[flannelman]

I went out to hunt this morning in the same place I have been hunting all season and I missed. I have never killed a turkey and I'm really still learning how to hunt them. Last week I called in two hens and a jake but didn't a shot at the jake. That was the first time I had ever called anything in. I go back today and use my owl hooter to see if I can locate a bird but they don't want to talk. No big suprise there, they haven't gobbled at an owl since opening morning! I waited to nearly daylight and never heard a bird so I decided to set up low on a ridge just up from a creek bottom. I had heard gobblers here last week so I wanted to set up inbetween where I had been hearing them. I got my decoys out and let things settle down a bit before calling. After the third set of calls I had one gobble so close that it scared me! I got him to gobble again before I saw him up the ridge from me. He was trailing three hens and they were all moving down the ridge towards me. I called a little more to get them on in and once they saw my docoys they came in on a rope! The group got within a few feet of the decoys before they stopped and started looking real hard. I wasn't sure if they were going to take off so I started looking for a shot at the tom. He was behind a pine tree and I didn't have a shot! Finally he eased out a bit and I was able to take a bead on him. I shot and turkeys flew everywhere! Including the tom. He appeared to be unscathed! I walked over to my decoys and saw that the pine tree probably took about half of my pattern out so I guess that is why I missed. I had a great time calling in those birds though and decided I'd just head on home after looking around a bit just to be sure I did miss. It was a great morning!