By: Nicolas Beacham

The beginning of March found me in the Corunna High School media center during 6th hour trying to find out which hunts we drew. I pulled up Uncle Don’s information first and him and Rex managed to draw the second hunt. Then I entered my information and found that I drew the 3rd hunt. I was a little disappointed due to the fact that this would be the first year in three seasons that all three of us wouldn’t be hunting together.

Then more bad news for me. Uncle Don would be going from the late night shift to first shift and wouldn’t be able to take any time off work for turkey hunting. I knew I was going to be on my own. He was the guy that introduced me to turkey hunting and taught me everything I knew, now I had to use that knowledge and go on my own.

With an unsuccessful 2003 spring turkey season, I was determined to bag a tom and prove to myself and everyone else that I could do it on my own. But I knew it would take a lot of scouting , gaining more knowledge, and getting to know my equipment the best I could.

I started my scouting adventures in the middle of March. I knew where the birds were and found several good looking locations. I also discovered that there were plenty of long beards but also a very large hen population. I knew that the hens would determine rather I was going to be successful or not. After about a dozen scouting trips, I was feeling fairly good about my chances.

Then came the week of April 26th. Uncle Don and his Rex began their hunt. With over probably thirty years combined experience, neither could manage to get a bird within range. There were hunters all over the place, the birds weren’t very vocal, and they just wouldn’t cooperate. I even made it up there on a couple afternoon hunts with them. If you didn’t know better, you wouldn’t think a turkey existed in the area.

The night of May 2nd found me gathering all my gear and stuffing it into the truck so I could get a quick start in the morning. I was discouraged from the previous weeks hunt my hunting partners had but was still determined to give a 110% effort. My dad decided to take the day off work and go with me even though he had never hunted turkeys before. I think that really helped motivate me because I really wanted to get one with him along side and maybe spark his interest in the sport.

Monday, May 3rd the alarm went off at 4:30am and we were out the door by 4:45am. I arrived at the first location at 5:15am to discover two vehicles already parked there. I said “great, this figures”, and without hesitation headed to location two. I was the first one to this spot but quickly discovered it had gotten very wet over the last few days and was totally dead as far as turkeys were concerned.

I am very impatient and 6:30 found us back in the truck ready to roll to a different spot. We arrived at the 3rd location and right out of the truck I was hearing gobbles. I heard one sound off in the woods about 300 yards away. I gave some yelps and clucks on my box call hoping to get another gobble out of him but got nothing. My yelps fired up a tom that sounded off on the state land across the road. I took off down the road and got even with him on the road. He was sounding off about 80 yards away but due to a very deep ditch filled with water, I was unable to get into the woods and set up on him. Pretty soon I heard hens start cackling and they drug him away. Back to the truck!

Now it was 8:00am and I knew of a decent mid morning spot on state land that butts up to some private land. I headed there and was surprised to find nobody there. I headed to a spot the birds like to cut through and set out a jake and two hen decoys. Before I could even get my calls out I heard two different groups of birds gobbling back and forth at each other on the private land. I thought to myself “cool, there’s probably 5 or 6 toms here, I should be able to drag one in for a shot”. After sitting for nearly 2 hours, I knew these boys were not leaving the private land, even for a hen. So back to the truck again.

I spent the next 3 hours deep in the timber walking trails and doing some calling trying to get a response from a tom. I set up in two different spots to try to coax a bird in but ended up calling in a hunter on the first spot and taking a nap on the second.

Now, 1:00pm, I am exhausted and thought about heading home. As we drove around I noticed that most hunters were out of the woods and at their trucks. I said “well if they are going to give up, I’m going be the better hunter and keep at it”. As I drove down a road I came to a location I wasn’t familiar with but remembered Uncle Don telling me he worked 3 different toms in there Friday afternoon. I decided to give the spot a try while my dad decided to stay back and take a nap.

I walked the edge of a deep ditch that divided the private land from the state land. After walking about a mile down the ditch, I noticed the woods opened up quite a bit so I decided to stroll in and take a peak and possibly set up for a bit. There was ankle deep water but the land got higher the deeper you went into the woods. I got about 50 yards in and noticed the head of a hen bobbing on the edge of some grass about 80 yards out. I paused and let her get well away and I quietly moved to within about 20 yards of where she was. I was forced to sit on a tree surrounded by water and had my feet in the water. The spot looked awesome! It was about three acres of short green grass with larger trees making good shade and was surrounded by thick brush.

I decided I was going to stay here for at least a couple hours calling lightly. I called every ten to fifteen minutes alternating between the box and slate call. After about forty-five minutes I decided to give an aggressive cackle and a tom thundered behind me. I wasn’t sure exactly where he was at, I just knew he was behind me. I turned around and gave out a yelp and he gobbled again. I still wasn’t sure if he was on the state land or across the ditch on the private land. Time to make a move!

I got up and slowly moved in his direction, making about a seventy-five yard move in five minutes. I got beside a big tree and gave out a yelp to try to locate him a little better but didn’t get an answer. I decided I wasn’t going any further until I was sure of where he was at. I sat beside the big tree thinking I might have bumped him. So I decided to yelp again on the box call. THREE toms thundered off not one hundred yards away on the state land! I got my gun on my knee and reached to the right pocket of my vest to get the mouth diaphragm to try and work them within range. As I reached I glanced up and saw the heads of three long beards and a hen bobbing in the brush about seventy yards ahead. I quickly got my hand on the gun and hoped they would come in without having to coax them with a call. The trio of toms got about sixty yards away and stopped behind a small clump of trees that was about fifteen yards in front of me. I thought to myself “great, just my luck, they are behind them trees and are going to walk straight away since they cant see a hen in here.” Just then I could see the left breast of one of the toms on the right side of the clump of trees. He stepped out about thirty-five yards away in the ankle deep water, I identified the long beard, lined up the sights on the base of his neck and squeezed one of.

The big tom flopped splashing water and I quickly ran up and grabbed him out of the water. I couldn’t believe how big he was. I tagged him and looked over the magnificent bird before heading to the truck.

I practically sprinted to the truck. As I approached I noticed my dad was sleeping. I quietly dropped the tailgate and set the bird up there. I managed to work up a ticked off look on my face and went to wake my dad up and proceeded to tell him that the tailgate was broken and I needed help getting it open. He was still half asleep but managed to moan and slowly waddle his way to the back end of the truck. When he turned the back end of the truck and seen the big tom sitting there on the tailgate he quickly woke up and had the most surprised look ever on his face. We savored the moment and then headed back home to show him off.

When we got home I told my parents that I wanted to get him mounted since he beat my previous best bird (25lbs, 9 3/4” beard, 3/4” spurs). Both my mom and dad agreed that this would be a good graduation gift. After showing him off for the rest of the afternoon I took him to Looking Glass Taxidermy where he will be mounted in full strut gobbling. This is definitely a hunt to remember. He’s my best bird ever and the first bird I ever harvested alone. He was 23lbs, 10 1/4” beard, and 1” spurs.

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