Tough luck doesn’t mean the hunt stops
Standing at station one on the first night of skeet shooting I was ready to lay waste to some clay targets to forget the beating I took turkey hunting. It could have been easy, should have been easy, but it wasn’t.
There is a lot of pressure when you only get a few days to hunt turkey, kind of like being first in the lineup on the first night of skeet shooting. I remembered an opening round on the opening night of the season at least seven years ago, maybe more, when the entire squad cleaned station one. It hasn’t happened anytime since.
I set my foot position, brought the shotgun up to a proper mount, lined the barrel up with the flight of the clay, raised the barrel to my hold point, and called for the clay. Guess a perfect station one on the first round on opening night will have to wait until next year. Got that over with quick, why prolong it.
My turkey hunt started off so well, a jake came running in on my first set up ten minutes after shooting hours opened. At one point it was three yards from me. It hung around for about 45 minutes, during which time I couldn’t call the tom looking for the hen calling him, which were me and the decoy. The closest he came was about 75 yards before losing interest and moving off while the jake just kept jaking.
When it did walk off I waited a good 15 minutes and tried to call to the tom which never responded. The jake did, he came running back in with gusto about three minutes after I called. And he hung around for another 45 minutes or so.
Why didn’t you just shoot the jake, you ask. I’m asking myself that too. I was definitely asking myself that by Monday night after not seeing another jake or tom the next three days. I wanted a tom, but you know a jake would have tasted just fine, probably better.
It comes down to not passing on the first day what you would shoot on the last day. I tell hunters this all the time. Guess I should have taken my own advice.
Thing is the three days prior to my season starting toms were strutting in groups right where I was set up. I even had a couple toms walk through our yard ten yards from the deck. But after I passed that jake, I didn’t see and heard very little gobbling the rest of the week.
Not everyone had the same luck as me that week. I had two friends both tag out with toms in different parts of the state. Apparently being a retired game warden brings good luck. Another friend tagged out the same day a little later in the day then them. All three hunted a ways away from where I was.
My buddy, that is the diehard down the rabbit hole turkey hunter, told me to get out of my tent blind and to stop using an UTV to get to my hunting spot. I told him I should have just shot the jake. Besides my first set up of the day isn’t in a tent, so there. He’ll tell me that’s why I had a bird come in. Truth is, my last three turkeys have come in a tent blind and yes, I used a motorized utility vehicle to haul the blind, chairs, cooler, gun, and me into the woods. That’s what I tell him. It’s why it’s called hunting, not shooting. Skeet shooting has started and is up and running at the club now. It’s open shooting, we don’t shoot league, but if you shoot a perfect score you have to buy a round after. Trust me, there aren’t too many of those. I think some cheap skates get to like station seven and miss a gimme just so they don’t have to buy a round. I simply miss the first target and shed the pressure.
Clay target shooting takes place on Monday evenings at the Abbotsford Sportsmen’s Club. Shooting starts around 5 p.m. and goes until everyone has had their fill of shooting or dark.
If you can’t find ammo, the club has ammo to purchase, they always have. A few years ago saying if you can’t find ammo would have sounded like you’re nuts and just hunt turkeys out of a blind with an UTV.
THROUGH A
DECOY’S
E YE
CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL O UTDOORSMAN
