The Homeroom Hunter's Double
By: Jake Gehrke

I live and teach in a rural Southwestern Wisconsin community.  We own a piece of property just outside the city limits on the other side of town from our home.  Although I love owning my own piece of land, I wish we lived closer to it so I could monitor the deer and turkey activity a little closer during the hunting seasons. 

A few years ago I had a student in my homeroom named Jason that conveniently lived right next to our land.  Jason surveyed my field before he boarded the bus and would describe to me the location of the turkeys so I could try to pattern them before the season opened.  It was great.  Each morning I would get my daily turkey report from Jason and soon developed a plan for hunting the birds on my property.  In fact, the plan worked so well I harvested a great bird as soon as the season opened.

Jason was a hunter as well.  He had never killed a turkey and was eager to do so.  He and his dad hunted when his season came around but Jason was unsuccessful.  We “talked turkeys” every morning at school and I wanted to help Jason bag a bird since he had assisted me in tagging mine.

In Wisconsin, hunters are able to purchase extra tags during the later seasons.  I had already bought a tag for the last season and I spoke to Jason’s parents and asked them if it was okay if I took him out turkey hunting with me.  They approved, so Jason and I eagerly made a plan to hunt the turkeys that continued to frequent my field.  Our Wisconsin spring seasons open on a Wednesday and run through Sunday.  Jason was extremely eager to shoot his first turkey, so we decided to try hunting before school on Wednesday. 

I picked Jason up early and we headed out to my field.  I mulled over the idea of leaving my gun behind.  I figured there would be a very slim chance that we would get two toms to come in during the short window of time we had to hunt.  Obviously I wanted Jason to get a bird more than I wanted to harvest one and I would have him shoot at the first opportunity.  However, I decided that since Jason had never shot a bird, it might be a good idea to have a back up gun ready.  Also, we had been seeing a lot of birds in my field.  There was a slight chance that more than one tom would make an appearance.

In the darkness we put out a decoy and waited for the woods to come alive.  This particular morning it was unbelievably foggy.  The sun barely pierced through the dense fog when we heard our first gobble.  Unfortunately, the birds were all roosted across the road on the neighbor’s property.  There were two toms sounding off to the local crow population as we sat on the edge of my field listening to silence in my woods.

I tried to hide the doubt from Jason that I’m sure I was expressing.  The only birds within calling distance were on the other side of a very busy highway and we didn’t have time to wait for other birds to show up since we had to get to school. Additionally, it was so foggy we couldn’t even see the hillside a few hundred yards away that these birds were roosted on. 

I looked over at Jason and his eyes were opened wide and he was eagerly listening for the toms on that hillside to sound off again.  His excitement gave me new inspiration and I waited for a lull in the traffic on the highway and gave the toms some of the sweetest clucks and yelps I could muster.  I could hardly believe my ears when both toms instantly responded. 

I worked my slate call in between the sounds of early morning commuters heading to work on the highway, sending the sounds through the fog and to the roosted toms.  Each time they would respond with a gobble.  I was satisfied.  I didn’t anticipate that the birds would cross the highway, but at least Jason was getting some action and hopefully would be motivated to continue hunting later in the week. 

I continued to call to the two toms and they answered each time with a gobble.  The morning passed and I monitored my watch as we had definite time constraints.  I needed to get us both back so we could get ready for school.  We were running out of time and these still were the only birds responding to the calls.  Additionally, the fog hadn’t lifted and we couldn’t see more than 75 or so yards in any direction. 

I whispered to Jason that we didn’t have the luxury to wait the birds out and we needed to get aggressive.  I was hoping to maybe pull one of the toms across the road so I cranked on the slate call and sent some “hail mary” yelps towards the toms and they instantly cut me off.  I repeated the very loud calls and the toms followed suit.  I began to think we had a chance. 

I know I have never called this loudly or assertively to another bird in my life.  I figured it was all or nothing, I was either going to pull these toms across the road, or we were going to head to school empty handed. 

Suddenly, the toms responded to my calls with a thundering gobble.  I jerked my head towards Jason and he was already getting his gun up.  BOTH BIRDS HAD FLOWN ACROSS THE ROAD!  We couldn’t see them, but their gobbles were definitely closer.  I eased up on the calling, sending some soft purrs and clucks towards the toms and both again responded, this time much closer. 

As I stated earlier, I had no intentions of shooting a bird on this morning, so I had to grab my gun that was leaning against a tree and positioned myself next to Jason, getting ready for a shot that I still couldn’t believe was possibly going to happen. 

Suddenly, through the fog, two round “blobs” appeared in the harvested cornfield below us.  I pointed them out to Jason and we both brought our guns up on the two approaching strutters.  Through the fog, they saw our decoy and headed straight toward us in our ambush point.  Jason was on my right, so I whispered for him to take the bird that was approaching on the right, and I would shoot the tom on the left.

Jason and I had previously played out this situation during Homeroom.  We would count down from three and pull the triggers together on “one”.  I doubt either of us truly believed that we would get an opportunity to put this practice into action.  I’m glad now that we had discussed what we were going to do before hand!

The birds trotted up to the decoy and displayed next to it at 25 yards.  I wanted Jason to get a good, lethal shot so I waited for his bird to rise up out of full strut and I softly whispered, “three…two…one…”

BOOM!  Both of our shotguns fired simultaneously and both birds lay flopping in the field.  We jumped up and ran towards the fallen toms.  We attached our tags, exchanged high fives, and walked back to the truck with a turkey slung over each of our shoulders.  I couldn’t have scripted the morning any better.

I dropped Jason off at his home where we snapped a few photos.  After listening to Jason excitedly relive and convey the story to his parents I headed home, showered, and went to work.  Jason showed up on time as well.   We had successfully called two toms across the busiest highway in the county, harvested them, and made it to school on time! 

I felt a little bad that Jason’s dad wasn’t able to be with him when he filled his first turkey tag.  However, it was one of my most memorable hunts and I am very grateful I was able to share it with a wonderful young man.  I’m sure Jason will shoot numerous turkeys in the future.  Maybe he’ll call in a couple of toms for the two of us some day.

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