Protecting My Decoy

Season D of the Wisconsin Turkey Season finally brought with it some decent weather in terms of temperatures and the snow had finally disappeared--- at least where I was hunting. (Immediately to the west of where I was there was a new snowfall of 12-15” on May 2 so I am guessing that they may have been whistling a different tune.) I had set up a number of blinds to accommodate myself, my father, and brother for our annual get-together. The blinds were set up in some of our usual favorite locations, which showed some decent turkey sign when I was putting them up along with my two sons the prior week. After dropping off my father and brother off at their blind locations I was settled in my location at nearly perfect time. There were overcast conditions present that afforded me a little bonus time in getting everything settled and in place. I placed my sole decoy, a little jake, exactly twelve yards from my blind according to my rangefinder. The first light brought with it on and off rains. I held off on letting any calls out for about 20 minutes after first light as I knew that the birds probably would not be moving extremely early with the weather conditions.

I finally let a soft series of hen calls out with my slate call and immediately had a couple of very vocal hens return volley followed by a mature gobble and at least two ugly sounding jake “gibbles” as I had recently added this term to my hunting dictionary. This banter went on for about ten minutes and for a while it sounded like I was amidst a turkey barn. After a bit the calling subsided and I questioned whether the birds had hopped off the roost and travelled the opposite way to feed in some nearby corn fields. After another fifteen minutes I spotted a number of turkeys B-lining their way right at my decoy set up. I watched the group of about ten birds amble their way through the woods and detected a couple of jakes and one very nice long-beard for sure.

I then began positioning myself with my bow towards a portal that I thought would possibly present me with a shot eventually if they kept working in the way that they were. Within seconds these birds were right in my kitchen as soft purrs followed by a gobble had the hair on the back of my neck sticking straight up as I readied my release and bow. As I slowly peaked up I discovered that the tom was taking out some pent up aggression on my jake decoy and after a series of beat downs with his wing he knocked down. I watched this show for about 30 seconds and as the tom fanned himself out and turned away a drew back and leveled down on him. He turned broadside and I was able to center punch him. A couple of crow hops later and he was down. –A very nice two year old bird that had a 9.5” beard and weighed in just shy of 22 lbs. Certainly a prize in any turkey hunter’s book.

And to put icing on the cake my brother and I picked up our father following the end of the morning hunt only to discover that the “Ol’ Man” still had some tricks up his sleeve as he too scored an admirable bird that rainy morning as well. A great weekend was had by all! I hope we continue our great turkey hunting tradition for many years to come as I am looking forward to my boys joining the turkey troops full-time as well.