It is already mid October and the geese are starting to fly, deer are starting to leave signs of the upcoming rut and turkey hunting is in full swing.

If you were lucky enough to draw a fall tag for turkey hunting now is the time to get your bird. They have come together in nice flocks and will be easy to spot. The one draw back to this is that now they have a lot of eyes looking for you as well. You don’t hear to skin tingling gobbles in the fall that you hear in the spring but none the less turkey hunting can be a lot of fun in the fall.

This year I was happy to receive a fall tag and had the privilege of taking a young future hunter out on my trip a field. My friend Cody (who is 11 and will be taking hunter safety next month so he will be able hunt in the spring turkey hunt) and I went out to setup our turkey blind the night before on the field edge where the turkeys frequent on their way to feed in the neighboring corn field. We decided to sit in the blind for a while to get a feel for it for the morning hunt. Cody had never gone hunting and was excited to be a field on his first trip. As most youths he wasn’t overly excited about sitting so I took him for a stroll around the land to show him around a little bit.

I then took him home so he could get to bed early for the morning hunt but we ended up watching a hunting video until after 10 o’clock anyway.

I woke him up in the morning and he quickly got ready for the hunt. It was a windy misty morning and we were glad we were using a full tent blind that day. We got into the blind right before daybreak. Knowing the birds would be skittish in the high winds we were hoping they would head for the open field. After sitting for a little while Cody asked if we could go looking for them. I said I would be glad to take him and try to stalk some turkeys as it is a great technique in the fall. I will usually try to find the birds and then either stalk up on them or scare them and try to call them back together.

We proceeded to the edge of the cornfield and the soybean field with no luck. We checked all the wood edges and finally went into the woods with no success. After being wet from the rain and not wanting to discourage my little future hunter I told him I would take him home so we could dry our clothes and get some lunch.

After letting our clothes dry in the 25 MPH winds we had a nice warm lunch and headed back out. We drove by some fields where I have permission to hunt to see if any birds were working the fields but we didn’t see any. We then decided to go back to our original location as we knew there are birds there.

Being it was a fall hunt we decided we would shoot the first bird that presents a shot since he could only hunt that weekend. We proceeded to the edge to the corn field adjacent to a clover field. No bird were present but we saw a lot of deer sign so it still kept Cody interested in being out there. Then we along the edge of the corn field until we hit the wood line alone the unpicked soybean field. We proceeded to the edge of the small woodlot along the corn field and at the end to the woodlot we saw two birds on a limb about 5 feet off the ground. I told Cody to get down and asked him if he wanted to try to crawl up close enough in the tall weeds to get a shot and he wanted to. We crawled about 40 yards but couldn’t get a shot before the birds saw us. They jumped down out of the tree and walked away from us. Knowing they were spooked but not real bad we decided to try to get to the field edge and see if we could still get a shot.

We hunched over and walk to with 20 yards of the field edge and then saw some birds working the edge. I told him the first bird we could get a shot at we would take. I had to shoot between some birch trees but had a small gap to use for a clear shooting lane. There were several birds so we had to wait for one to present itself without another bird within the shot range as they very walking side by side. Finally a small hen presented herself for a shot and I took it, dropping her in her tracks. Then the turkeys started putting and walking all around us in the wood lot. We proceeded out to get our bird and could still hear the other turkeys putting around. So I told him we would go up a little farther and see if we could call them in to look at them. We lay down in some grass on a hill and I started to give some soft yelps on my diaphragm call and sure enough 7 birds came within 10 feet of us. He was very excited about being that close to them and told me that they would have been easy pickings. I told them almost too close to shoot.

We then took our bird home to show his mother and grandmother and they were so proud of him. I think he will be hooked on turkey hunting for quite a while.

As you can see from our hunt you have to be versatile in your hunting. Sometimes the birds will come right to you in the morning and sitting in a blind is the way to go. I know we had a flock of 15 birds working the area but they had moved over to the neighbors land that night. Hunting out of a blind or sitting can be productive but I usually limit myself to one hen decoy and call as if it were lost usually only using soft yelps and clucks.

We then took an aggressive approach to find the birds and it paid off but we weren’t immediately successful as we didn’t find birds at first. Then we found two and tried to stalk them but got busted by them. Stalking a turkey can be very difficult with their excellent eye sight. With us trying to stalk two birds that were above us we knew it would be difficult and I wouldn’t be able to shoot them out of the tree and they would have to come down but they were out of our range for a safe shot even though they were only 20 yards away. Then it was we got lucky and didn’t spook the whole flock and we got a shot on our next stalk.

Even though our bird hunting was over we implemented the scatter technique at the end so I could show Cody how it was done. We knew our hunt was over but I wanted to show Cody how to do a little more calling and I explained to him how in the fall you can scatter a flock like we did and have them come back together as they want to stay in their flock. It was great to see his excitement in his eyes as the birds came as close as 6 feet from us and none more than 10 as they walked right by us looking for the bird calling them.

So if you haven’t been out on your fall turkey hunt try to get out and if you can take someone who hasn’t hunted before as I am more proud of this little hen than I was my 28 pound toms that I have shot because of the joy it brought to this young man and the excitement he now has to learn to hunt. It is our tradition and needs to be passed on and everyone needs to do their part.

Be safe and happy hunting. Don’t forget to take a kid a field with you so they can enjoy it in the future as we do now.