Pro Staff: Wesley’s Alabama Turkey Hunt
Hi guys. It’s Wesley again. I’m back from beautiful Alabama after my turkey hunt with Real Tree and the rest of the Generation Wild Pro Staff.
We hunted long and hard and it paid off. We started our hunt saturday afternoon after the rain stopped. We hunted for a couple hours and heard a gobbler right as it was about to get dark. My guide, Steve, knew where he was and said we would go after him in the morning.
The morning came fast, and we were out there again among the oaks and pines chasing those pesky southern turkeys. This morning was different though because Steve brought his son Andy. From what Steve said, Andy is a great turkey hunter. Later I would learn he was right.
The three of us heard one gobble and went to the field where we thought the turkey would fly down from the roost. We got there and began to call. No sooner did we start calling when a hen flew over the trees and landed about 10 yards away from where we were sitting. Then three other hens proceeded to fly into the field, too. We sat there and waited for the tom to show, but he never did. So we moved on.
We chased birds gobbling all morning but never had any success…until the last place we hunted.
Andy told me the place where we were headed was “jake heaven.” We walked down this old road, he hit the call, and we heard a gobble about 40 yards away. We all threw on our face masks and jumped into the woods. Six jakes entered into the picture. They walked right in front of us about 15 yards, but I couldn’t move my gun without the turkey seeing me. We waited for as long as we could, and they started to leave.
“I’m going to yelp and when that turkey there sticks his head up you shoot him. OK?” Andy said.
“OK,” I said.
So Andy yelped and, BOOM! I had a turkey on the ground.
There is a twist to this story though: Right before we went to the place where I shot my turkey, we went to the lodge and got a different vehicle. After I shot my turkey, we had to take the vehicle back to the lodge. Guess what we see when we get back to the lodge? Three really nice long beards right in front yard.
All in all it was a really really great time, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I would just like to give a special thank you to my guides, Steve and Andy and also Spring Hill Plantation. —Wesley
Cool story and geat bird Wesley!
April 9th, 2009 at 11:21 amGreat story and great bird.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pmHow big was the bird Wesley?
April 15th, 2009 at 11:55 amIt was a good sized jake as far as body goes. But beard was only bout 5 inch and spurs were less than an inch. So nothing to special. In the pack of six jakes there was one tho that was struttin’ he was a mature jake and next year he will pry be a tom if he makes it that long, he had bout a 8 inch beard so for a jake not to bad.
I wanted to shoot him but was un able to he only needed to walk about 4 more feet and he woulda been right in front of my gun but he never did walk far enough over. Then he started back into the woods over this hill and by the time my guide said to shoot there was only one bird in sight and he was the one i put down.
April 15th, 2009 at 3:47 pmYa, 8-inches is very nice for a jake. That’s a pretty nice jake you got too.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:21 pm