My First Turkey Hunt

As I rolled out of my driveway before 4am, all suited up in Mossy Oak, I needed to WAKE UP. I needed to run through everything that I learned about shooting a shotgun.

Shooting a moving clay pigeon versus a live turkey – what are the similarities, what are the differences? I had no idea but I wanted to find out. I just needed to remember everything Todd Wright of Wright Way Shooting taught me.

I got to my destination, Mattaponi Wildlife Management Area, and it was still pitch black. We vested up anyway (yes, there is a special turkey vest -- lots of pockets and a built-in cushion for sitting). Scott handed me a shotgun and explained how to use it with the lights of his truck. Without warning, Scott took off walking, in the dark. It was still only 5:45 am.

We walked for a bit and the light of day rose around us. Our walk was very intentional -- don’t make a lot of noise, watch out for the leaves, walk in the other one’s footsteps. Then, with a hand motion, Scott stopped me. We paused where the pine trees met the other topography and we listened.

After a bit we slowly and quietly continued walking. Stop, listen, walk. Stop, listen and walk.

We walked, stopped and listened for quite a while but never heard or saw anything. After the sun came up we approached a wide open area between the trees, a right of way with power lines between rows of trees on either side. We stopped and slowly looked one way and then the other way and then looked again. I felt like I was in the CIA or FBI. We both saw nothing, so we quickly but quietly moved on with our search.

Suddenly, there was music to Scott’s ears. I didn’t know what I was listening to, but Scott heard toms and hens communicating with one another. The toms gobble and the hens respond with their own calls. Scott waved me over and we walked into the woods. We found a spot to cop a squat against a large tree and then we sat, listened and waited…and listened and waited some more.

I wondered what we were waiting for. I mean, obviously there was a turkey in or nearly in shooting range but I didn’t know why were we sitting and not walking towards them. We heard both tom and hen calls so we knew there were turkeys around. After a while I had to ask that very question: “What are we waiting for?” Scott said although we hear both calls, the toms hear the hens they are focused on finding that hen making the noises rather than roaming around endlessly. Perhaps they’d come into our sight.

Ah, now this was all making sense. So we waited some more as we continued to hear both mating sounds. Confession – I definitely dozed off a few times. Good thing I didn’t miss anything.

Scott explained a little more about the mating of the toms and hens. Here is what you need to know: During the morning when all the turkeys are calling one another, if a tom finally sees a hen (if there is more than one tom in the group the dominant one will win) they go and do the nasty and the hen then goes to make a nest and lay eggs. Then there is a second chance, usually around 10 am, for the tom to look for another hen or hopefully hear our call and then come out for us to hunt.

After a while there were no more mating sounds but out of nowhere we heard what sounded like something landed behind us. Although Scott was very slow to turn around, the turkey was so close to us it got spooked and instantly flew away.

Turkey – 1

Scott and Hanna – 0

It was now time to do some more walking and play some “music” -- Scott had several calls such as box, pot, diaphragm, etc. We wanted to bring those turkeys into sight. We walked and walked and called for birds to come to us. We came across an open area between the trees and Scott happened to be doing something, perhaps switching turkey calls and there, walking from one side of the trees to the other, way out of shooting range, was a turkey, I saw it but unfortunately Scott missed seeing him/her.

It all happened so fast and I knew I couldn’t get too excited. All I kept hearing in my head was Jennifer Combs asking, “You do know you have to be quiet when you hunt, right?” So I tapped Scott on the shoulder and pointed and moved my pointer and middle finger like a turkey walking and we headed slowly toward the woods where it had disappeared. We found another tree, squatted, sat, listened and called for our boy but unfortunately, he had better plans than landing next to the carving knife on the Thanksgiving table.

Turkey – 2

Scott and Hanna – 0

My quiet time was over. You could only hunt until noon so we made the long trek back to our vehicles. We had done a lot of roaming around and our walk back, with that heavy gun attached to me, seemed much longer than the trek out. Thankfully, we didn’t see any sign of life while we headed out as that would have been a real slap in the face.

I didn’t shoot a turkey. I had no expectations of actually doing so, although I suppose that is the reason I had woken up that morning. Nevertheless, this was a terrific learning experience. Scott was an amazing hunting mentor. He was full of knowledge and made me understand aspect of the process: from scouting and location, setting up our position, calling, being quiet and patient and perhaps next time taking the shot.