Pointing the truck west we raced dawn’s blush toward the Umpqua River valley. It would be the first turkey hunt for my friend Dana and myself.
With no experience hunting these birds we needed all the help we could get. I bought a call that I could operate without enrolling in a turkey as a second language course. It was a spring loaded box with which I could imitate the essential turkey sounds: hen putts, purrs, yelps, clucks and cutting.
Conventional wisdom says that wild turkeys are a difficult hunt and a chance at taking a hard-hunted gobbler is about as tall as a two-day pullet.
But we spotted one as soon as we pulled off the paved road.