Well I sorta "encountered" them more than once. I was in a hedgerow, since I hunt from the ground with my flintlock. I looked to the East and a huge bird was gliding in toward the meadow that I was watching for deer. Biggest wingspan I'd seen, and I'd never seen a bald eagle up close, so the only thing I had to compare it to was a black vulture. I'd also never seen a wild turkey in flight up close, and she set down about 20 yards from me, and folded her wings, and I said out loud, "Hey that's a turkey"...the hen of course heard me and took off on foot.
About a month ago I was scouting an area to take my son hunting. I'd never been to the state forest, and didn't know the terrain. Here in Maryland we don't have much land where one is legally allowed to hunt with rifles, and my son announced he wanted to use the 6.5 Grendel rifle that he'd built for deer this year.
So it was a Monday at about 11, and I was
driving my car along the dirt car path into one of the areas that I thought on my topo map looked promising. I had checked two spot already, and this was the last that looked good on the map.. The road went uphill and turned left at the crest, and as I crested, there were no less than a jake and three hens, in the road. They didn't zip off on foot, and acted as though I was annoying them, making them move off the roadway. I had brought my shotgun with full choke and #4 shot to bag a squirrel or two while scouting, but I hadn't even thought to check to see if fall turkey was in season. (Spring Turkey is the big turkey-season where I live). It was much fun to see them, and I'd bet the minute I stopped and got out they'd a scampered off into the woods, out of range.
So I figured since the early Muzzle Loader season had closed on Saturday, and it was Monday, if the turkeys were moving about where I saw them..., a "corner" of the state forest near private land..., then that might be an area where the game gets "pushed" when the season opens...since turkey and deer don't know which is being hunted by the humans...at least I think they don't.....
Thems my two
turkey-up-close stories.
LD