Top_Heavy's World

The gobbles led us across a small creek and onto a hill covered with huge oak trees. We slowly worked along the hill to a gravel road that ran directly under the 2 toms. "This should be good Scott, you sit on my left, that will give you the best shot" He is right handed and I thought the toms would be coming up the trail to my left to get to the road, a presumed strutting zone. The toms flew down and despite my calling, stayed too low on the hill side to see our decoy. They moved up to the road and started toward our calling. "Slowly turn behind me and shoot over my legs, both birds are coming in" I was whispering between calls. Scott needed to turn almost totally around in order to get in line with the incoming birds. I fear he moved too slowly, the birds were right on us as he tried to manuver. "Quickly roll to your knees and shoot them as they hesitate or as they start to run" Scott still wanted to see the strutting and drumming, so he tried the slow method. Mature toms are masters of detecting danger and as he shifted his weight from side to side, his waving upper body was seen and the birds busted us at 10 yards. The gig was up and this set up was over. We got up and started for another area to try and find another bird.
I was hunting with world famous and award winning artist Scott Storm. Scott was in the Cedar Rapids area for a spring turkey hunt and I was asked by goog friend Matt Schrantz to be Scott's guide. We were hunting a property that I had never been on before, so this was going to test my abilities. Scott is a pleasure to be around, he is easy to smile, has a very positive and jovial outlook, he is an intense outdoorsman and has an eye for detail. His works are closer to photgraphs than most paintings, his detail is so good. He is in great physical condition, which helped him to hunt the extremely hilly area we were hunting. We stopped several times to take reference pictures for future works and we finally set up on a high ridge where we could overlook several open grass slopes. These types of look outs are fantastic when the birds are henned up. We could look for flocks of birds feasting on the bugs and fresh shoots in the 10" to 12" tall grass.
"There is a flock Scott" I finally found a flock with several long beards in it. The flock was working towards a deep drainage ditch lined with large trees, if we could get into that ditch we could easily move into range. I left the decoys where they were and we hustled off the hill we were on. We made it to that ditch and the turkeys were still working the open grass. We quickly covered the distance and slipped up the hill to the edge of the ditch. By laying on the steep bank of the ditch we were able to use it as cover, while our head and shoulders were above the edge. The grass was perfect camo and I knew we were close. I started to call and the flock responded. The toms went into strut as their tails became visible over the tall grass. I did more hen calling, light stuff mosly, purrs, chips and light yelps. This nonaggressive stuff helped to pull in the hens and the toms followed. Soon the toms were in range and with a single shot, Scott had his Eastern wild turkey.

I was lucky enough to be a part of this tom taken by Scott Storm, wildlife artist and friend.