I told you earlier to be ready so here goes. It was the first year, the develoemental year, of the first turkey season in which I had participated. I had spent countless hours practicing and learning how to "talk turkey". I had gotten pretty good at in a short amount of time. My wife was very encouraging of my sounds as well. She told me on numerous occassions, "Honey, you sound just like the guys on the videos. I don't see any more need for you to practice in the house". I took it for what it was......a nice way of saying, "You're driving us crazy with all that calling". I had also spent hours at an uncle's house calling to his pin turkey. He was gobbling good. I later knew I might have a problem when the screen door slammed and the turkey gobbled. That's a whole other story, but nevertheless, I was ready. All that was left to do was find the turkeys.

I was on a hunting club at the time that was loaded with birds. It was a tough hunt, but a place to hunt that had turkeys. Opening weekend came and I drew a blank. I heard several birds gobble, but with my limited experience, I didn't know how to "work" the birds with the proper setup. That's the "hunting" part of turkey hunting.

The following weekend came and I decided to choose a little different entry into the flats I had found which had turkey sign scratched over turkey sign. A fellow hunter had given me a tip on how to approach this spot and with willing ears, I took it all in. The birds were here to say the least. I got set up with my decoys out and started out with some soft calling. Daylight came and I picked up the pace a bit . I did a few cut-n-runs and a thunderous gobble cut me off. I would call and he would hammer. We had a good relationship going. It didn't matter what I threw at him, he gobbled. I noticed the bird was going back and forth so I figured I had hung him up before I ever even got him to move an inch. He would come in closer, and them move back away.

This went on for a couple of hours it seemed and I couldn't take it anymore. I had to make a move. Between me and the bird was a thick pine thicket, but had a quiete and easy path around it which would lead me in close without being detected. I got set up again, this time, no more than 50 yards away through the brush. I sat for another hour with the bird gobbling at anything I threw at him. This bird was on fire! On fire, yes, but still not moving an inch. I decided that the only way that I would get a legitimate shot at this mature tom was to sneak around behind him, shut up, let him leave, and bushwack him. Ok, so I was desperate.

I did just that. I belly crawled around the thicket and in behind the bird. This time I had gotten really close. The bird strutted away and I knew that when he came back across, I would have a good shot at him. I crawled in to where I wanted to be and just as I raised up to my knees, I saw it.

Without knowing exactly where I was, I had made my way back into the thick covered area that hosted a couple of houses. I had noticed a week back that the owners of one of the houses was building a gigantic dog kennel. I was assuming they raised puppies of some sort and didn't think anything about it. Come to find out, they were raising turkeys! I had just spent the last four and a half hours working a pinned turkey! Embarrassed doesn't even begin to describe what I felt when I saw that. I knew at that very point that this was going to be a long season.

So I guess you're wondering what happened with the guy that gave me the "tip" on where to go. I saw him a week or so later. He pulled up and with a huge sneaky grin and said, " Hearing any birds gobble"? I kept my composure the best I could and replied, "Nope, not a one". It was a nice little prank, in which I could appreciate so I just left well enough alone!