One thing I have learned about turkey hunting is the more plans you have the better your chances of success are. For me this never applied more appropriately than during this years “E” week of spring gobbler season. The day started out as the last one of the season that my son Colin would be joining me for a hunt and we were both hoping it would be a memorable one.

I had spent most of my season hunting in Gloucester and Salem Counties, but this morning I had decided to try a spot in Burlington County a little closer to home.

We arose early and headed out for the short fifteen minute drive. I quietly slipped the truck into the woods with the lights off and quickly geared up. It wasn’t long before I was starting to set up in a clearing of tall pines right in the heart of an area I knew held birds. Daylight was coming quickly and I was surprised that I hadn’t yet heard any birds sounding off. In the blind I finished getting ready and waited for some sign of life from the birds, by now Colin was already fast asleep in his chair and made a perfect picture of contentment for a father passing on the heritage of the outdoors.

Sunrise came quickly and my initial surprise at the lack of turkey vocalizations had turned to disappointment when I realized that there were no gobblers excitedly sounding off from the nearby treetops. As hard a I strained I couldn’t even here a distant gobble, but this was a big piece of woods and the birds could easily have moved off far away from where I was limited to hunt. By 6:30 am I had made the decision to leave and head to some of my more Southern spots. The longer I waited the greater the chance of getting caught in traffic became, this was a week day and I had to drive some roads well known for early morning delays. I woke Colin and we were back at the truck by 6:45, we were fortunate and made it down to lower Gloucester County without a hitch. As we drove down one of the main roads that I had several prime spots off of I told Colin we were just going to quickly check some of the fields for birds and if we found some we would find a way to set up on them and try to call them in. Using the camera today was going to be difficult but we would do the best we could.

The first spot we passed I had permission on both sides of the road, as we passed the one farm house on the left I spotted about a dozen birds in the front field right by the road, and there was a real nice longbeard in full strut right in the middle. Colin had seen them too and shouted out “there’s a good longbeard, Dad.” I told him “OK we have a plan “B”; I pulled down to the entrance to the property on the right and swung around. Getting to a callable spot undetected was going to be tough. We pulled in the driveway and parked by the old barn; I got out in between the barn and the truck and gathered the gear. Slowly we slipped across the property using a small garage for cover. There was a small pond and some low thickets that would cover our approach to the edge of the field, hopefully when we got there we would be able to set up and call a bird close enough for a shot.

It had taken us about a half hour to get into a position where I could observe the field. As I peered through my binoculars I saw the full fan of the longbeard as he was walking in full strut through a hedgerow about 85 yards away. I set us up as best I could in the brush without the blind and started to call. I got no responses and could not see the birds anymore. I told Colin we might have to move up on the birds so they would think we were following them. I waited until I thought the birds had moved off enough and we slowly crossed the corner of the field. The hedgerow was thick and screened our movement from any birds that might have been looking back our way. A small stream ran down the center of the hedgerow so we were able to settle in at the base of a tree with several small shooting lanes out into the back field. At first I didn’t see any birds and thought they might have seen us moving but then I spotted four or five about sixty yards away slowly walking away from us. I gave a real aggressive series of cuts and yelps while watching the birds through my binoculars; I was hoping to get them to turn so I could identify the longbeard. There was no gobble in response to my call, though the birds I was watching did stop and look back in our direction. Again I called loud and aggressively and this time I did get a gobble, it didn’t come from my right and the birds I was watching it came from my left about 150 yards out.

I didn’t have to ask Colin if he had heard the bird, one look at the excited expression on his face told me he had. I called again and this time I got a double gobble and the bird had quickly closed the distance. This bird was hot and gobbled each time I called, he was closing the distance quickly and I had little time to try to figure out where my shot might happen. I first spotted the gobbler at about sixty yards, he was on a dead run and would cross right in front of us. I lined up on my shooting lane watching the bird through the brush, I could see the longbeard swaying back and forth as he came running in. This gobbler was so hot and moving so fast that he ran right through my shooting lane before I could get a shot off.

