Jeff and Hayes helped Phillip and me get to and into the ground blind then Hayes set up our decoys for us. Phillip and I got our wheelchairs set up and began calling.
It was a beautiful morning and we were seeing birds right away. The first turkey made an appearance at daybreak, it was a hen at 150 yards. She came into about 50 yards and milled around for quite sometime.
Next, out came a nice gobbler and three hens. He was strutting at 100 yards but would not leave his hens. It was beautiful to see.
A short time later a long beard appeared 10 yards from my ground blind just to my right. Neither Phillip nor I could turn our chairs to get a shot at him. He was a boss Tom and strutting for our decoys. It wasn't long before a second gobbler appeared to the right. Again neither one of us could get a shot. But at least we were seeing birds.
Around 10 AM a nice gobbler started strutting 60 yards in front of me. After a while I decided it was now or never and I had to take the shot, he was not going to come in any closer. I rolled the Tom over with my shot and he was flopping around. Phillip shot and hit him at this point (I only load 1 shell) but this gobbler got up and flew down over the bank.
Hayes went to look for my turkey but was unable to find him. Turkey's are tough to kill especially at 60 yards even with 3" magnum 12 gauge #6 loads.
I am hoping to go out this Saturday and try my new box call from Thunder Mountain Game Calls. Wish me luck!
What a great first day! You're right about just being able to see the strutting being beautiful. Fantastic write up and I'm hoping the next one will have a slightly different ending :)
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