It’s almost the weekend! Who’s excited? Last weekend was my first turkey hunt of the season, and although we didn’t bag a tom, we had a great time and quite an eventful morning. We headed  to Walterboro on Friday afternoon to our destination – Deux Cheneaux Plantation. It is such a beautiful place, and we made sure to get there a few hours before dark so that we could wander around and explore. There are dozens ofguineafowl roaming the grounds – and I’m telling you – those are the silliest birds I have ever seen (or heard). They provided entertainment all on their own. We also spotted a pretty little blue bird, and another, more ominous creature.

Bright Dark and early we arose, putting on our gear and heading to the woods. Once the decoys were out, we settled in to watch the sun come up and {hopefully} see a turkey or two. We were actually sitting in a ground blind set a few yards into some brush, which aided in our camouflage and comfort. You can fit a couple of these in there… Not too shabby, huh? Sure enough, about 5 minutes after it was light enough to see past the decoys, we saw a turkey fly down from its roost. It was a little too dark to tell if it was a hen or a gobbler at that distance, though. We watched it for a few minutes before it wandered off out of sight. Darn.

Around 7:30, my dad spotted movement straight ahead of us. By the time I saw where he was looking, 3 turkeys came waddling out of the woods. They got close enough to tell that there were 2 gobblers following a hen, but stayed out of range for a shot. One gobbler lingered at the edge of teh woods for a minute or so – was he going to change his route and come to our decoys? I wish. Those gobblers only had one thing on their mind chasing after that hen, they hardly even noticed our decoys, much less had any idea that there were hunters in a blind nearby. Alas, they scooted into the woods after the hen, and we were left with our thoughts again. No matter what hen calls are hit, or what decoys you have out, sometimes it’s just impossible to beat the real thing.

Around 8:30 or 9 we decided to get out of the blind and go check out a few more fields, hoping to walk up on a few birds and maybe get a shot. But, after almost an hour of searching, we came up empty handed. Not one turkey was seen or heard. Still holding our heads high that we at least saw 4 turkeys, we headed back to the gators to ride back to the house. We were about 200 yards away from the vehicles, chit chatting away about the morning, when I spotted a big brown mass to our right through the woods. For a second, I thought I was seeing a dog or something, until the mass slowly rotated and I saw that tell-tale gobbler head amid the layers and layers of feathers when he’s in a full strut. I dropped down and began frantically trying to whisper and wave at the others, most definitely looking like a crazy person in my excitement. We huddled down behind some bushes at the edge of the road to watch, hitting the call to see if we could turn him. A minute later, we spotted another gobbler in full strut, even bigger than the first. We sat for almost 25 minutes watching these two guys show off for the ladies. At about 300 yards (and across a ditch) away, it was hard to keep them all in sight the whole time, so we’re not positive if we saw 3 or 4 (2 gobblers + a hen or two), or if those were the same turkeys that cruised by us earlier in the morning. Nevertheless, it was quite an entertaining morning, and there was ultimately no lack of activity. Once the turkeys wandered out of site, we called it a morning and headed in. Ahh… that’s why they call it hunting!

Even though no one pulled the trigger, I certainly am not going to complain about our hunt. I don’t even have to take a gun with me to have a good time “hunting” – seeing is major part of the fun. Don’t get me wrong, my trigger finger is extra itchy after this hunt. But, if anything, the lack of a kill just made me more excited to go again. Until next weekend, jive turkeys –  gobble, gobble!