Beasley Brother's 2006 Hunts are brought to you by these fine sponsors:

A Tag Team Effort

- By Paul Beasley -

Sometimes it just takes two. Working this bird for over two hours the night before, I brought help with me the next evening. Kevin set up 30 yards behind me and called this bird into range...like it was read right out of a textbook!

  Kevin and I already had a double header under our belts from opening morning so I wasn't feeling much pressure as I left work early on Thursday, April 27th and headed out to a property that none of us had hunted yet this year. We'd scouted it and seen a couple gobblers and figured out where they were spending a lot of time but hadn't spent enough time there yet to figure out their routine.

  I quietly snuck into a likely spot and at 4:45pm I started calling and was answered immediately. "Man, this is gonna be good!" I thought. The tom worked his way in and out, back and forth and to make a long 2 hour story really short, I just couldn't pull him close enough for a shot. The closest he came was 65 yards and his two hens would just keep pulling him away from me. I don't know about you but over 2 hours on the same bird with him in sight the entire time is a really long and patience-testing hunt. I then decided to see if I could talk the hens into a fight. Surely if I could throw enough insults their way they'd come over looking for a fight and my prize would be right behind them. Well, I guess you know how that ended up because at 7:00 pm I finally had to admit defeat and unloaded my gun, put it in a gun sock on the ground beside me and pulled out the camera.

"The tom worked his way in and out, back and forth...I just couldn't pull him close enough for a shot..."

  I was eager to get back there and the entire ride home I planned his murder but decided I'd best leave him alone in the morning as I knew he roosted on another property. My brother Kevin and I headed back there the next day after work and we actually spotted him from the car on our way in and he looked to be all alone! This was even better than I had dreamed!

  A quick plan and stealthy sneak had us set up within 100 yards of him and his hens. I decided to try and get a little closer so Kevin stayed put with his calls and pulling my boots and socks off I managed to get in to about 75 yards on him. I don't know if you've ever tried it or not but when you need to make a stalk and are really concerned about noise, going down to your bare feet will give you a serious advantage. You don't crack nearly as many sticks and it's not as clumsy as stepping with big boots. Give it a try and you'll be surprised at how well it works!

  Back to the hunt. Kevin began calling and right away he lit up! This was a good sign. Even late in the day you can get these Toms piping hot and being by himself I was just ready for him to come in on a trot. Well, something was certainly wrong as he just puffed and strutted in circles out in this overgrown old pasture. He'd come in to 60 yards then do his circle back out to 70. Then he'd come back in to 63 yards and out to 66. After 30 minutes his endless pirouettes were getting a little tiresome and I'm sure Kevin, who couldn't see what was going on was getting a little fatigued as well.

  As always, I never leave home without my rangefinder and having ranged all the possible stumps, trees and rocks in view, I knew exactly where I needed him to be for a shot. Slowly his dance brought him just into my max range and though I had hoped he would come a little closer, I knew my gun well enough that I couldn't pass up the opportunity. He had come out of strut and with his head in an upright position, when he turned to walk away I ended my season on the same tom I'd worked the night before. It wasn't until the gun went off that I realized why he'd been so slow to work into the call. The same two hens he was with the night before were just inside the treeline and he was having trouble leaving them for this sweet talking Jenny behind me.

  He wasn't an old bird by any means but with his stubborn attitude the evening before, the hunt had become personal. It was great to be able to share the hunt with Kevin as yet another tag-team effort resulted in the demise of our third big Ontario gobbler in just a few days.

The bare feet may seem a little extreme but this was open country and I needed to close the distance on this bird. Removing my boots helped me sneak into 75 yards with leaves and twigs underfoot without him knowing I was there. This tom's stats are 19.6 lbs, 8.5 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs.

  With over an hour of daylight left, we then headed out to the other side of the property to get Kevin a bird. We walked and walked and couldn't get anything going. We were feeling pretty frustrated when Kevin finally decided to go to a spot he'd had a hunch on all day. At 6:40 pm, with 20 minutes of legal time left we finally found a group of gobblers. We could see three or so but hadn't identified their age yet. As we began to call they worked themselves up into a real frenzy but wouldn't cut the distance. With very little time to move on them, we were left with a quick decision. The birds were in the middle of a cow pasture. Short grass and cow patty's were all we really had to hide behind besides a really high knoll in the middle of the field. We decided to shed our vests, grab one decoy and sneak up to the peak of this knoll with the decoy in front of us, cutting the distance in about half. Seeing the decoy, we hoped it would be enough to bring them into range.

  Well, as we got into position with one decoy in front of Kevin and me hidden sort of behind him calling, we finally caught their interest enough that the three of them began coming our way. As the three gobblers began strutting towards us, we saw two more birds come over the hill behind them. I finally decided to grab my binoculars and identified all 5 birds as jakes! Well, Kevin made it clear that he wasn't looking to shoot a jake with his last tag so early in the season but we decided to watch them for a bit anyway. As the five birds came in to about 80 yards, from over the same hill came another 6 birds! Yet again I had to use my binoculars to be sure that yes, this was in fact 6 more jakes! We had never seen anything like this in our lives. We had 11 jakes in front of us and I kid you not, when the first group of 5 saw the second group come over the hill, they all lined up shoulder-to-shoulder like you see in the Braveheart movie and in two lines, charged each other! It was the craziest thing we've ever seen. Wings were flapping, claws were clawing and beaks were snapping. It lasted for about 15 seconds and then they settled down but remained a distance from each other. We both looked at each other in disbelief. We'd just witnessed a turkey gang fight!

  I don't know if it was the winning team of the losing team but before long a line of them began walking right in our direction. Up the knoll they came until the first one popped up about 15 yards away from us. Now remember, we have nothing to hide us in the wide open cow pasture except one decoy! The first jake got a little nervous and started side-stepping but was soon pressured by his counterparts to resume his direction of travel and before long we had 6 jakes within 25-30 yards.

With 20 minutes of legal time left in the day and no trees for cover, we decided to do something a little out of the ordinary to pull these gobblers into range. With only one jake decoy and a couple cow patties to hide behind...well, read on...

By moving the decoy around in a feeding motion and using some calling, we fooled these birds into staying well within killing range until we ran out of legal time and had to spook them off.

  We then went out a few days later to get Kevin a bird and after nearly 1.5 hours we finally worked these gobblers into range only to once again find out...they were both jakes. Now there's nothing wrong with killing jakes but they just weren't what he was looking for so again he passed.

  As short and sweet as it was, it was great to share so many incredible hunting experiences with Kevin in such a short period of time. A short time later, Kevin got together with Keith and together they ended his season too.

Here's a photo of the two jakes and one hen...Kevin who was the shooter had a much clearer view and they were only 30 yards away.

Beasley Brother's 2006 Hunts are brought to you by these fine sponsors: