The planning of this hunt started on a rainy day in San Antonio when my son John, cousin Jason, and I waited out a lightning delay at the National Shooting Complex during the 4-H state shoot. Jason was showing us some pictures of a place in the hill country and invited us on a spring turkey hunt. Being from east Texas we have not done any turkey hunting and I was quick to take him up on the offer and looked forward to it for next 8 months. While my family are all members of the NWTF and I serve on the local dinner committee, this was the first time we have ever been on a turkey hunt. We have been to enough NWTF dinners to have a collection of calls and I have watched a few turkey hunts on the outdoor shows, other than that it would a new experience.

As we headed out to Johnson City Friday night for opening weekend, I must say John was a little skeptical of this whole turkey calling deal and I had my doubts but we are always up for a new hunting adventure. On Saturday morning we headed out well before sunrise to a place we had never been, following maps that Jason and I had scratched out a few evenings before. We found the land and made our way down what we hoped was the right trail to a pipeline where were planned to set up. I had borrowed some decoys from a friend so we got those set up in a small clearing and we set by some trees about 20 yards away. I took out a box call and gave it a couple of strokes. Much to our surprise and delight, we had a turkey answer back with a gobble. The look on John’s face was priceless. His expression was “do you think all this might actually work”. As I continued to call we had turkeys answer from 3 different directions. I took out a slate call, another NWTF dinner special, and started using it while John took over the box call. We could tell from the sound of the gobbles that the turkey behind us was starting to move closer. Finally after about 30 minutes of calling we saw the turkey coming over the hill to our rear with a bead on our decoys. He continued to come in and when he was within 20 yards of the decoys, he started putting on a show by puffing up and strutting. The sunlight was shining off his feathers and showing a lot more color that I would have ever imagined a turkey having. As the big tom walked behind a small tree, I raised my Benelli into shooting position. When he walked on out I let him have a load of #4 nitro turkey and we had the first turkey of our lives. The celebration was on, we high fived, yelled, and hugged. Then we called Jason and wife-mom Karen, took some pictures and headed into town to get ice.    

After a big lunch at Hondos, I was kinda thinking about a little nap on a peaceful afternoon under a tree until what I thought would be hunting time that evening. Jason mentioned there was a water hole for use to look at so we decided to go for a walk and set by the creek. As we got about 100 yards from the truck we saw a couple of hens followed by a strutting gobbler. We quickly changed back into hunt mode, got our gun and camo, and set up for the tom. We called and called but could not get the gobbler to leave the hens. After a while we continued on to the creek for a look around. By now it was 3:00 so we wanted to get a set-up for the evening hunt. We looked the place over and decided on hunting in the same place we hunted in the morning. We build a brush blind in a basin then went back to the truck to wait for hunting time. I needed to sand my striker after the morning hunt so as we set around the truck, I sanded, then tried it out with a couple of strokes. To may surprise a turkey gobbled not 200 yards away. It was 4:00 and hot but we decided it was time to go.

This afternoon was John’s hunt and he really wanted a turkey. I started calling and soon had a gobble from on top of a ridge. We continued calling and had 3 jakes come in. John’s trigger finger was extremely itchy and he let me know that he was not picky. We quietly discussed it and decided to wait on a bigger bird. We continued to call with an occasional answer for another hour, and John was really rethinking his decision. Finally we got a gobble from on top of the ridge. We could tell there was more than one bird answering but they would not move. After at least 30 minutes of gobbling but not moving, John wanted to try a stalk and get to the ridge and look over to try and get a shot. I was afraid we would get busted but I was willing to try as it seemed the turkeys were not budging. We crawled up the steep side using cedars for cover until we thought we were where the birds would be. I knew when we looked over and exposed ourselves that John had to be ready to shoot. We peeped over the edge and the three jakes were about 20 yards away. John picked out the biggest one and pulled the trigger. Click. He speaks fluent over and under but is a little rusty in semi-auto. All time froze and we just looked at each other. We slowly sank below the rise and John handed me the gun in dismay. I got it cocked and back to John and we decided to take a look back over the rise. As we peeped over the ridge we had 12 hens staring back at us from 10 feet away! Again time froze as did we. The hens bobbed their heads back in forth trying to make out the strange hooded eyes that were watching them. We were frozen in our humped over stance and our muscles started stinging and cramping. I was afraid to look over at John because I was afraid it would be like trying to keep from laughing in church. We slowly hunkered back down below their view and crawled back down the slope hoping we would not spook the flock. We made it back to our brush blind but were afraid we might have just done ourselves in for the day. We started calling again with no luck. Finally we saw the flock at about 100 yards away. We called and got their attention and they started our way. The hens came in to within 20 yards and were accompanied by a big gobbler. I was afraid that when John tried to raise the gun that the hens would spot us, but he was able to get a bead on the now strutting gobbler. He successfully touched off the Benelli and had his first turkey. The celebration was on again with shouts, pictures and phone calls. This was a great tom with 1 1/8 inch spurs and a 9 inch beard and I had to make a call to my taxidermist friend to discuss.

            The next morning as we headed to do some window shopping at Cabelas, we enjoyed the Texas Hunt Fish radio show and John got a thrill hearing his name on the radio (even though he is 15 and not 14) as we drove thru the hill country. We competed a great hill country weekend with a barbeque stop in Lockhart at Smittys. Thanks Jason for the opportunity for a new hunting adventure.

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