jnoonan22
Member
I started learning how to hunt gobblers about 2 years ago on my own, sometimes with a friend. I had several close encounters and numerous no-sightings time and time again sitting outdoors for hours on end by myself. I love just being outdoors most of the time as peaceful as it is, but sometimes would get very frustrated at my lack of success, especially when i hear gunshots a few fields down and see the success of others. But I knew not to give up and to be patient.
Well that patience paid off nicely yesterday morning. I was out in the field at 5:30 in the morning with my spot picked out. I had spotted a tom or two the afternoon before but they wouldn't come to me then. I laid out two hen decoys and a fake jake approaching them, just off the tree line. I laid back against my tree with nice foliage to hide me and let the beautiful morning unfold. It was silent so i got things going with a very short series of kee-ocks (yelps?) from my slate. The gobbler 200 yards away I'd seen the day before made his presence known immediately. I shut up, and he just kept bellowing. Then others chimed in all around too. I had read that you don't want to over call once you have a tom's attention so i stayed patient and quiet.
Hours went by as the sun came up. My butt was numb and my legs were tingling in pain. The gobbles quieted down a little bit, so I gave another small series of yelps from the slate. A thunderous gobble sounded off about a hundred yards or so behind me, around the cut in the treeline. I forgot my phone at home so didn't know how long i'd been out, but guessed it must have been 7 to 7 30. I hadn't seen or heard a single flydown. Just more gobbles.
Finally I spot a bird clear across the field from me moving in my general direction, slightly off to the side. Once it closed in another 150 yards or so, i realized it was a hen. While watching her, I failed to take note of the monstrous gobbler who had been working his way up the middle of the field to my left. That's where she was heading and I cursed, as i figured she would meet the tom's needs more than my decoys.
Alas, a second good sized tom who was the first to respond to me that morning is making his way towards the couple. He runs, stops, struts, walks further, struts, and so on approaching the twosome. They are all well out of range from me, but my heartrate is up, my saftey is off, my gun is on my knee and I'm prepared incase they start making their way in to me. The two toms have a "strut off" and the hen seems to lose interest. Either way, the toms start making their way side by side towards my decoys, cutting each other off, bumping, strutting. That experience alone would have made my hunt complete, as this is by far the closest I had ever got to a tom strutting within range, let alone two. It was no time at all before they both were within range. Now my problem was getting them to separate, as KY has a one bird a day limit.
After all my reading on turkey hunting, I learned that the best shot on a tom is when they come out of a strut, so you have a better shot at the neck and head. These two kept strutting and cutting each other off trying to outdo one another. Finally, they separated at about 40 yards out. I liked the bigger one on the right. He had a very nice beard and fan. I'll be the first to admit that my rookie hands were practically shaking and my heart was pounding as I beaded the neck of the one on the right. I let him separate a little farther. They looked to have (my rookie estimate) about 5 to 6 feet separating them and the one on the left looked like he was about to move back in. I pulled the trigger.
Both birds dropped. There was a little wing fluttering but they both passed fairly quickly, and I felt sick. I knew my friends and family wouldn't care and they would be ecstatic that i finally got my first bird (in this case 2) all on my own after years of patience and nothing. But I knew I must have taken a bad shot, and i felt horrible immediately. I was happy to see them both passed fairly quickly b/c I'm an animal lover and hate to see suffering.
I gathered all my stuff, grabbed both birds, and made the grueling trek back to my inlaw's house which was probably 700 to 800 yards away, mostly uphill. I workout and am in decent shape but i was absolutely spent by the time i got there. They were so excited for me and called my wife's uncle down the road to help me come clean them. They said, just telecheck one in on one day and the other in on the next. I felt bad doing that, so i did them both on the same day and wrote an email to the KYFW department explaining what happened.
My wife's uncle said both toms had the biggest spurs on them he'd ever seen, almost if not over 2 inches. We processed the meet and had a huge family dinner that night with fried turkey.
Now I'm nervous waiting around to find out what my punishment is going to be... I looked online to see what others had to say about similar situations and all i saw were scathing remarks about poaching, bad gun handling decisions, pressing charges, huge fines, etc. After getting my first bird, I thought I would be on cloud nine. Instead, I feel like a criminal and everybody is puzzled as to why I was "stupid" to turn them both in on the same day. I feel good about doing the right thing but feel like I'm in for a complete a**-kicking from the wildlife department because I made an honest mistake. Sorry that I had to vent this but it really has had me down. My wife is proud of me for being honest but she hasn't read the comments of others who have asked about similar situations and the fines and charges brought against them.
