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This turkey is a real trophy to me. I drew the 6th season which started on Sunday, May 10. Not the ideal season for turkey hunting. But you take what you get and try to do the best you can.

I was up at 3:30 to drive the 35 miles to hunt on some private land I secured just the week before. I sat along the field edge in hopes of having a tom come in to check out my decoys. I heard four different toms gobbling from an hour before sun up until 9:30. Still, none of them decided to come over to the field to investigate my calling. I finally packed up at 11:30 and left the field.

I planned to head home to work around the house a bit before an afternoon hunt. I got to the truck and decided to drive around the block and see if there were any turkeys out in any of the fields near some of the local public hunting ground. I didn't go far and saw three turkeys in a field roughly 600 yards from the road. They were in a private field but were only 10 yards from the public hunting fence line.

I grabbed the binoculars and could see it was a tom and two hens picking in the field. I immediately turned the truck around and was going to try to get set up below them. I knew I didn't have much time before they would move on so I just grabbed my vest with my calls and my gun and off I went. I got to the ridge line where I figured the turkeys were just on top in the field. I sat next to a big tree and faced the direction where I thought they would come. I sat for only a couple minutes and gave a few soft yelps on my slate call. Slowly turning my head to see if anything was coming in from behind me, but nothing was there.

I was slowly turning back to look straight ahead when I saw a hen standing less than 30 yards from me with her head straight up and not moving. With nothing between her and me, I knew I couldn't move a muscle. I was even afraid to blink.

Then she began putting as she moved down the ridge towards me. She got within 15 yards of me when she hopped up on a big log. She never stopped putting the entire time and was looking for the mysterious hen that was calling just moments before. She finally walked back behind me and out of sight. I waited another five minutes before I softly called again.

Right away I saw the another hen on top of the ridge along the field line looking down the hill my way. She was looking for me but stayed up in the field.

After she was out of view, I waited another 5-6 minutes before calling again. Right away the tom gobbled and he less than 70 yards behind me. My heart skipped a beat when he made his presence known. It was so loud and close that it sent chills down my back.

I slowly turned my head looking over my left shoulder and there he was. His head was bright red and sticking straight up as he tried to find the mystery hen that was making his two hens so jealous. After another gobble he was on his way down the ridge right towards me. I could see there was a little ravine that he would have to go down into before he would get to me. That would be my chance to get moved into position.

He stopped twice on his way down the ridge to strut and gobble.  As soon as he disappeared in the little depression, I shimmied around the tree and was ready for him. As he came up, his head was on a swivel looking for the hen that had been calling. He stopped behind a tree that I estimated at 30 yards. As soon as he stepped out from behind that tree I squeezed the trigger. He never flopped at all, as I jumped up and ran over to him. I was just so excited to have a tom come in that way.

While admiring the tom, I  began to think about everything that just happened. If only all hunts went that way, I thought as I picked up him up and headed back to the truck. After registering the bird and finding out the tom weighed 22.5#'s with a 9" beard and 1" spurs, I finally was home and extremely beat. But I still had work to do. I got my knife and a big bowl ready for cleaning the bird. When I skinned the bird, I noticed that he had been shot before. There were pellets in the body on the opposite side of where I had shot, and a lot of my pellets were in the head. The pellets were larger than mine too. Maybe 4 shot, and I was using 6 shot.

This was a true trophy for me. I was able to call in and harvest a great tom late in the season, and it was one that had been shot before. I also know he has heard a lot of calls this season while living on public land. And for some reason he was attracted to my calling. Maybe it was because the two hens that he was with were so interested in my calling. They convinced him that there must be a new hen in the area, and he decided to introduce himself. This just shows that even if only a hen goes by your set-up, try not to spook it because there may be a tom nearby. She just may get the tom excited enough to come into shooting range.

Turkey hunting is so much fun and I can't wait for next years season to begin. You just never know how your season will play out.

Joe Hasse, Marshall, MN