First Turkey in a While

I shot this "Jake" on the morning of 5/4/09. For those of you not familiar with turkey terminology, a Jake is a young Tom Turkey. A Tom Turkey is the desired prize, but a Jake is fair game. Hunters who have time on their hands might allow a Jake to pass by and wait longer for a Tom to come along. With my situation working two jobs, and hunting after two hours of sleep, I will simply take the Jake if that's what I see first. There were plenty of Toms gobbling in the woods, but they refused to come out into the field when called on this hunting day and the day before.

This Jake was traveling with another and approached from my 9-o'clock position. With full cammo on and nothing but a tree at your back, you must not move as the birds have you in view from about 25 yards. As they put their heads down to peck occasionally, you can budge ever so slightly to sight your gun. Each peck is a split second to budge. After playing that game as they moved past my decoy towards my 12-o'clock position, one of them simply walked into my line of fire. I shot and he went down.

I hadn't bagged a turkey since 2004 because I was taking online classes, and then two times later because my gun misfired. I finally got it fixed last fall.