I had the great pleasure today to hunt with Doug Wigfield and to say the very least it was an incredible experience and a very memorable hunt. We meet up just outside Salisbury MD and after getting my gun and gear in his vehicle off we go to one of his great turkey spots. On the drive to our hunting area of course we are talking about turkeys and memorable hunts we both have been on. You can't help but to like a fellow hunting addict like Doug and just talking to him and picking up some knowledge on turkey hunting, sika deer, whitetails and yes even bears for me was well worth any money I spent to have Doug take me on a guided hunt. Doug just knows wildlife and hunting enough said. We arrive at our hunting destination a good hour before sunrise, gear up and head out into the property to listen for any toms on the roost. WOW!! is all I can say about the property and it is extremely well managed for not only turkeys but deer also. I felt good about our chances on getting a shot at a tom and farther into the property we heard some distant gobbles and we both decided to move back into the property to get close to these birds before fly down. Off we go Doug leading the way and me following as quiet as I can be and soon we are set in the woods near a pretty good sized food plot and we have three toms gobbling within close range of us. One is really close to us and just to the left of our set and the other two are a bit farther back near a connecting road to another smaller food plot. Well we sit there until the sunrises and Doug is calling softly with some purrs, clucks and yelps but we get absolutely no response from the closer tom and some soft gobbles from the farther off toms. Doug recommends we change our spot to move closer to one of the farther off toms as he is gobbling good and steady. So we are on the move again and after taking it slow to glass some smaller food plots/connecting roads we find ourselves walking along a small connecting road between two food plots and we have that gobbler in front of sounding off with some loud gobbles. We close the distance to within 75 yards and then I get in front of Doug and move up slowly to with 20 yards of the field and get set up for Doug to do some soft calling at this tom. Let me tell you Doug can call to turkeys and within a couple of minutes the tom gobbles hard and is walking from my right to left, clears some thick brush in front of me and then heads away from us into the open field directly in front of me but just a bit to far to my left and my vision/shot is obscured by a couple of small tree's and thick brush. We wait a couple of minutes and Doug gives him a couple of soft purrs and now that tom moves just enough out to the right of those trees that I can see him clearly in the field but to be honest I am unsure of the distance from me to him and if my gun can reach out far enough to take this tom. I have my gun up and ready to shoot for a good 5 minutes but this tom isn't moving and even with Doug softly calling he just won't close the distance to us and give me a closer shot. He wasn't on alert and no way he saw us but he doesn't like something and I can see he is turning to walk away from us. I hate to admit this and it happens to everyone (if you turkey hunt and love it then you know how I feel) but I didn't listen to my own gut feeling and decide to shoot at this tom and yep a clear miss, not even really a miss I don't believe I even put a pellet in a tail feather on this bird and what I thought was a 40 yard shot was way off and was more like a 60 to 70 yard shot and way out of range for my gun and pattern. Well it happens and no one is more hard on myself then me when it comes to a miss and I turn to Doug, apologize for the miss (just educated one of Doug's tom so I am kicking myself in A$$ for doing that) and really feel bad as Doug got me that chance and I should have passed on that shot. Well let me tell you Doug is a professional and not a bad word or rebuke for my fool hardy display of marksmanship, nope he shrugs it off and we come up with another game plan and off we go after some more toms. We decide to work our way slowly back towards the front of the property and while we are walking slowly and listening for any gobbles the weather starts to turn on us and very quickly. It's starts to thunder of in the distance and a slight rain starts to fall but soon enough we have a gobbler sounding off to the lighting and off we go towards that tom. We slowly work our way towards the tom and now that weather front is moving in quickly, the rain is picking up but what really has us worried is that the lightning is getting loud and closer to us bye the minute. We close the distance to within 200 yards of this tom (he is gobbling loud now and is hot) and he is directly in line from where Doug parked his vehicle that morning. Only problem now is that it is pouring buckets of rain down on us and now the lightning is well within a mile of us and closing on us fast. Well to be 100% honest me and Doug look at each other and say this is crazy let's head back towards the truck and wait out this storm. We start moving quickly through the woods and when we get close to where we heard
that tom last gobble, he sounds off again and we are literally 35 yards from this tom, who is strutting down a road right in front of us. I look at Doug and he motions for me to snug up to a tree and get ready. I get down next to a tree, got a perfect shooting lane in front of me to the road and Doug pulls out a call I have never seen or used before ( a turkey trumpet call, his other calls are soaking wet and useless) and he starts giving some soft clucks to this tom and he sounds off close with a thunder gobble. Oh thunder gobble because by this time we get hit with a lighting strike I would say within a 150 yards of us, it shook the ground, puckered my you know what and I look back at Doug and he just shrugs his shoulders and continues calling to this hot tom. Well that pretty much told me I was there for the party so Doug is calling, lighting is striking, raining is pounding us and all the time I'm doing my best to watch for this tom to come out to give me a shot. Only problem now is the temperature has dropped, humidity is off the hook and my glasses are fogged (can't see a damn thing) and to add insult to injury so is my red dot scope on my gun. Well I'm sure Doug is still amused at my many attempts to clear both my glasses and scope but I do manage to quickly get them cleared enough with my shooting hand glove to barely see enough for a shot. Good thing because after some more sweet calling form Doug with that turkey trumpet call, that tom was insane with love and couldn't stand it anymore. Out he struts right in front of me at 35 yards in the open road , I take my time for the shot (no way I'm missing twice after all that hard work from Doug and the insanity of us being out in that weather) I see enough of my red dot at the base of his neck and squeeze the trigger and BAM!! down goes that tom. Me and Doug just stand up, look at each other and say together can you just believe that happened and let's get that tom and get the hell out of here back to the truck. I run out grab my Tom and we high tail it back to Doug's truck. We get back to the truck, put the gun, our gear and my tom in the back of his truck and jump in to let the storm pass through. Well 15 minutes later we have clearer skies, no thunder and we get out of Doug's' truck to check out my tom, take some pictures and celebrate one amazing turkey kill. What a great tom he is, 20 pounds, 10 1/2 inch beard and both spurs 1 1/4 inch. Just a great mature tom and just an insane hunt with not a guide anymore but a good friend. After some pictures and congratulations again between us off we are to get some breakfast and make a few phone calls to friends. For me this was just an insane and awesome hunt with Doug and certainly for me a great time spent in the woods. Doug can't thank you enough buddy and I gained some turkey knowledge from you, got one hell of a nice tom, and started out with a guide but parted ways with a friend. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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