Spring Turkey Season! It’s like Hunter’s New Year!

Getting the drop on some spring thunder chickens after winter’s thaw is how many hunters across the country ring in their New Year in the outdoors.  It gets a hunter’s blood pumping again; out there in the crisp, cool mornings. Of course it is up north and east where the cool crispness is. You’ll see that hunting the Rio Grande Turkey in South Texas is much different than it is anywhere else in the country.   

Pre-dawn elements during March, in the subtropical, semi-arid regions of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, offers you an early taste of what the day will typically bring. The warm, humid end to the evening’s darkness leaves no doubt it’s going to be downright hot today!

It is mid March and I am stepping out of the truck while the balmy darkness still looms and it gives you further concern. Old Mr. No Shoulders makes even the bravest man a little nervous. Texas has 10 species of rattlers. The diamondbacks are plentiful and can reach over 7 feet in length down here.  Nothing spookier than walking in the South Texas brush and hearing the buzz of the rattles on a diamondback rattlesnake. If it was a rainy winter and the buffelgrass is waist high, it makes it even worse. Needless to say, they can ruin a good time in a heartbeat. Checking to make sure the ground was just sandy loam and not a slimy minion of Satan, I lowered the tailgate, sat down and waited for my two hunting partners to exit the truck and join me.

It’s amazing how much equipment it takes to go hunting nowadays, when you have two hunters and a cameraman headed to the brush. BCM producer Seth Johnson, of Murfreesboro, TN, and I were focused on bagging a turkey double this morning. Cameraman Tom Pinkston from Cordova, TN, was going to catch the action for BCM on our new Sony NX5U camera. We had what seemed like a truckload of equipment, but we were ready and excited to begin.

Turkey hunting is pretty new to me. I only recently was bitten by the “thunder chicken” bug.  A couple of years ago, soon after my association with Seth, it took one turkey hunt and I was more than curious. Watching and experiencing the excitement of Seth, as well as the turkey, made me a believer there was something there to discover.

My friends and associates in South Texas used to snicker at the turkey-fanatics from the Southeast. They would come down here to the Novillos Ranch and go on-and-on about turkey hunting back home and how it was such a great outdoor adventure and such a skillful art. We just didn’t relate; we didn’t feel it like they did.

The rare turkey I had killed, prior to being bitten by the turkey-hunting bug, was usually in the fall while deer hunting. It was Seth who showed me the finer art and the thrills involved in REAL turkey hunting. It all started when he had needed to do some extra filming for BCM and said since he was coming down anyway, did I know where we could get a couple Rio Grande turkeys. To added, “it could get some footage that would be a great addition.” His plan was to invite His good friend and world class-turkey caller, Adam Lauderdale from Alabama, bringing some gobblers in close and harvest them for the show. Sounded great to me, so I called a longtime family-friend, rancher Kent Weaver.

The Weaver Ranch, northwest of Raymondville, Texas, is located near the famed King Ranch. We headed out the first morning on the Weaver and Adam was exactly-as-billed. I was witnessing a true artist as he immediately, utilizing a diaphragm, called in two turkeys up close and personal. Seth’s gobbler came in fast and furious showing highly-excited aggression.  Adam’s big bird showed maturity and experience. He was slow and precise as he put on an excellent show of strutting-courtship. The action of the birds, the way they responded to his call; the excitement in the air made a change in me immediately. I definitely had a new-found respect for spring turkey hunting.

As a lifelong rattler who loves bringing the bucks to rattling-horns, watching Adam do basically the same to turkey really grabbed my interests. I found myself an instant fan and a willing student of the art. I had to get me some of this action, too!

Now that I am good-n-hooked and can’t get enough of the thunder chickens, it’s  2011 and spring turkey season is here! We were standing in the dark on the Novillos Ranch just west of a food plot where I had scouted a few turkey roosting.  The Novillos is known for monster bucks, not for turkey. Historically scant in number, the last few years have shown growth to hunt-able populations.

The anticipation is high and I have to chuckle to myself a little, seeing the irony; from many years of being a nonbeliever to currently being as excited as a kid at Christmas! Seth is flitting around and, as usual, excited about the possibilities.

We hear a few gobblers in the direction of our destination. Seth’s face lights up. He’s glowing in the dark! It is always fun to hunt with Seth and share his enthusiasm. You could see that his “Alabama kill mode” was about to kick into high gear. When that starts, you better get out of his way and the cameraman had better be on his toes or he will miss the opportunity. It’s the tell-tale signal that something is about to die, and die fast!

We start our walk in the dark to get set up for the hunt.  Seth and I walking side by side, and Tom behind us with the new camera on his shoulder. We get to the food plot and gingerly open the chains on the gate and ease into the east fencerow. The birds are gobbling their heads off not two- to three- hundred yards to our right. We pick the spot and Seth and I sit shoulder to shoulder, me on his right.

