It is April 18th as I write this column. I’m sitting at the base of a Southern Oak tree beneath a red-shouldered hawk who is having a turf war with some crows. 

I’ve yet to hear a turkey gobble this morning but that’s okay. The gobblers have been pretty quiet this year. 

I don’t have my gun with me, instead I’m trying to soak in the sounds of the spring woods waking up. It’s been a strange turkey season due to the fact I’ve heard a few gobbling turkeys; the most I heard on a morning was 10 and it was all in the tree. Last year, I could hear up to four gobblers on a good morning in various directions. 

Mississippi Turkey Program Director Adam Butler told Ricky Mathews, host of Super Talk Outdoors, he believes a series of good hatches have led to more hens on the landscape, resulting in little or inconsistent gobbling activity. It’s a good problem to have. 

I can attest while I’ve heard fewer gobbles this year I have seen just as many turkeys as I’ve seen in the past. My trail camera captured two jakes, juvenile male turkeys, visiting a burn block in a food plot. Hopefully they come back next year. 

I’ve been blessed because in my fifth turkey season I was able to harvest my first and second turkeys. Most people would say their first turkey is special, but mine is overshadowed by the second for a couple of reasons. 

First, the second turkey was the result of a kept promise by my hunting mentor Steve from Red Lick. He promised me he would get me a turkey and took me several times over the last four years to his property in Jefferson County. Along the way I learned woodsmanship, tree identification and habitat management. 

On April 12th, the puzzle pieces came together but we sure had to work for it. The morning started off like it has most of this season, no gobbling turkeys. We started to walk out to try a different parcel when I spotted a turkey running across a field several hundred yards away. We slipped through the woods to see if we could meet up with the bird again and stopped on a ridge where crows were harassing something. After about 30 minutes of calling, we didn’t hear any turkeys in that spot and decided to see if we could make a move to call in a gobbling bird on a neighboring property. That bird didn’t want to play so we started to slip out again and glassed the clover field before stepping out in it. 

A hen was out there feeding as Steve told me to watch her through my binoculars as he called to her. He did and it wasn’t long we felt the roar of a nearby gobble. We found a tree before easing our way around to the field edge to try to get a shot. 

It was the longest 30 minutes of my life. My heart was racing as I tried to take quiet steps. 

Steve left me his gun with a red dot sight on it and crawled further down the field edge to see if the turkeys were still there. A few minutes later he messaged me and said they were but the birds were down a hill. The wait felt like an eternity but eventually I caught a hen easing her way along the food plot edge and then a second hen. Both hens looked like a beach ball and I waited. 

Then I saw his glowing blue and white head as he crested the hill. I don’t remember much about his final steps other than he looked majestic strutting away — his drumming was all I could hear. He got to about 45 steps when I could get a clear shot on him and I took it. 

The turkey ended up having three beards but it’s not what made him special. It was the fact my friend and mentor Steve took the time to teach me and shared the resource and land access with me. 

I do not believe turkey hunting is necessarily about the harvest, while it is fun to celebrate and admire the beauty of a gobbler. It’s a journey where you learn more about nature and yourself. 

Hunting is better when it is shared with others and I encourage anyone who has a chance to mentor a younger hunter to do so. I’m sure I’ll get a chance to pay it forward someday. Thank you, Steve. 

Hunter Cloud can be reached at news@dailyleader.com.