Milt’s First Turkey

By A. Sayward Lamb

Before the spring turkey-hunting season opened in Maine, I talked with Milt Inman. We agreed we would try to go turkey hunting together. This year (2004) both of us had our names drawn in the turkey lottery. My name was drawn for the “A” season, which means I could harvest a turkey during the first and fourth weeks of May, as well as the first week of June. Milt had the “B” season, which allowed him to harvest a turkey during the second and third weeks of May and the first week of June. Each of us was entitled to do the calling for the other person, so we planned to find time sometime during the season to do this.

Milt called me one day and said it would be awhile before we could go because he had an eye infection that prevented him from going hunting. He told me he had only been once, but he hoped to go again before the season was over. Several days later Milt contacted me and said he was ready to try hunting and invited me to go along to do the calling for him. We decided to go on Friday, May 21st. I told Milt I would be down to his house about four A.M. because I like to have the decoys set out and be in place well before daylight. I arrived at Milt’s house about ten minutes of four and found Milt was about ready. In a few minutes we had packed his shotgun, our decoys, a lunch and other gear into the back of his pickup and headed out.

We had a few miles to drive before we arrived at our chosen hunting area and after a short walk from where we parked the pickup, we were setting out our decoys and got settled in, ready to wait for the gobblers to start calling. On my way down to Milt’s house I realized I had forgotten to bring my hearing aid but I didn’t feel I had time to go back home and get it. I figured I could hear them gobble, if they were near enough, and also Milt’s hearing, while impaired, is still a whole lot better than mine.

We had been waiting for about a half-hour when Milt said to me, “Do you hear them gobbling?” As it happened they were near enough so that I did to hear the turkeys. We figured they were still on their roost. The birds seemed to be behind us, back in the woods from where we were sitting. We had been sitting behind a stone wall, looking out into the field where our decoys were placed. Now that we knew where the turkeys were located, we changed our locations. I stayed near the stonewall, only faced in the opposite direction, while Milt took up a station about twenty yards out in front, and slightly to the left of where I was sitting. When the turkeys would gobble, Milt would either look my way, or nod his head, and in this way I knew he heard a turkey gobble. When he did this I would use my box call and call back to the birds. This went on for more than an hour, with the Toms moving closer our way, but never close enough for us to get sight of them. Eventually, they moved farther away. As it turned out, we never were able to entice those Toms to come within shooting distance, so we eventually decided it was wasted time to stay there. We picked up our decoys and a short time later we did see a pretty good-sized Tom feeding in front of a house. He was about two hundred yards from where we had been waiting for them.

We decided to drive to another place and try our luck in new territory. By this time it was nearly 7:30 A.M., so we didn’t bother to take our decoys. We donned our facemasks and gloves, then Milt grabbed his shotgun, while I checked to be sure I had my two hen calls and the box call with me. In a short time we were looking over some fields, but at first saw nothing. I climbed up to the top of a knoll and looking down the hill I saw a fair sized gobbler standing perfectly still, about two hundred yards away. He apparently had spotted my movement and was frozen in place. I looked behind me and noted that Milt was heading my way. When he approached, I moved back and told him to look through my field glasses and see the turkey down over the hill. All this time that turkey never moved. He stood so still, in fact, that I began to wonder if it was a decoy. After Milt looked with the field glasses, we moved back out of sight to decide our next moves.

My suggestion was for us to move closer, where we would conceal ourselves and I would use my hen call and in that way perhaps we could entice that gobbler to move nearer. I found a good place to hide down behind a rock and a small evergreen tree, while Milt moved into the woods to keep concealed while he moved downhill to get even closer to the gobbler. I made a couple of calls, a few minutes apart, but saw nothing of the Tom. I was about ready to call again when I saw the Tom strutting and displaying out in the field. In a few minutes I called with the hen call again, and this time the Tom responded by gobbling back. He became more excited and soon he was not only displaying and strutting, but he did what I call his “mating dance” by making his feet stomp up and down very fast, while pivoting back and forth, and all the while remaining puffed out in full display.

