It was about 1995 and turkey hunting was just getting started in Canada. My brother, and regular hunting partner, called me up and said "get back here....Manitoba is going to have a spring turkey hunt....we don't have to wait until fall". I was living in Toronto at the time, made the necessary flight arrangements and flew in the day before the season opened. This was pre internet, no one we had ever met hunted turkeys but we heard it was fun. My brother had bought a box call and we went straight from the airport to our favoured hunting grounds 2 hours south west of Winnipeg where we had heard there were turkey. We had absolutely no idea what we were doing.

We had never even heard a turkey gobble in the wild but we knew they roosted in trees and you needed to get in there before dawn and wait for them to fly down and then call them over. That evening we picked out what we thought was a good tree to sit beside and went to bed. Dawn finds us set up with our backs to this big old tree waiting and listening for turkey. Sure enough, this incredible gobble shatters the early morning. Botb of us are startled but we can't figure out the direction.......South of our set up? East? The big tom gobbled again and we still couldn't get a fix on direction. By this time the sun hadn't quite risen but we could see quite clearly. There was another very loud gobble and Charles and I still could not get a handle on the direction. Very confusing. Then, from literally 15 feet directly above us, about 10 turkey flew down and away from us and trotted off into the woods. Both of us were so stunned neither thought about the gun we each held.

We each ended up getting a bird that day although it took some doing after that initial disaster. Opening day of Manitoba's first turkey season. We like to think that despite our ignorance of the fine points of turkey hunting, our natural hunting abilities won out. My guess is that you could count on one hand how many hunters in Manitoba got a bird that day. That kinda made up for the start to the day.

Last edited by canvasback; 01/29/24 04:38 PM.

The world cries out for such: he is needed & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia