If you spend enough time turkey hunting, sooner or later you’re gonna walk up on a bird you didn’t see first.
And when that happens—well, most folks are ready to throw in the towel and call it a busted hunt. But I’ve learned over the years that sometimes, those “busted” hunts aren’t busted at all—if you play it smart.
Here’s a quick story from this past weekend that proves it…
Story time...
We were down to the wire of three days of hunting and couldn’t buy a gobble from hen’ed up turkeys and cold weather. Infact, it was like all the turkeys had crawled into stump holes and vanished.
We were on our way out to the truck to head home when lo and behold, we walk up on a few gobblers and Jake’s.
Of course, they saw us before we saw them and they were a little spooked running off to hide with there buddy’s.
My son was down in the dumps with shattered dreams of a longbeards over his shoulder.
I told him "let’s go" he looked confused and we made a little loop and gave them about 15 min to settle down and a few yelps later two longbeards slipped in and he killed a fine longbeard to show for his patience.
Turkeys don’t know what we are, and they actually forget pretty quick, so just because you walked up in amongst a flock and scattered or spooked them doesn't mean it’s over!
Give them some time to settle down and usually go back to doing turkey things and you might just walk out of the woods with a gobbler over your shoulder.
The only thing that usually beats you in the turkey woods is that brain 🧠 between your ears.
It gets me as well sometimes.
By the way the old 1.75 Crystal and the Country Girl mouth yelper is what I used to convince these turkeys to come check us out! 😉🦃
***
The longer I chase these birds, the more I realize: the biggest thing working against us out there usually isn’t the turkeys—it’s our own thinking.
If you stay patient and give those spooked birds a little time, you’d be surprised how often they’ll settle right back down and give you another chance. That’s exactly what happened on this hunt, and I was proud to see my boy stick with it and get it done.
And when the moment came, that trusty 1.75 Crystal and Country Girl Mouth Yelper did the job just right.
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Next time you think the hunt is over—remember this one. The only brain you have to beat most days is your own.
See y’all in the woods,
~ Lyle 🦃