About the time this was happening I noticed a hen turkey as she came flying into the field. Soon after the hen landed, she began to head up the hill in our direction. The Tom had spotted her and soon he was following a short distance behind her. They were out of shooting range, as well as out of our line of sight. I waited for a short time, but they did not appear, so I called quietly with the hen call once again. Soon I saw the hen go walking up the hill past me in a diagonal direction. I decided to crawl back into the woods a short distance to get more concealment. I had not been there only part of a minute when I saw the Tom, who now walked past, no more than ten yards from where I had been hiding, and now he was not over twenty yards from me, as he continued down the hill. Milt was only a few feet from me, so I motioned for him to get ready. He just stood there, so I said to Milt, “Shoot! Shoot!” Milt looked at me quizzically and never moved. I walked down beside him and asked: “Didn’t you seen that Tom?” Milt inquired, “Where?” Then I told him about that Tom moving by only about twenty yards away. Milt said, “Sorry, I didn’t see him.”

As I said before, I had previously seen the hen moving uphill, so I figured we had better take a circular route out through the woods to avoid being detected by the turkeys. I felt the Tom would soon be following along behind the hen that he was interested in. Milt and I headed out through the woods, and soon we were approaching another opening where we could look out to see where the turkeys had gone. Our timing was good, because I saw the Tom just cresting the top of the knoll. Milt was slightly behind me, so I motioned for him to follow another route through the woods to get ahead of the turkeys. We hurriedly headed up the hill and soon we came to a place where we could see out into the field. I was astonished to see a hen turkey standing on the top of a rock. She was about four feet above the ground, with her head stretched out, staring at us. There was no doubt that she had seen our movements. We froze in place and then I noticed three jakes standing right beside the rock. They all had their necks stretched up, looking our way. I knew those birds had also seen our movements, but I was glad we were fully camouflaged to help minimize our movements. The turkeys were about thirty yards from us, and I glanced at Milt, expecting to see him getting ready to shoot. He was only standing in place with his shotgun off from his shoulder. I quickly motioned to the turkeys and said: “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” Milt said, “I can’t shoot that hen!” It was apparent he was only looking at the hen turkey on the top of the rock and never noticed those jakes. By this time, which was actually only a few seconds, the turkeys must have heard me and they quickly disappeared down over a slight knoll. Milt and I moved out into the opening. I was slightly ahead of him, so I peeked over the top of the knoll, and be-darned if I didn’t see the Toms still standing on the other side of a small ravine. The hen turkey was nowhere to be seen. Again I moved back and motioned to Milt to let him know the turkeys were still in sight. I would estimate they were at least forty-five yards away. My thoughts at the time were that if Milt was ever going to shoot he had better be doing it soon! I was surprised to see Milt standing still looking towards where the turkeys were standing with his gun being held across in front of him. So again I said, “ Shoot! Shoot!” With those words Milt brought the shotgun to his shoulder, took aim, and fired.

One of the turkeys dropped to the ground with it wings flapping. I urged Milt to shoot his wounded bird because it was moving but was unable to run off. Milt told me later that he couldn’t see it. Another jake, that had been standing nearby to the right of the turkey that Milt shot, all of a sudden flew straight up into the air about eight feet. It came back down and then repeated that performance three more times before it finally ran off into the woods. I had kept close eye of the turkey that Milt shot and headed directly for it. Once I arrived up to the bird, I stepped on its neck, because it was still flapping its wings. I glanced around to see where Milt was, and was surprised to see he had walked up to the top of a knoll about twenty five yards to my left. Being curious, I inquired, “What are you doing over there?” Milt answered, “I’m looking for that bird that flew up into the trees over here. He crashed into a tree and down he came to the ground. He was getting tangled up in the brush and there was no room for him to fly. He did that about three times before he disappeared down over the bank.” Then I said, “Geez Milt, I’m standing on the bird that you shot!” All Milt said was, “Really?” Soon Milt came over and I congratulated him on getting his first turkey!

Later Milt said that the two of us were like “The deaf leading the blind”. He could hear them and I could see them. Whatever the case, we made a matched pair that carried out a successful hunt. It was a fun time for both of us, and no doubt, one that we will always remember.