May 4 - Terry Drury

Hunter: Terry Drury
Animal: Turkey
Location: Missouri
Weapon: Shotgun

After two weeks of playing games with northern Missouri gobblers, it was time to get serious. This season had been a little rough due to inclement weather nearly every day. A few years of bad turkey hatches didn’t help the situation either. With big John Mabry arriving in camp, we hoped our luck would change.

We had a pair of gobblers that we had been keeping tabs on all season long. Every morning they would gobble their butts off, but never come in to calling. They were usually with a group of hens, and after flying down in the morning they would head to a big bottom field. After watching them do this on several occasions we slipped down to the bottom field and set out a feather flex hen decoy. As soon as daylight broke, the timber burst into gobbles and all we had to do was patiently wait for them to fly down and head our way. Sure enough, the two longbeards walked in from behind us as soon as they spotted the hen decoy. At 10 steps I laid the hammer down on him and our morning was over.

I don’t think I’ve worked this hard for a turkey in a long time, but the way they came roaring in made it well worth the wait. May 4 is also Coondog’s birthday—Happy Birthday Coondog!