I quickly swung to my right and picked another opening, this time as the bird approached I gave him a short burst of yelps. The tom slowed, stuck his head out forward and gobbled; I put his head in the center of my sight and pulled the trigger. Not having come to a complete stop and having started to move forward just after finishing his gobble, the bird had moved just enough that my shot pattern went harmlessly over his back, with a flurry of beating wings the longbeard quickly left the area.

I looked for any sign of a hit but to no avail, it was a clean miss. I could see the disappointment in Colin’s eyes; I knew he really wanted us to connect on his last day out for the season. We made our way back to the truck and loaded up the gear, I told him we still had time to try to find other birds. As I prepared to pull out of the driveway I spotted birds coming out into the fields across the street, the second bird out went almost immediately into full strut, then the third bird starting strutting. A quick peek through the binoculars confirmed they were both longbeards. I said “look Colin there’s plan “C”.” The way the properties were laid out it made it possible for us to drive in and park on the piece to the right and make our way undetected to a point were two hedgerows connected and separated three fields. We had to cover about two hundred yards so I decided we were packing very light, no blind, no chairs, only my turkey vest, some cushions and the camera on a tripod. We were able to move very quickly for the first hundred and twenty five yards, then we slowed as we crept into the corner of the field we had seen the birds moving into.

I expected we would still be about a hundred yards from the birds because the field was fairly large. Sure enough out in the middle of the field were the two strutting longbeads; I was looking just past the edge of a large sticker bush barely able to see the birds. I took two steps to my left to get a slightly better view and a sudden alarm call brought my attention to four jakes that were now running down along the edge of the hedgerow away from us, they had been standing right on the other side of the sticker bush. Quickly I looked to see what the longbeards in the middle of the field were doing, fortunately for us they had not seen us but they had been alerted by the Jakes running away from us. No longer in strut the mature birds were leaving the middle of the field and headed back for the hedgerow, this was actually going to work for us. The field behind the hedgerow was thicker and we would be able to set up in the corner just on the other side in almost total concealment. I waited until the longbeards had cleared the field and lead Colin another forty yards to a good set up position.

A large sticker bush with over hanging branches made a perfect set up location. I shed my turkey vest and clipped away some branches for access from one side, the rest of the hedgerow and the higher grass in the back field gave us excellent concealment while we settled in. I set up the camera on the tripod and got Colin to sit on the cushion of my vest. In moments we had the camera rolling and I noticed a full fan in the viewfinder as I brought the field into focus. The bird was about seventy yards out and had not noticed us, Colin immediately went to work zeroing in on the bird and following it with the camera. Seconds later I was set up on a second cushion with my turkey mag. on my knee.

A quick look where the bird had been strutting revealed he had closed the distance to about fifty yards and was still coming almost right at us. Movement just in front of the gobbler gave away the hen that he was following; she was headed for the corner of the field just to our left and would bring the strutter right past us, well within range.

Suddenly a very close gobble off to our right broke the silence. I hadn’t even had a chance to make a sound from the call that I had just slipped into my mouth when four jakes appeared in the field from our right a mere 15 yards away. Another gobble from behind the jakes told me the longbeards from the front field were probable in tow. Colin had managed to swing the camera ever so discretely and had the jakes right in the middle of the viewfinder when the longbeards popped into view a few yards to their rear and slightly further out in the field.

I picked out the bird I wanted and waited for a clean shot, this time the bird crumpled at my shot. I looked over and Colin had the camera perfectly centered on the flopping longbeard. It took the other birds several minutes to leave the field as they were not sure where the shot had come from. Now as I looked over at the camera I realized the record indicator was not on, Colin had forgot to press the record button. I couldn’t really fault him though, everything had happened so fast,  it had been less than 10 minutes from the time we picked out our set up spot till I had pulled the trigger.  All things considered he had done a great job for a seven year old operating a camera for only the second time, I hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t recording until after I had shot. Even though we didn’t capture the events on film they will be forever be etched in my mind as another awesome hunt with my son, fast paced and full of excitement.

Colin’s faced beamed as we loaded the bird into the truck, the days trophy tipped the scales at 18.5 lbs, and sported 1.0 inch spurs and a 11.125 inch beard. Our last hunt of the 2009 spring turkey season had ended in success and Colin had learned an important turkey hunting lesson. Never give up and always have a plan “B”, and a plan “C”, and so on and so on….