Rocky Top Game Calls

Me and my best little helper








My bird's weight



Hanging on the scale

I bow hunted this morning and had the same bird I chased yesterday coming to my set-up. This hunt was on the farm where Channing killed a stud of a bird last year.

He was about 120 yards out, gobbling just the other side of a rise in a huge hayfield. I was sitting in a depression, against a big rock at the woodline along the hayfield, in the direction he went yesterday. After he was gone yesterday I had gone back in and prepped this spot as a bow set-up. As he approached, a tractor pulled into the next field and started discing He shut up.

I made a loop around where he had been gobbling, and toward another field they like to strut in right after fly-down. I held up in a woods 60 yards off the field edge and heard him gobble 3 times in the field. With a gun I would have crawled toward the field until I could see him, got on a tree, and called to him. With my bow, having to be much more picky in my set-up, I picked out a pretty open spot in the woods with a couple of other big trees in front and to each side of me (so I could draw when his head was behind one of those trees), set a deke in a 2-track that entered the woods from the field he was in, and gave a series of calls. 45 minutes and 2 more series of calls later I still hadn't heard him gobble yet so I looped again. (As I picked up my deke I found 3 morels ) This time I got too lazy, and cut the corner of a field en route to another place they like to strut. He was in the field and busted me, along with about 4 girlfriends and a pile of deer

Rather than keep chasing and bumping a bird I think I can kill tomorrow morning, I bailed for another property.

I called from a couple of spots and got no reply, so I headed home. While driving home I saw a few birds on one of my spots. They were at the north end of a woods and headed west. I knew where they were headed, but would have to hustle to cut them off.

5 minutes and a half mile of 2-track later I stepped off the north side of the 2-track, headed toward where the birds should be going; the corner of a large field, bordered on the south by the woods the 2-track cuts through. 40 yards into the woods I bumped a bird. Hoping it was a hen on a nest, and assuming she would stay in cover rather than run into the field and bump the toms, I slowed down but continued toward the birds. The woods there is thick, and does not make for a good set-up to call. I was hoping to make the field edge, spot the birds, and call them to me.

At about 70 yards from the field edge I saw a tom, about 20 yards into the field, strutting. Not wanting to try a bad set-up in such a thick woods I crawled toward the bird and the field edge, peeking up next to trees to keep track of the birds (there were 3; 2 lb's and a jake).

About 40 yards later I could see that the birds were in the thick woods with me, leaving the field about 30 yards to my left. One head popped up at about 40 yards, so I let him get behind a tree, came up to my knees, and waited. When he stepped into a hole I was going to raise my gun and kill him. Just as I began to move my hand on my gun I heard PFFFT HUMMMMMMMMMMMMM. The bird I could kill was not strutting. Hoping the strutter would be the dominant, bigger bird I got greedy and held out. Meanwhile, the bird I could kill sees me but does not know what I am and starts to get nervous. The strutter drummed 2 more times, and finally came up right behind the other bird. I clucked to get him to come out of strut and shot him when he stretched out his neck.

It was a tough shot, about 35 yards through a small hole and still with a bunch of crap in the way. At the shot he flew about 10' straight up in the air and ran back to the field. I ran to the field with him, watched him run 3 small circles, then stand there in a daze. I shot him again to finish the job.


22lbs 6oz (Turkey Tote in pics weighs 2 oz)

9 1/2" Beard

1 1/8" and 1" spurs

Not a giant by any means, but a really nice bird and a heckuva fun hunt

I was going to try harder with my bow, but I still have at least 3 guys with tags, plus some southern visitors that will be here tomorrow, not to mention 2 OH tags still burning a hole in my pocket. It was good to kill him and get my MI bird out of the way.

I'll be just across the border in Ohio in the morning. It will only be my 3rd try down there this year, but they've been kicking my butt so far. I just don't have much access yet, and everything I'm making gobble is on the wrong side of a fence or road.

Great story and good pictures. I am meeting Chris in a few hours and we are headed North. I will call you when we get close if I don't hear from you before..