Let A Girl Show You How! (Becky Williams): Sometimes it Just Doesn't Work Out. (Spring Turkey Hunt)

My Week of Turkey Hunting In Review.......

I started my week of turkey hunting with so much excitement I could hardly sleep. For weeks before my hunt my husband was calling in turkeys on our property like he was a turkey himself. At one point he called a hen in to less then 20 feet from him, and she was talking right back to him. Therefore, I knew I would get a turkey during my hunt week. Well, I didn't even hear a gobble.....Nothing, on our property, I sat out everyday and called, and there was nothing. Even though a few months back we counted 70 turkeys walking passed the back of our land. So by Thursday I was rethinking my hunt and where to go and what to do. I decided to try a state park that allows hunting. I always saw turkey around the park. So Friday evening my husband and I decided to give it a shot, and holy cow!! we got gobbles before we could even sit down! A big Tom came strutting right to us, about 50 yards out. I could see him in my scope but I did not feel like the shot would end his life quick and I did not want to shoot a Tom and injure him and him run like the road runner and lose him. I waited..... and waited...... and he strutted..... and strutted, only to realize he was pacing back and forth in front of a small narrow marsh and he would not cross it. And the night ended with a strutting Tom, too far away, and a small patch of water in his way of getting to me.

Saturday couldn't get here soon enough, 4 a.m. wake up time and I was stoked. My husband Andy and I went to the same area but further down into the woods so the water would not be an issue. And BOOM, in the dark the gobbles were going on in the trees. As the sun started to rise we were in for a major surprise......We were sitting dead center in the middle of a roosting area. A Tom gobbled almost directly over me and it made me jump. Once one came down, the rest started flying as gracefully as a turkey can from the trees. But they flew into a brushy area and headed off quick. I'm sure they were up in the trees seeing us set up under them and I imagine they were thinking "yeah you asses, were outta here as soon as someone drops from a tree". And that was that.....by ten, we headed home.

Saturday evening we came back out, set up away from the roosting trees but never heard a single sound. Shooting time passed, and we headed home.

Sunday, oh Sunday. This was the day I was going to bust a Tom right in the chops. I was so determined. We set up away from the roost. It was dark and early, we could hear the gobbles. It was awesome. We would yelp and hen and there were gobbles from all around us in the woods. It was going to be glorious. Boom, sun comes up, they fly down and head away. WHAT??? Oh my gosh!! No come this way!! Come fight my Jake...... Come try to hump my hen!! Where are you all going!! (thats what I was thinking). After a couple hours, we decided to pack up and move. As we were moving we started to hear a gobble, so we replanted ourselves. He got tight lipped.....We sat for a while and here comes a hen. I put my scope on her just to watch her and because I was bored and wanted a closer look. And lookie who is the tight lipped one.....Mr. Tom following her. It was my time. I put that scope on him, he fanned out, he had a big ol'beard all protruding and hanging down his front......I clicked off my safety and said I'm gonna shoot. My husband had a slightly different view of him, and said "no", he thought another bigger Tom was walking in, and in 2 seconds my opportunity was gone. His fan went down, and he lowered his body and followed his hen into the brush and he was gone and there was not another Tom walking in. That was it. My chance had expired. I was crushed. I turned into a mean women. I put my safety back on, and gave my poor husband the death stare. I now know why he said "no", when I was ready to take the shot. He saw it differently, he thought that Tom would strut around a little longer, maybe check out our decoys, or get a rise out of the Jake decoy.... it was an unpredictable moment, that just didn't work out. I was so devastated, that I became a poor sport about it. A lesson learned, for both of us. My husband is my best friend, my favorite hunting partner, the love of my life, and I gave him the death stare because I wanted to blame someone else. It was not his fault that I didn't take the shot. Yes, he said no, but he had his reasons, and I was the one with the gun, the scope on that Toms neck and head region. Let's just say, my husband went home shortly after that...... I decided to stay in the woods for the whole day. I was going to get that damn Tom one way or another. It was about ten in the morning that this all happened. Yes, Andy left because I got bitchy (there I said it) I was a bitch to him. Plus he didn't want to sit in the woods all day, it was going to be a nice warm day and he had stuff to do at home.

After he left, I sat and stewed in my mind and decided I would make one final move. I packed everything up like I was a super hero and carried all my supplies, decoys, gun, and headed to my final spot. I got there, set up, and felt really good about it. I started to quietly make a little make shift blind around me next to the stump i was next to. It turned out more like a camo homeless shelter, but it worked. Then it got hot. Hot like hell! I looked at my phone and the weather was nearly 80 degrees. Nope, hell no, im not leaving, im determined to get this Turkey, im not going anywhere, I built this blind around me, I can survive for ten more hours. And I did, i sat there and baked, and sweated, and called, and gobbled. I saw hens a couple times....by five I was sending apology texts to my husband, begging him to come back out and sit my final evening with me. He did. We whisper talked our versions of what happened out, and all was good. We sat the rest of the evening next to a tree, calling, and complaining our assess were killing us. And that was it. Time was up. It didn't happen for me and I'm okay with it. Let me tell you, Ive never had a close call, a missed shot, the one that got away. I have been so lucky to have been able to kill every animal I wanted to, the way I've planned it. This was my first "one that got away" experience. I learned a lot sitting alone in the woods, sweating to death. I'm a hunter..... It doesn't work out every time. I learned to be a better sport.