Photo Credit: Shane Simpson
I have been thinking about getting back to Wisconsin and hunting with my great friend Tracy Pedretti of Nature’s Voice Game Calls, since I left last spring. Why you might ask, well not because I was overly successful, rather lack of success. This was not because of the turkey action but more the fact that last season in Wisconsin I missed two turkeys in range standing still. After returning home, I was happy to find that the rear site was broken on the gun, thus the missing. Now I have missed turkeys when it was on me but this appeared to be on the equipment. Still I was bummed because Tracy had us on the birds and I had missed opportunities to fill my tag.
I had a new gun and had killed 3 tom turkeys this spring with no issues. I was Wisconsin bound. Tracy and I started the morning hunt in a place we had hunted last spring. We had turkeys sounding off in all directions. We had a few get close but not with in range and we headed off to the next place.
Hen that visited Shane Simpson, Tracy Lee Pedretti and myself while hunting in WI. Photo Credit: Shane Simpson
This area was new to Tracy as it was a farm he had only hunted once before but it looked turkey. We got set up and Tracy let out a few calls. I was still messing around with my video camera and getting settled in. A few calls in we both heard, not so far off, gobble. We both looked at each other wide eyed, the game was on. Tracy started in with yelps and the tom seemed to gobble out of respect for Tracy’s awesome calling, but he wasn’t getting closer. Tracy stepped up the calling, started calling aggressively with sharp cutting. This fired him up and he was working our way.
I had an issue with my video camera the battery was going dead fast, thus why I don’t have the video I wish I did have of this hunt. Soon I spotted the turkey’s fan coming over the hill in the timber. Over the next ten minutes he slowly worked his way into range. He was working right into our jake decoy. I had noticed he wasn’t alone, he had 4 jakes working in behind him.
Then it happened he popped out of strut and seemed to be looking at me or the jake decoy. He was at about 35 yards or so. I didn’t want to let this get messed up so I had him in my sites. Took the shot and well not sure why or how but missed. I later went back and it would appear that most of my pattern hit a tree about 10 yards in front of the tom. This miss was on me. The only thing I can think of is I flinched or picked my head up. As the turkey runs out of range, I hear Tracy say out loud (mind you he is 20 yards away) “OH NO!!!!”
I looked up and at 40 yards stood one of the jakes that had made his way in with the gobbler. I pulled up and dropped him dead. I started into a fighting purr and stayed still, the remaining jakes started beating on the jake I had just shot and then over the next 25 minutes Tracy and I called to them worked the 3 back into range. It was fun messing with them and Tracy could have easy filled his tag but elected to pass. Some may asked why I shot the jake, as I to have been known to pass on a jake.
16 pounds, 5 inch beard and 1/4 inch spurs.
Well it’s like this, after missing in 2012 and then again in 2013, I had an opportunity to fill my tag and did. I still had one more day to hunt and had another tag, the next day Shane Simpson joined us. Now that makes for a good time, we hunted the next day hard and never seem to get things going our way. We did work turkeys but luck wasn’t on our side. We had a car driving down a dead end road and scare off a tom that was working into our setup. Had a coyote run off a gobbler and then to top off the day had a gobbler come in without a gobble. He spotted us at 8 yards as he walked in from behind. Tracy tried to swing his gun on him but at first movement he was outta there.
The weekend didn’t go completely to plan but not many hunts do. That’s just part of hunting. I did however get to spend time with great friends in the turkey woods. That’s what it’s really all about anyway. I have one more trip to Kansas before I call it a season. Then it’s on to food plots and trail cams, oh yea some fishing of course.
