Last Weekend's Western Oklahoma Turkey Hunt

DieselTiger and I headed up to a lease my dad and I got on this year to make a turkey hunt. Dad had hunted it for turkey before but this was the first time either of us had gone for turkey (I bowhunted there for deer in Oct.)

We made the 14 hour drive on Thursday and arrived at around 4pm. We unloaded the truck and made a quick trip out into the field around 5:30. That afternoon I decided to go sit along a fence line and hope to catch a bird walking the edge back to roost. We hadn’t been seated for too long when I spotted 5 turkeys making their way into the field. We watched these birds for a while then they headed off to the North, off property.

We walked over to an area I thought the birds would end up and hope they’d make their way to roost. We spotted some strutting birds on a hillside and stopped to watch. They field just started filling up. More and more showed up until we had roughly 15 toms, 10-15 jakes, and 30 hens all in the field. They were strutting, fighting, feeding, and breeding. I have never seen anything like it. They made their way to these two big oaks, close to the property line but in the neighbor’s field. Every one of those birds flew up into those two trees. It was an incredible sight to see.

The next morning, we obviously set up near that roost tree, in the corner of our lease, in hopes that the birds would fly down into the field and make their way to us. The amount of gobbling we heard that morning would give chills to even the most seasoned turkey hunter. They all started to fly down into that big green field and we just sat and waited. The hens were leading the group. With that many birds we thought it best to pretty much sit quiet. The flock split and I thought I’d try calling up the hens to get them to come our way. Didn’t take long till my calling had a hen responding; I just kept cutting her off with louder yelps and purrs. She was pissed. She lead a flock of about 10 into the woods where we were. Everything worked to plan except for my execution of said plan. The hens were at 50 yards standing on a little berm looking for the hen that was calling. Two gobblers were closer, about 35-40 yards, but never put their head up at the same time. I got greedy. By the time I decided to tell Diesel to just take the one he could, the birds were walking off and never offered a shot. That was all on me. My goof up.

But here is where the fun begins. We get into some rows of trees and make our way down the line looking for birds in the field. I spot 2 heads sticking up above the grass. Instantly I thought we were busted. Looked like 2 miniature periscopes. Well they went back to feeding and we instantly took cover in the shade of a cedar tree/shrub. We glassed the birds from about 80 yards for a few minutes trying to determine if there was a mature gobbler in the bunch. Then we saw a full tail fan go in to strut. We had the bird we were looking for. We decided that the best plan of action was to belly crawl to a shrub that was 50 yards from us and in direct line of the birds, so we were hidden. If you are familiar with Western Oklahoma or the Eastern Texas Panhandle, you know that everything that grows has stickers on it. So this crawl felt a whole lot longer than 50 yards! The whole time we are crawling I just kept imagining getting to the tree and not seeing a single bird around. When we got there and peeked up, we were more than happy to see that the turkeys were still where we last saw them and didn’t have a bit of worry to them.

Diesel moves into position, on the side of the tree, in the shade, with brush covering us for the most part. I grab the video camera and get behind him, attempting to catch the shot. I lift the camera up through the limbs and turn the view finder down. I am watching it all through a little 3 inch screen. We wait a few minutes and the turkeys start moving to the right, into a window where he could shoot. I see 3 jakes cross before I see the tom step into the gap. I gave a quick loud cluck sequence and the gobbler lifted his head up enough for the shot. BOOM! Diesel made a perfect shot and the big gobbler was flopping. His first ever turkey was down!




The next morning we set up in the same spot but no luck there. The flock stayed out in the big field then headed north and away from the lease. We spotted a lone gobbler that we thought would be workable but his position and ours made it tough. We were 400 yards apart and there was nothing between us but short grass. We attempted a long, round about approach but he was gone by the time we were close.

Back at the camp having had lunch, I laid down for a nap, dad went scout for deer. At 12:45 Dad calls and says, “just heard a turkey gobble, get your stuff and come this way if you want to try to get on him.” I hop up from the sofa and we go. We walk around slowly listening and looking. We jump about 15-20 bedded deer and though it was over. As we sit there talking, the deer must have run by the turkeys because we hear a gobble. 150 yards at the most. I get to a cedar tree and make a light call… silence. I decide to move up 20 yards to the next cedar. Midway, I hear the light yelp of a turkey and hit the ground on one knee. Diesel is right behind with the camera and shotgun. No sooner than I hit the ground I see a head walking left to right. I can’t distinguish tom from jake but I can tell what is a hen vs male. I let the first 4 pass hoping one just gives me something to say, yeah he’s the gobbler. As I’m watching this one head I see 2 bright red heads just to the left that are crossed. I waste no time and decide that’s the unlucky bird, birds in this case. BOOM! 2 birds down!

I was hoping for a mature gobbler but I am thrilled with this hunt and the opportunity to bag two turkeys with one pull of the trigger. (And do it in an ethical manner. They were close and the heads are almost touching)
















random picture of an attempted bow hunt on the last evening