Kom ind i flokken og lav en masse larm

[ran]

June 4.th 2006
'Get in there amongst 'em, then yell ...'

By Bobby Cleveland
bcleveland@clarionledger.com

My introduction to fall turkey hunting came on a very cold December morning in Tunica County, and began with a statement I'll never forget.

"They've been roosting down there in that hardwood bottom, over a hundred of them, up in those trees, so what you need to do is go down there, get in the middle of them, then make all the noise you can to bust 'em up," my host said.

"Once you get in there amongst 'em, yell and scream, whatever it takes to make them scatter."

An odd assignment, I thought, for a turkey hunt, but one I could handle better than being quiet like one must when hunting turkey in the spring.

So, off I went into the darkness of the Delta dawn, down into the bosky bottom, laughing as I walked, trying to decide exactly what I'd yell. That's when it hit me. Why yell at all? I was carrying a 12-gauge noise maker ...

SCATTERIN' THE FLOCK

I slipped in quietly and could see the black blobs high above me - turkeys, by the scores in each tree - against the sky.

Getting dizzy from looking up as I walked, I quit counting at 50 birds, and wasn't halfway through the flock. I leaned on a tree, waited for daylight and then picked out a big blob on a low limb ...

BAM! As that bird fell from the limb, I started screaming and yelling as hundreds of wings started flapping, turkey voices erupted in excited cackling and birds flew off in every direction.

I collected my turkey, a fat ol' hen and was holding it up when my partners walked up.

"Cleveland, you @&%#, you aren't supposed to shoot them."

Well, hey, a bird in the hand...

BRINGING 'EM BACK

The next course of action was for us to set up in the middle of the bottom and call the birds back.

We chose a thicket, fixed up a few blinds and sat down. After everything settled, my two partners started whistling and making a call I'd only heard in calling contests, the kee-kee.

"That is a gathering call," one of them said. "It's what they say when they want to tell their buddies, 'here I am, where are you?' "

We were sitting with our backs together, giving us a 360-degree view of the woods. They called, I listened and we all watched.

Within 10 minutes, I saw a blue head bobbing above the brush. A hen was coming, which I whispered to my pals.

"How many?" one said.

"Just one," I reported.

"Then wait, because once we shoot this is over," he said.

The hen came right to me, and when she was about 20 yards, I heard a distant kee-kee and then another and suddenly we were surrounded by blue heads.

"Everybody got a hen they can shoot?" came the question.

"OK, then on the count of three, let's do it. One, two, three ..."

Three turkeys hit the ground, but 50 took off running. That's how many had come back.

OK, so there was no strutting or gobbling, which makes spring hunting so addictive. But fall hunting is fun in its own way, and can be very productive.

.....når bare man har nok penge og krudt.....så går det ikke aldrig helt galt :-)

Favourite Quote: Vi løser ikke vore problemer ved at tænke på samme måde, som da vi skabte dem.....(Albert Einstein)