Although rain and wind put a damper on the opening day of New Jersey turkey hunting season yesterday, today was a much different story.
I arrived at my hunting spot around 5:00 AM, and I heard the first turkeys gobbling from the roost at 5:30 AM — about 15 minutes before shooting time. I thought I was set up close to the roost, but I was surprised to hear them (many of them) gobbling about 250 yards away.
As I questioned whether I should move locations, the turkeys continued their incessantly gobbling for 40 minutes. They finally flew down from their roosts around 6:10 AM. I saw about 10 deer near where I heard the turkeys, but I didn’t see any of the turkeys on the ground. I could still hear gobbling, but I thought they were walking away from me — until I saw the deer start to scatter.
Like a bruising bully, a giant tom barreled out of the woods and into the field, spooking the deer. He was gobbling his head off and proceeded to march off toward a wooded thicket about 75 yards from where he entered in the field. Sensing the coast was clear, four more birds followed the big tom’s path, making sure to keep about a 30-yard cushion between them and him. The big gobbler walked off into the thicket, but the other four entered the field and began walking toward me.
When the four birds dropped down a swale and out of my line of sight, I scrambled to set two decoys on my edge of the field and began calling with my diaphragm call. All four birds gobbled back at my calls, and they began a slow 200-yard march across the field toward my decoys.
I called to the turkeys every few minutes as they cautiously approached. About halfway across the field, I could make out two jakes, one tom with a smallish beard, and one slightly larger tom with a long beard. Lucky for me, the big one was leading the march.
After 45 minutes, all four turkeys were within 40 yards of my 12-gauge — but there was a problem. They were all walking in a single-file line directly toward me! I couldn’t shoot the lead bird without potentially taking out all four of them! I was fearful that they would get too close and realize the hens they were calling and courting were plastic, so I was hoping one of them would make a move. The biggest one did.
He began clucking and half-strutting to catch the attention of the decoys. In doing so, he stepped two feet to his left. Two feet was all I needed, and he was hit with a load of 5-shot that dropped him in his tracks. The other three scampered away.
Not a bad morning, considering it was the first day I hunted during the first week of the season.
He weighed in at 18.5 pounds, had a 9-inch beard, had one 1.125-inch spur, and one 1.25 inch spur. Check out the photos.