Cold, cruel world (Of turkey hunting, that is)

This morning the temperature was bitterly cold with a heavy frost crackling the grass.

At least the sky was clear and the promise that the temperatures would soon warm was enough to keep me optimistic as to the chances of (finally) killing a gobbler. On a scale of 1 to 10, I was rating the day as a solid 8. Possibly even a 9.

Out in the distance in two polar directions were male wild turkeys. I could hear them bellowing from their perches. Each was fired up and hardly needed a hoot from the owl locator call.

Alas, neither bird showed. All that did was just one very large (and illegal) hen that came to the soft putts and purrs.

Today was my 10th try at calling in a turkey this season. And all I have to show for it is that one lonesome hen. Brother, can you spare a gobbler?

Tomorrow - which is Wednesday - will be my final attempt this year at calling in and bagging a turkey.

Problem is, over the past three years I've managed to call in just one legal bird. Don't ask me what's happened to my choice piece of real estate because I have no answers. What was at one time a slam-dunk at killing a turkey has mysteriously taken a turn south. There is no explanation. Not even from the landowner.

Ah, but things do look promising for next season. For the last two weeks of that season I'll be able to hunt all day. Afternoons and especially evenings can be good if you handle the game properly.

And the land-owner has been seeing birds on an almost daily basis feeding next to my ground blind that I put up at the edge of a picked soybean field. Those birds have been coming in late in the day, too.

But with only a couple of hours left to spend on turkey hunting this week and, thus, this season, I'm going to have to cling to the hope that next year will prove better.

Still, I'll give it a go again in the morning and I might even throw a bomb by moving closer toward any roosting turkey. That's a very risky gamble but I'm out of options for this season.

I'll let you know tomorrow how things went in the morning.

At least now I won't have to be rising at 3:45 a.m. in order to make it to the woods in time.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
jfrischkorn@news-herald.com