Easter Weekend Hunt

This past weekend, April 22-24, I decided to return home once again to visit with my family for Easter and to hunt a few times. On Thursday, when I returned home, I met with my father and we both decided where we would go the next day. We woke up at 5:30 AM and drove to the piece of property that we planned to hunt. When we arrived, we split up and went to two different sections of the land. After about an hour, I received a text from my father asking if I was ready to leave. We had both not seen or heard anything and I began to wonder how well hunting this weekend was going to be. That day at lunch I met with a family friend and we both decided to go down to a farm of my father's and spend the night for a morning hunt on Saturday.

Once again, we woke up at 5:30 AM and headed into the woods. We decided to split up to help increase our chances of tagging a turkey. I decided to set up in the fields that are on the property and hoped that I could call in a turkey. After about an hour of not hearing or seeing anything, once again, I walked back to my truck and waited for my friend to come out of the woods. Half an hour later, Ray walked out and informed me that he also had not seen or heard anything. I began to realize that this weekend was going to be an unsuccessful hunt.

The next morning was Easter morning and each year my family goes to church together; therefore, I knew I had to be out of the woods by 8:30 AM. I had decided to go out to our farm, which my dad had informed me that a big turkey had been seen a few days earlier. I parked at the farm house and put all of my gear on. At day light, I finally heard my first gobble of the weekend. I went to the property line and set up as close as I could to the turkey. As I began to call, I realized that the gobbler (male turkey) had hens (female turkeys) with him. However, about half an hour later I had called the turkeys fairly close to me but just outside of my shooting range. I then realized that two gobblers were with the hens rather than only one. These turkeys proceeded to walk past me without allowing a shot.

I then got up, ran back to my truck and called my dad to inform him that I was about to try to set up on these two turkeys once again. At this time it was about 8:00 and I knew that I only had about half an hour left to hunt. I ran down to a point where I believed the turkeys would be heading and set up. After sitting down for a little while I began to wonder if I had spooked the turkeys while running down to my set-up. At this moment one of the turkeys gobbled right around the corner. I raised my gun and waited for the turkeys to step out in front of me. As the turkeys began to realize something was out of place I took a shot on the larger turkey and the second turkey began to fly away. In a reflex, I swung on the second turkey and took the second shot. After placing tags on both of the turkeys the excitement began to set in. I have always dreamed of killing two turkeys in one hunt but never thought it would happen. I then went through the task of carrying the two birds out of the woods. Once home I began cleaning and dressing the turkeys and was able to finish on time to make it to church with my family.