Seth is also using a new Custom Benelli shotgun by Rob Roberts Gunworks.

 ( http://www.robrobertsgunworks.com/  ) 

I, too, am using my Benelli. After this weekend, I’ll be sending it to Rob Roberts for a custom-works. That’s for another story. We’re hunting!

Tom has the position he wants to capture both turkey and hunter’s view. As the sun starts to brighten the eastern skies and casting longer shadows, we are serenaded with more intense gobbles. The breathing to my left is getting louder as the “Alabama Kill mode” is rising.  Tom, pulling a double-duty, is not only operating the camera. An accomplished turkey-caller in his own right, there was another reason we have invited him on this week-long “work” session. Tom signals it’s time to get the gobbling-gobbler’s attention. Time to let them know there are some ladies in the food plot in need of their attention and entertainment.

After a variety of shills and hustles with the mouth call, we can hear the commotion of fly-downs and know that the gobblers are definitely en route. This, of course, translates into more intense breathing; but this time I realize it’s me and not Seth’s. I smile to myself again; in my mind’s eye I was looking at me sitting here excited to be hunting turkey. TURKEY?! I can also see I am so helplessly hooked on spring turkey hunting.

A few more well-placed clucks and putts from Tom and three huge, mature gobblers are on top of us just outside the food plot fence. With the underside of the fencing open to two feet, access to the plot is made easy for the gobblers. Without obstruction and females on the brain, the birds begin showing indecision. They know crossing into the plot is where to find a mate. What a sight! They just need to do it!

Our decoys are enticing them to strut and spit and drum. The show was picture perfect, but not for a harvest-shot.  Too much brush and fence between us, at this point. They needed to come under the fence. Two of the birds are dominate and one is hanging back a bit. After an excruciating wait, the subordinate bird ducks his head and comes under the fence. That’s all it took for his two buddies to follow suit. They were not going to let the youngster get the first choice of our two decoys.

As they move around into full view from behind a mesquite limb, the three birds were in full strut and spitting and drumming again like crazy. And to my left, the “Alabama kill mode” was at boiling-point! It had been agreed that Seth would shoot first; if the chance presented itself, I would take the second bird. The chance that we could possibly have our double loomed large!

 Both Benelli’s were fixed on the gobbler’s white heads as they spun, strutted and jockeyed for position showing off for our two decoys. My heart was pounding in my chest; Seth was chomping at the bit and Tom holding us both off as he captures some awesome footage of turkey courtship a mere 15 yards in front of us. If Seth said it once, he said it 10 times; “Tom? You got him? Tom? Are you ready?” Finally Tom gives us the go-ahead and Seth and I agree on which birds our Benelli sights will be fixed. 

When Seth’s bird gave him the perfect head shot, Seth smoked him! As the taken-gobbler hit the ground, the other two shot straight up and collided chest-to-chest in mid-air. As they descended and hit the ground, the two split into opposite directions with my bird running left. All my previous “bird hunting instincts” had been to shoot my prey in the air. My sights never left the gobbler and it took all the self-discipline I had not to shoot that bird in flight. As he ran left, he made that fatal mistake; he stopped to look back at his fallen brother. With the sights square on his head I squeezed the trigger, the Benelli roared; he did a back-flip from the impact and it was over! Two huge, long-bearded gobblers lay on the ground. We had our double!

Whoops, hollers and congratulatory back slaps done, we were headed back to the truck with another great brush country memory. Brush Country Monsters had their rare double and another successful hunt filmed for the show. Seth had a grin from ear-to-ear and kept talking about how after all his years of hunting thunder chickens, he had never had a double. His excitement was fun to watch. And, I have to admit, my excitement was in overdrive as well.

Lamar Smith and Seth Johnson with their Novillos double!

This Texan is now a certified turkey fanatic and hooked on Spring Turkey hunting and looking forward to many more years of hunting the thunder chicken here and all over the country.  Guess it’s not always true what they say about “teaching old dogs new tricks.”  I have been transformed and recruited.

Thanks to Tom Pinkston, aka “Dude!”  Tom’s expertise in turkey-calling made it irresistible for those gobblers.

Also, we are grateful to Rob Roberts for the excellent Custom Benelli shotgun.  My Benelli will be headed to your shop soon to become a Rob Roberts Custom Turkey slayer!

Also thanks to E Craig Smith for editing this story. I told the story and Craig, as he so delicately puts it, “ De-Jethro-ed it” (Jethro Bodine of Beverly Hillbillies Fame)

Images and Files: View all 2 photos / videos here.