We heard a few birds at daylight that first morning in Illinois and they pretty much did the same thing almost all the Eastern birds I hunted this spring did . . . they snickered at my calling, continued to gobble just to aggravate me and then shut up when I got within 300 yards.
That was all right. I didn’t come to Illinois to turkey hunt anyway. I had better, more important things to do and I refused to chase a dumb longbeard around and subject myself to more ridicule.

So Ben, camerman Daniel Thomas and I went to the truck, drove around the property to where we wanted to hang the Lone Wolf stands for my November bowhunt, and proceeded to take the stands out of the boxes.

As I was finishing attaching the climbing sticks to the stands for the carry into the spot we intended to hang the stand, Ben mentions to me, “Hey, you know there’s a good chance we could run into a tom back here where we’re going. As a matter of fact, there’s a cut cornfield in the bottom next to a creek that I see turkeys in a lot this time of day. You really should take your turkey vest and shotgun in with you.”

“Sure!” I thought, “Why not endure a little more humiliation while I’m here!”

So off we go toting a Benelli, turkey gear and a tree stand and climbing sticks slung over my shoulder.
We approached the crest of the hill overlooking the cut corn field and as I ever so slowly took a peek, I immediately saw the full fan of a strutter. At first, we thought he was beside himself but soon we picked out the hen he was showing off for.

We knelt down (all of this is being documented through Daniel’s camera by the way) and quickly got a strategy together. We would circle back and around, drop the stand and sticks at the base of the tree we wanted to hang in, and continue down through the timber to the fields edge.

Everything went perfect. (How often does THAT happen!)

After calling a few times, it was no surprise that he was not going to leave his girlfriend, so Plan B was concocted.

It was simple, we had to get in front of the pair of lovebirds. We did. Next, I crawled out, popped up the Montana strutting decoy, crawled back into some cover and commenced to calling.

It wasn’t long before the hen started my way with “you know who” behind her. Soon, they saw the decoy and the show was own. The ol’ bird was content to strut closer but he didn’t run in for the fight. I knew he was either really smart and confident, or he was a 2 year old.

When he got to around 40 yards, he came out of strut long enough for the Federal No. 5s to make their point.

He was an awesome bird. A thick, 10-inch beard and 1 3/8-inch spurs. A 4- or 5-year-old tom.

Ben, Daniel and I whooped it up, picked up the bird, carried him up into the hardwoods, laid him down beside the Lone Wolf, took off some clothes and proceeded to hang an awesome set for November!

How cool is THAT?

For more information on turkey or deer hunting with Timberland Outfitters, contact
Ben Plattner, 217-632-7060