04/14/2026
Turkey season opened over the weekend in Tennessee. I also enjoy seeing harvest pictures online. I likely won't hunt this year, but I’m just as passionate about turkey hunting as I have ever been. The photo below is the first turkey that I ever killed, nearly 10 years after I graduated high school. If you listened to the Tennessee Dirt Podcast with Harold Knight, I told the story about killing this bird, not only was it my first turkey, it was my first turkey hunt, and it lasted about 20 minutes. I had asked several buddies to hunt with me that day. I ended up going by myself. A friend who let me deer hunt on his property gave me permission to hunt his property. When I asked him if I could hunt a turkey, he said I could try, but he had gone after them for three years and never got close. That morning I parked my truck in his driveway and headed out. I had read that turkeys liked to roost over water, so I headed towards a part of the property that had a pond. About 50 yards from the pond, I made a owl hoot. A horrible, novice owl hoot. Immediately a turkey goobled in front of me about 30 yards from the roost. Harold had given me a push/pull call. He showed me how to use it, and told me to velcro it to my stock. I sat at the base of a pine trees on a narrow strip of woods next to the road I walked in on facing a field between me and the pond levy.
I sat silently as I could, my heart racing. I positioned my shotgun resting on my knee, stock to my shoulder. Before long, hens began to pitch down into the field directly in front of me. Then he flew down. The first wild goobler I had ever seen in the wild. I had learned what I knew about turkey hunting by watching and Hale’s Ultimate Spring Videos. As soon as the goobler touched the ground he stood to survey his hens. Once he rotated his back to me, I reached and pushed the rod on the box call and made a couple of soft purrs. The result was instant. He fanned and rotated his body slowly until he was facing me at about 30 yards. I popped the box call quickly to make a fast put and slid my hand back to the trigger. His head went up and I shot instantly. The game was over, but the sense of accomplishment was instant. I could try for the next two hours to explain it, but I’d never find the words to explain it. It wasn't about the killing, but I know what happened that day in that small field had likely never happened there, or at least had never happened in 100 years. From there, I had no idea what to do. I woke my dad up and we boiled a giant pot of water and pulled every feather but the fan off that turkey. It's a day I hope I never forget. I’ll never feel that exact same feeling again, but it was a good one.
