepped outside the tent we let our eyes adjust to the darkness. My daughter grabbed a dry bagel to have for breakfast and I packed the 20 pounds of food and drinks that she always had me carry around in my pack. We waited nearly an hour for the rest of our group to show up. By 7:00am I was feeling pretty silly for getting up at 5:00am to wait for my group, not to mention a little irritated. When they finally arrived we hurried up the pathway to our hunting grounds. We climbed up and up and up until we reached the first ridge. We let out owl calls as we climbed but when we reached the top of the ridge we made a hen turkey call. On the far ridge came an answer, and so we started up again, climbing down the other side of the ridge and then starting up the next rise. We sat down along the rim of the ridge and set out our decoys. My daughter and I sat under an oak tree and my nephew and brother-in-law sat beside some logs. We started up immediately, calling and clucking with out handy dandy turkey call. The gobblers slowly were coming up the hill to us, we could hear them getting slowly closer as we sat there. So while we waited I decided to show my daughter how to take her gun off safety. I pulled back the hammer to show her how gently to pull it back, then I told her that if she let go of the hammer the gun would fire, *BAM*... er... just like it just did. Alright, now I felt pretty stupid and was cussing myself out. I'd accidently let go of the hammer and now the turkeys were probably running for their little feathered lives. Then a form came leaping from the tree above us and ran off down the hill. My daughter and I looked at each other and groaned, that figure had been a female turkey that had been sitting in the tree above us. We hadn't even noticed her... So I cussed myself anew as something amazing happened.. the turkeys gobbled again, VERY close.. they were running to us. Wow, they actually had LIKED the gun shot, they'd come to it better then they'd even come to the turkey call! So we just giggled and quickly got our face masks on, as the turkeys came into sight. Only one problem though... in my rush to get my mask on.. I'd put it on sideways, so I had one eye hole on the right side and my ear was sticking out of the nose piece. So I tried to aim at the turkey, yet another problem was arising... I use my left eye to aim.. and so I was trying to use the wrong eye. Then yet another problem arouse... ants.. EVERYWHERE. We'd accidently sat in an ants nest and they were crawling all over on us, down our clothes, and it was very hard to stay still. I fired... and of course missed. My daughter shot, and rolled her turkey, then my nephew shot and rolled his turkey. After the shots my daughter and I both leaped up and proceeded to get the ants off of us. Well, for all our mistakes and problems and amusing circumstances, we'd bagged two nice tom turkeys. And even though I looked back on that day and felt silly then, now I look back on it and laugh, because no one would ever believe the success we'd had with a shotgun turkey call.