It was day 4 of my boy Dan Jr's turkey hunt and it was still raining. Even though it was Saturday, I had to work till early afternoon. I met up with Junior and a friend who also had a tag and was hunting with us this week.

We did our normal rainy afternoon tactic of driving around looking for Turkeys on the properties where we could hunt. Turkeys were not very plentiful this year and the rain kept there activity to a minimum. They were just plain hard to find.

So when we finally saw a big bird that we thought we could sneak close to, the chase was on. We drove past the big tom who was sitting in a dip in a field waiting for the relentless rain to stop. When we got over the hill from him I shut off the engine and rolled to a quiet stop. We got out and very quietly got our stuff together and started sneaking up the treeline towards the unsuspecting family dinner and wall ornament.

As we rested the hill we got down and crawled keeping our profile below the horizon, and unfortunately in the corn field muck.

Once we got far enough to peek through the bushes and see turkey and his girlfreind, we belly crawled up to a large boulder in the treeline. Junior slid his ol' 12 gauge ever so slowly onto the rock as I unzipped my video reorder from its plastic rain proof bag and propped up the tripod. As soon as the camera was recording I started calling with a few yelps to the Tom who was only about 50 yards away. I could hear Junior's breathing starting to get louder and more rapid as the bird rose to his feet staring in our direction.

Suddenly the big Tom turned and took off running in the opposite direction. Mr turkey had a noticeable limp while he headed for safety. I would guess, with this being the 2nd from last week he had a few encounters with other hunters.

Oh well, time to go find another, hopefully more willing turkey dinner.
It took some looking, but with about an hour left to hunt we spotted another big bird we had been watching. He was in a cornfield with another smaller Tom and several hens 1/2 way between a sparse treeline and the road.

It looked like it would be tough to sneak up to a good position, with the lack of trees. But the now heavy rain would cover our noise fairly well.

Once again the birds were all lying down waiting for the rain to end. I drove around to the farm where we parked and walked across a dip in a field to the treeline. We snuck up the treeline towards the birds crawling most of the 400 yards so we wouldn't be seen. We were able to get to the edge of the cornfield 80 yards from the turkeys without getting detected.

I got Dave in position if they crossed the treeline to the north and Junior positioned for if they came straight in. Got the camera zoomed in on the bird and locked the tripod into position. Yelp, Yelp... No response at all. The big fat Tom just layed there. YELP, YELP!!! Still not much of a response. I called hard and heavy after waiting a little bit just in case he couldn't hear me through the heavy rain. I got one gobble, and I didn't hear it, I saw it on the camera screen.

So, by this time the camera is starting to short out from all the water running into it. Generally this isn't a problem because of the mud that is wedged between all the openings keeping the water out. But this rain was so relentless it ate right through my protective mud barrier.

Sooo, being the Super Genius I am, I devised a plan. Dave would attempt to get farther down and between him and Dan Jr. cut off the big bird from entering the woods I would sneak all the way back to the truck, switch cameras, and drive around in Dave's truck to the cornfield and park and get out with the camera in plain view. When the birds saw me, they would surely get nervous and head for Dave or Jr.

Sure enough, the birds headed for Dave who had not gotten to where he needed to be due to lack of good cover. As the birds moved towards the woods they passed Dave at his Max range. Boom. The bird did not go down but acted hit. Boom again. The bird jumped into the air. Then flew about 20 yards and ran for the north road. I jumped back into the truck and cut him off. As I hit the crossing he saw the truck and headed into a marsh with canary grass. I could see him running ( Now West) away from the hunters. So I grabbed my small video camera and hauled my lard butt after him hoping to push him back towards the hunters. As I closed the distance to about 200 yards the Tom noticed me running at him and hid in the grass.

I got to a point where I knew he had to be within 40 yards of me and I yelled for the guys to get over by me. It took several loud screams before I could hear a faint response. A glance at my watch reveled we only had 15 minutes till 5:00PM and the dreaded buzzer. Finally the guys showed up and I shouted out some commands like a drill Sergeant to get in line and walk forward. I had the camera covering the area in front of the guys when right in the middle of the screen, up pop's the turkey running for the next county. Boom boom baboom . Then Dan Jr finally takes off after Tommy on foot but the last shell Dave had in his possession blew the bird into a swamp river. The Tom went across the river and ran smack into a barb wire fence. Thats when the last shell in Junior's gun went off stopping the bird cold.

Jr was so excited he jumped right into the river and swam across for his bird. At 1st we were not sure who should claim the bird with all the shots fired. But Dave was real good about giving it to Danny. This was indeed a bird worthy of Dan Junior's excitment. The swamp bird weighed 26 1/2 pounds and sported a 12 inch beard and 1 1/4 inch spurs.