How Many Wrongs Make It Right?
March 23, 2007
By A. Sayward Lamb
Sometimes we wonder if “We should have stood in bed?” This was the case for me this morning when I headed out just before four A.M. to go on a turkey hunt. I had only a short drive to reach the place where I chose to hunt, but my car was loaded with all sorts of camouflage clothing, along with rain gear, due to the light rain that was falling.
I planned to use three calls during this morning’s hunt. One call is a cedar box call, for gobbling. The second call is a slate call that I use as a hen call. The third call is an electronic call that has five different calls available.
Once I arrived and parked my vehicle, I immediately began to check out the many pockets of my camouflage clothing and rain gear to be sure that I had all the necessary items with me. After a quick check, I discovered that my slate call and striker were not with me; or at least I couldn’t find them. I checked through several pockets in my hunting pants and jacket again. Still not finding it, I got back into my car and drove back home to see if I had left the slate call there. After a quick search, I determined the slate call was not at home, so I returned to my parking site once again.
I still had no idea where my slate call was located, so I decided I would have to hunt this morning using only the cedar box call and the electronic call. By this time daybreak was beginning to show and I still had to walk a quarter mile to get to the site of my ground-blind. I had temporarily erected it a few days prior to the arrival of hunting season. I was carrying a backpack, containing three folding type turkey decoys. I also carried a camouflaged folding stool, as well as my twelve-gauge pump-action shotgun. By this time it was light enough so that I didn’t have to use my flashlight to see my way.
In a few minutes, I arrived at my ground blind and hurriedly set out my three turkey decoys, about twenty yards out in front of the blind. With the decoys in place, I finally got settled inside the blind and only then did I realize I had failed to bring along my cedar box call and the electronic call. I was also still trying to determine in my mind, where I might possibly have left the slate call.
One thing for sure, I was not happy with myself to be in the ground blind, without any of the three turkey calls with me. I had no choice but to walk back out to my car and pick up the two turkey calls that I knew I had left on the front seat of my vehicle. With all the exercise, I was getting quite warm, due to having to wear rainwear over my regular hunting clothes.
Rather than return to the ground blind by using the same route, I decided it would be best to take a circuitous route. This meant I would be taking about a half-mile loop. This also gave me a chance to use the gobbler call at periodic intervals, as I headed back to the ground blind. I made several stops along the way, listening closely for gobblers who might be answering my calls. During the entire loop, I never heard even one turkey, so I wondered if the turkeys were possibly holed-up, due to the rainy weather.
Once I arrived back at the ground blind, I settled in, planning to use the two calls that I knew I had with me. I don’t believe I had been sitting there for only a couple of minutes when I discovered I had placed the slate call and striker in my left shirt pocket. So, now I finally had all three of the turkey calls that I intended to use on this rainy morning. With the rain drops dripping off the trees, I had to be careful to keep the slate call from getting wet. I have mentioned before that I use powdered spruce rosin on my cedar box call and this is not affected by rainy weather, the way chalk is.
I gobbled twice, at close intervals with the gobbler call. Immediately I heard a gobbler returning my call and it sounded some distance away. I decided I had used the gobbler call enough so that the Tom should know where I was located. I simply sat still and listened closely. Even though it wasn’t raining hard, there was still enough raindrops falling onto the leaves to cause distractions and I had to pay close attention as I listened. In a few minutes I heard the gobbler again, only this time it was much closer. I quickly rubbed off the surface of my slate call to be sure it was dry. Then I used that call and made four short and light hen calls.
I placed the slate call back inside my pocket and picked up the shotgun. I didn’t even have time to get the shotgun into position before I notice two gobblers approaching my decoys at a fast pace. Both Toms stopped when they got amongst the decoys and simply stood still. I slowly raised the shotgun to my shoulder, took aim on one of the gobblers, and fired. One turkey disappeared from my view, while the other flew up into a nearby tree. I stood up, so I could see over the top of the blind and only then did I see the turkey that I had shot. It was only a few feet away, so I hurriedly made my way out of the blind, elated that I had finally done something right.
The way things were going when I first started my early morning hunt, I began to wonder if this was going to be one of those days when I couldn’t do anything right. In the end, it seems that all of my moves were the right ones, even if they didn’t seem that way, when they happened. At least the hunt ended successfully.
Copyright© 2006
A. Sayward Lamb
After a little internet searching, reading, and checking up on this stuff I found it’s a pretty well established product in Canada and hails from Quebec where they have this funny habit of speaking a lot of French. Thus the name, Jig-A-Loo, and the company’s claim it derives from a saying they have up north, “I’ve got it!” 
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