I want to be an honest to God clean hunter who abides by local rules so that my kids and my kid's kids will be able to hunt if they want. I know the rules are there for a reason and I honestly didn't mean to break them. I sighted in my gun and had a good idea of what it patterned like at a closer distance but adrenaline and excitement overcame me and I thought my only shot might disappear. It was a bad shot ultimately. What do you guys think? Am I in hot water now?
Well that patience paid off nicely yesterday morning. I was out in the field at 5:30 in the morning with my spot picked out. I had spotted a tom or two the afternoon before but they wouldn't come to me then. I laid out two hen decoys and a fake jake approaching them, just off the tree line. I laid back against my tree with nice foliage to hide me and let the beautiful morning unfold. It was silent so i got things going with a very short series of kee-ocks (yelps?) from my slate. The gobbler 200 yards away I'd seen the day before made his presence known immediately. I shut up, and he just kept bellowing. Then others chimed in all around too. I had read that you don't want to over call once you have a tom's attention so i stayed patient and quiet.
Hours went by as the sun came up. My butt was numb and my legs were tingling in pain. The gobbles quieted down a little bit, so I gave another small series of yelps from the slate. A thunderous gobble sounded off about a hundred yards or so behind me, around the cut in the treeline. I forgot my phone at home so didn't know how long i'd been out, but guessed it must have been 7 to 7 30. I hadn't seen or heard a single flydown. Just more gobbles.
Finally I spot a bird clear across the field from me moving in my general direction, slightly off to the side. Once it closed in another 150 yards or so, i realized it was a hen. While watching her, I failed to take note of the monstrous gobbler who had been working his way up the middle of the field to my left. That's where she was heading and I cursed, as i figured she would meet the tom's needs more than my decoys.
Alas, a second good sized tom who was the first to respond to me that morning is making his way towards the couple. He runs, stops, struts, walks further, struts, and so on approaching the twosome. They are all well out of range from me, but my heartrate is up, my saftey is off, my gun is on my knee and I'm prepared incase they start making their way in to me. The two toms have a "strut off" and the hen seems to lose interest. Either way, the toms start making their way side by side towards my decoys, cutting each other off, bumping, strutting. That experience alone would have made my hunt complete, as this is by far the closest I had ever got to a tom strutting within range, let alone two. It was no time at all before they both were within range. Now my problem was getting them to separate, as KY has a one bird a day limit.
After all my reading on turkey hunting, I learned that the best shot on a tom is when they come out of a strut, so you have a better shot at the neck and head. These two kept strutting and cutting each other off trying to outdo one another. Finally, they separated at about 40 yards out. I liked the bigger one on the right. He had a very nice beard and fan. I'll be the first to admit that my rookie hands were practically shaking and my heart was pounding as I beaded the neck of the one on the right. I let him separate a little farther. They looked to have (my rookie estimate) about 5 to 6 feet separating them and the one on the left looked like he was about to move back in. I pulled the trigger.
Both birds dropped. There was a little wing fluttering but they both passed fairly quickly, and I felt sick. I knew my friends and family wouldn't care and they would be ecstatic that i finally got my first bird (in this case 2) all on my own after years of patience and nothing. But I knew I must have taken a bad shot, and i felt horrible immediately. I was happy to see them both passed fairly quickly b/c I'm an animal lover and hate to see suffering.
I gathered all my stuff, grabbed both birds, and made the grueling trek back to my inlaw's house which was probably 700 to 800 yards away, mostly uphill. I workout and am in decent shape but i was absolutely spent by the time i got there. They were so excited for me and called my wife's uncle down the road to help me come clean them. They said, just telecheck one in on one day and the other in on the next. I felt bad doing that, so i did them both on the same day and wrote an email to the KYFW department explaining what happened.
My wife's uncle said both toms had the biggest spurs on them he'd ever seen, almost if not over 2 inches. We processed the meet and had a huge family dinner that night with fried turkey.
Now I'm nervous waiting around to find out what my punishment is going to be... I looked online to see what others had to say about similar situations and all i saw were scathing remarks about poaching, bad gun handling decisions, pressing charges, huge fines, etc. After getting my first bird, I thought I would be on cloud nine. Instead, I feel like a criminal and everybody is puzzled as to why I was "stupid" to turn them both in on the same day. I feel good about doing the right thing but feel like I'm in for a complete a**-kicking from the wildlife department because I made an honest mistake. Sorry that I had to vent this but it really has had me down. My wife is proud of me for being honest but she hasn't read the comments of others who have asked about similar situations and the fines and charges brought against them.
I want to be an honest to God clean hunter who abides by local rules so that my kids and my kid's kids will be able to hunt if they want. I know the rules are there for a reason and I honestly didn't mean to break them. I sighted in my gun and had a good idea of what it patterned like at a closer distance but adrenaline and excitement overcame me and I thought my only shot might disappear. It was a bad shot ultimately. What do you guys think? Am I in hot water now?
