Committing to play in a Senior Softball tournament on March 29 was a great mistake for me, because on that same day, the sovereign state of Texas opened its spring turkey season. Of course, I missed opening day, but I didn’t worry because my Son, Brad said he would come over to my ranch and fill in for me. He didn’t. He went to visit his in- laws in Kentucky, so our birds didn’t get “rousted”.

Layla and I got in late last night from the tournament, went to Church and Bible study this morning, ate lunch at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant and came home. I had to sight in a rifle and after that, since I didn’t have Church Sunday night, why not go Turkey hunting and get the season opened right?

Our ranch lies in the hill country of our great state and abounds in Turkeys, so I decided to hunt in a specific place where I had scouted earlier and heard a lot of them. Choosing a spot in a creek bottom, in the shade, and putting out one hen decoy, I let the area settle down for about 15 minutes and then clucked three times. No results, so I waited a few minutes and clucked, clucked, clucked.

Next thing, up walks 2 hens and I got a good picture of one feeding along. You can see the “real” bird right behind the decoy.

Out walked a young tom with 2 other hens and I was “covered” up with big birds, 4 of them! Not hesitating, bam, the magnum 5’s at 40 yards knocked the bird down an my late season opener was a good one, after all!

This picture is interesting. The viewer can see the decoy, the dead turkey behind it and, on the right, a hen walking away. This particular hen stayed around for over 5 minutes and I finally snapped this

Not having anyone around to take a “trophy” picture, I unceremoniously took this one of the Turkey, down for keeps!

I am really blessed to have such a wonderful hunting opportunity right at my back door.