The Gobbler Crawl

Ben has never shot a turkey and today was his time to shine and get the turkey fever in his blood.  We were all set up with a bow in hand and decoys set up on a freshly new corn field.  It was a prime set up with the shade on our side of the field edge.  We thought we were going to out smart them and throw a little party with 7 different decoys in front of the blind.  We kept hearing a gobble across the road and after 2 hours of patiently waiting our patience ran out.

We walked along side the edge of the field to the road to find our excited gobbler with a big group of birds.  We were going to switch gears and grab the bang bow and go after that group of birds.

As we were heading back to the truck to put some of the gear away, we were also discussing how to approach and attack this group of birds.  We slowly drove a short distance to see if the birds were still across the road but they must have walked just out of sight and over the ridge because we could hear them gobbling.  A perfect chance for the 3 of us to see if we could pull off the decoy stalk.

We finally got a chance to make a move after an hour or so of watching and studying their movements.  We all got in position and Ben grabbed the thunder chicken and started his belly crawl towards the birds as Todd and I could only watch.  There was a little ridge that we had in front of us, so we could not see everything happening as Ben was stalking the big Toms.  Ben crawled in the hot sun about 80 yards with his strutting decoy in one hand and his shotgun in the other.   Todd and myself were discussing weather we should have Ben back up and we all try circling the Toms and getting in front of them for a shot.

As Ben was backwards crawling out of sight of the Toms, he suddenly stopped and said " there coming and coming fast."

He stuck the decoy hard in the ground and took aim behind the decoy as if he were a sniper looking for that perfect shot.


The birds were committed to the decoy and we could only hope we could see the birds on camera before he let's one have a lead snack.




"Booooom" the gun sounded off and Ben had his first ever Turkey on the ground and it was with a high intense stalk that we all wish we could pull off for that rush of adrenaline and a memory that will last a life time. 


The actual kill was not caught on tape but the footage was still pretty good and it shows the hard work and excitement that went into this hunt.



Congrats Ben on your first big Gobbler. Todd and I are glad you let us join you on your first turkey hunt and a successful one as well.