It was about 5:30pm when I made my way across the creek and set up on the edge of a freshly planted field, surrounded by prairie grass with mature trees encompassing. I put out my looker hen decoy and sat down against a tree in the tall grass about 25 yards from where the decoy sat. A storm had just moved through and the weather was now just right. I grabbed my fly down wing from my vest and began scratching in the leaves like a feeding hen would. Not 20 minutes later I saw the painted purple, red, and white head of a strutted appear over the hill about 80 yards away. He was soon followed by 3 jakes and another gobbler. As soon as they saw the decoy they came in at half strut practically on a dead run. As they went behind a bush I shouldered my Benelli and waited. They strutted out of view for a few minutes and then the mature gobblers slow walked straight to the decoy. I picked out the left one, waited for a clear shot, and then squeezed the trigger on the 20ga. The bird folded as the other gobblers ran for cover.
After 2 and a half weeks of season finally the stars aligned. You may have noticed that I didn't mention any yelling or purring with calls. That's because I didn't. Those birds came in to the scratching in the leaves solely.
Patience has killed a lot of turkeys and curiosity has killed even more.
Don't be afraid to switch up your tactics. Nothing is going to work every time but, when something finally does you'll have that memory for a lifetime.
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