Post by grizz1 on Apr 20, 2009 22:58:33 GMT -5
Monday,April 20th, opening day of turkey season in Missouri. At 5:45AM I had made the 1/2 mile walk across the field behind my house, found a tree to sit by and soon heard 3 Gobblers sounding off. It was calm, clear with a crescent moon, a perfect morning. The owls were keeping the birds talking,so I only gave a few soft yelps as I could hear hens close by. The birds flew down and worked their way toward me, coming in from the North instead of the East as I had hoped. My hiding place was not the best with an open field behind me but by remaining motionless it should work.
At 6:15 it starts downhill for a successful turkey hunt, the Tom cat that came to my house a few weeks ago has followed me to the woods and wants to sit with me. I tried to scare him off but he would jump, run and come right back.The turkey were still inching my way so I decided to wait them out with my cat. The cat was getting into the hunt for sure and seemed to like the purrs and clucks I gave on my call and would raise up to try to see the turkey when they answered. A few minutes of silence and the cat whips his head hard toward the West, and I can sense something close. The cat starts acting nervous and got low to the ground so I'm thinking trophy Gobbler straight behind me. I hear steps, then a chewing sound and something breathing right on top of me. By now the cat has almost went underground, he's as low and flat as he can get with almost a terrified look on his face. I figure it's one of my cows or a curious calf so I kept looking toward the sounds of the turkey.
Then all heck breaks loose as the cat growls, a deer five feet away snorts making six other deer snort and run in every direction. The cat runs toward the turkey and they become silent, I stand up to look around and here come the cows to check out all the activity.
As I walk back to the house with the cat I have bad thoughts about him, blaming him for the bad hunt. The deer needed to take some blame too and the cows didn't help matters much either. After returning home I fed the cows and got my other morning chores done, went to the East farm and checked for turkey but only saw jakes and hens. Needing to work on my cattle corral and the wind starting to blow hard, I decided that should be the project at hand when I got home and had a snack and much needed coffee.
Nine AM, coffee cup in hand I walk out the door to start my work. There he was, the long spurred, bearded bird I was after early this morning, stutting right beside the tree I had hid behind. Work was cancelled, gun in hand I went after him , this time no cat following . I hunted until 1 PM ( season closed) sometimes I got sorta close but most of the time the old bird was a very safe distance away, moving constantly with his 4 hens. In the 4 hours I hunted him after I ditched the cat, we went over 4 hills, 2 creeks and about 200 acres ending up about where we started at 5:45 AM. The wind was blowing 30 MPH, I could see him gobble but could not hear him. The old bird just outsmarted me today, CAT or no CAT,I never got a shot. I'll give him a couple days and see how it goes for him later in the week.
At 6:15 it starts downhill for a successful turkey hunt, the Tom cat that came to my house a few weeks ago has followed me to the woods and wants to sit with me. I tried to scare him off but he would jump, run and come right back.The turkey were still inching my way so I decided to wait them out with my cat. The cat was getting into the hunt for sure and seemed to like the purrs and clucks I gave on my call and would raise up to try to see the turkey when they answered. A few minutes of silence and the cat whips his head hard toward the West, and I can sense something close. The cat starts acting nervous and got low to the ground so I'm thinking trophy Gobbler straight behind me. I hear steps, then a chewing sound and something breathing right on top of me. By now the cat has almost went underground, he's as low and flat as he can get with almost a terrified look on his face. I figure it's one of my cows or a curious calf so I kept looking toward the sounds of the turkey.
Then all heck breaks loose as the cat growls, a deer five feet away snorts making six other deer snort and run in every direction. The cat runs toward the turkey and they become silent, I stand up to look around and here come the cows to check out all the activity.
As I walk back to the house with the cat I have bad thoughts about him, blaming him for the bad hunt. The deer needed to take some blame too and the cows didn't help matters much either. After returning home I fed the cows and got my other morning chores done, went to the East farm and checked for turkey but only saw jakes and hens. Needing to work on my cattle corral and the wind starting to blow hard, I decided that should be the project at hand when I got home and had a snack and much needed coffee.
Nine AM, coffee cup in hand I walk out the door to start my work. There he was, the long spurred, bearded bird I was after early this morning, stutting right beside the tree I had hid behind. Work was cancelled, gun in hand I went after him , this time no cat following . I hunted until 1 PM ( season closed) sometimes I got sorta close but most of the time the old bird was a very safe distance away, moving constantly with his 4 hens. In the 4 hours I hunted him after I ditched the cat, we went over 4 hills, 2 creeks and about 200 acres ending up about where we started at 5:45 AM. The wind was blowing 30 MPH, I could see him gobble but could not hear him. The old bird just outsmarted me today, CAT or no CAT,I never got a shot. I'll give him a couple days and see how it goes for him later in the week.