The Tennessee Gobbler

by Josh Grossenbacher
Zink Calls
31 March 2009

Vital statistics
Weight - #20
Beard - 10 inches
Spurs - 1 inch

This particular morning, CJ White and I were up early and working a new farm. We had hunted the property the day before, and it was flat covered up with turkey sign. Unfortunately, the birds never showed and never gobbled, so by 8 o'clock, we pulled up stakes and headed for a property we had worked two days prior.

While driving up to the gate, CJ spotted a strutter directly across from us not 100 yards from where we sat. A quick look at each other, and we began grabbing gear, guns and cameras - all, mind you, by crawling over the seats as we figured climbing out of the rig would surely spook the tom.

The plan was to use a deep ditch as cover to make our move; once across the road and into position, we loaded up and got all the electronics in place. As we had seen, the longbeard had surrounded himself with four hens. We knew we had our work cut out for us, and so decided to work the girls instead of the gobbler. The Wicked Lady got us close - yelping all the way, a hen closed to within 50 yards, but then doubled back to regroup with the flocks. Ten minutes passed and no gobbler. Staying just inside the timber, we slipped 50 yards closer; but as we were setting up, a hen started cutting and yelping not 15 yards away. I replied with a few yelps of my own, and within seconds, all four hens had passed by our location. Suddenly, we could hear the old boy spitt'n and drumm'n. One final gobble at 15 steps, and CJ had his first-ever turkey harvest on film!

The Bottom Line
This was an exciting hunt, with tons of hen-talk and close-range strutting. The key here was switching tactics - we worked the hens instead of the gobbler, and got the girls to drag him within effective range.