Jon's Never Ending Odyssey: Double Bird Day

Saturday morning Michael and I knew darn well we were going to hunt. We decided the evening before that we would try our luck at Big Marsh as Michael knew about where the birds have been roosting. When we got that at an unholy, sacrilegious hour, Michael walked us right to where we needed to be. We waited until we could hear a gooble. Sure as rain, we heard a couple sound off. The issue we faced unfortunately was Big Marsh was flooded. This made for a mosaic of flood water and dry land. Had we brought waders, we would have been unstoppable, but things work out for reason sometimes. We positioned ourselves within 100 or so yards of a hot bird. We hadn't been set for ten minutes before he pitched down. He continued to gobble as he closed the distance. Our only problem now was our placement. We needed to be one un-flooded birm ahead of where we were. He skirted us. He strutted his way along the river as I had predicted. 70 yards was not close enough and we just got to watch the show instead. We walked around for awhile longer but we were fading fast trying to slop through the mud. I do not give up when it comes to turkeys, so I said Shell Rock Bend was next. Michael was already day dreaming about hashbrowns and eggs, but I convinced him to forge on.

I told him we would hunt until noon or so, and by doing so, we would find a nice deep calm hole in the timber and nap against a tree. At this point the wind had really picked up. I knew the birds would do the same thing I would; find a warm, quiet, sunny spot in the timber. We walked slowing through thick timber before we found them. Ten or so deer, and turkeys. The deer busted right, the turkeys left. Michael saw the birds and said they were less than 30 yards before we busted them. I suggested we sit down and wait for their return. Warm, secluded, and a hell of a lot less windy. A doe walked within feet behind me before busting me. Michael took advantage of the spot.

Once we came-too from our glorious nap, I told Michael a new tactic was necessary to kill a bird late season. I have always had unorthodox methods, but then again that is why I shoot birds. Because of the wind our movement would be covered if we moved slow. We would smell them before they smelled us. These conditions made for a spot and stalk turkey hunt.

We inched our way through the timber one step at a time. I knew where I wanted to go and how to get there. I used the brush as cover, and stopped a large trees along the way. I figured we would be able to find them before they spotted us. We worked 300 plus yards without a single anything. Michael followed right behind me the whole way.

Finally.

Birds.

Three birds in a dip in front of us not 30 yards. I stopped and turned to Michael and said, "They are right in front of us. I am going if you don't mind".
He had no idea they were their and still could not see them. I inched my way closer for a clear shot. One longbeard and two jakes. I got 5 yards closer before the longbeard stood up and pegged me.

BOOM!

Dropped him hard, or so I thought.
The longbeard flew off directly away from us, while one of the other jakes ran to the left. I yelled "Michael SHOOT!!! SHOOT!!!" In one fluid motion, he shot as the bird ran from right to left. Just flatted him. I just said, " You got him." He had no idea what happened. He told me he didn't even know what he was shooting at but rather at something running in front of us. He knew I knew what it was, and I knew he was a legal bird. So I told him to shoot. I walked up to my bird, to which I laid major smack down, and look over at Michael. He is walking balk and forth like he was looking for blood. I thought he was looking for his empty shell before he looked up at me. I just pointed a little to the right as he was mere feet from his bird before he could even see it. He ran over toward it and leaned on it while trying to finish him off. He just proceeded to peel off most of the neck feather instead. When our birds stopped flopping he just looked and me, and stated, "Did that just really happen?" "What just happened?" "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!?!?!?!"

We just stood there and high fived and giggled for ten minutes.

As usual, we took our sweet time setting up for pictures. I believe this part is more important than the rest of the details. Take that moment's super high and freeze it in time.

While walking around we came across a bunch of these clumps of Virginia Bluebells in the woods. Because of this, we wanted a few pics to remember them as well.

And then of course there was the stump pics. We have taken many pics from the stump in the past and even though the DNR tried to clear the stump out we still got our pics.