Turkey hunting can make us seem foolish

When everything goes right, a day of turkey hunting can make everybody smile. But sometimes the excitement and, later, the exhaustion of the chase can make hunters do stupid things.

Excitement, then exhaustion of the chase can make hunters lose focus

No. 1 thing to take away from the opening day of Mississippi’s 2013 spring turkey season: Always consider the significant change brought on by the switch to daylight savings time.

It never dawned on me …Seriously.

Like, never.

When we pulled up to our listening spot this morning, I noticed through my nearly closed eyelids that it seemed awfully dark, and seriously quiet. I looked at my cell phone and it read 5:30.

Perfect, right?

Wrong!

One hour and a brief nap in the truck later, I heard a bird chirp at 6:30 a.m.

Five minutes after that, I heard a distant owl hoot.

A little before 7, it finally got light enough to see through the woods.

At 7:45, I was headed back to the house to write and prepare for a mid-morning meeting that I couldn’t miss.

But if you think the morning was a complete and total waste of time, forget it. All was made right at 7:05 when, after another owl hooted deep in the Rankin County woods, I heard a turkey gobble.

He gobbled three more times, too, enough for us to realize that he was on the wrong side of the creek, which also happened to be the property line. He was out of bounds.

Hearing that gobbler’s yodel-like sunrise blasts, and those of one other bird down the road, would have to do, at least for me. My window of opportunity was short, thanks to my schedule, the time change and my stupidity.

I left as my host and hunting partner, Jimmy Smith of Brandon, started his pursuit of the second bird. I hope he did well, but I suspect he was in for a long day. We also heard a lot of hens cackle and fly down, and they were between him and the gobbler.

He had his work cut out, but I envied him. My hunt basically ended before it started, and I have only myself to blame. I should never have attempted the hunt on such a tight schedule made even tighter by the time change, which we never considered.

Here is where I made my mistake: Last Saturday (March 9), which was the last day that I arose early to chase something outdoors, my fishing partner and I were at the boat ramp at 6:15 cussing because we’d missed the sunrise crappie bite at Barnett Reservoir.

That night, of course, we made the switch to daylight savings time and sunrise was pushed back an hour. At 6:15 this morning, it was still dark as all get out and I was catching a quick nap in the truck.

As stupid as that sounds, rest assured it is not the dumbest thing I have ever done, time-wise, in the pursuit of a gobbler.

Many years ago, late in the long turkey season, four of us were at a cabin in Southwest Mississippi, three long days into a four-day hunt.

On that third day, we were going fishing in the afternoon after a much-needed nap following the morning hunt. We set our alarm for 2 o’clock.

We went fishing, and had a ball catching spawning crappie in an old slough. Then we went and listened for birds flying up at sunset and successfully roosted a couple of vocal gobblers. We went to bed that night encouraged, full of grilled pork tenderloin and numbed by a few cocktails.

The next morning, when the alarm rudely interrupted our sleep, I turned the alarm off and went and turned the coffee pot on.

About 20 minutes later, we were all camo’ed up and hit the woods in two groups of two.

You see where this going, right?

This was a couple of decades ago, when alarm clocks were still analog and the danged things didn’t know the difference between 2 a.m. and 2 p.m., and our clock was still set for 2 for the fishing trip.

That morning, when my partner and I arrived at our listening spot to hear the gobbler, we were not aware we were three hours early.

Guess you could say it didn’t dawn on us that morning, either.

Seriously.

Like never.

***

Mississippi’s spring turkey season opened on Friday (March 15) and ends on May 1. The limit is one mature gobbler or gobbler with a minimum six-inch beard per day, three per season. Hunters aged 15 and under are allowed to take one gobbler of any age or beard length per day, three per season.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Share your turkey hunting stories and other outdoor adventures with other Mississippi Sportsman readers by e-mailing stories and photos to Bobby Cleveland at bobbyc7754@yahoo.com.