It's not often a hunter gets this close to a bird.
Getting close enough to a wild turkey to make a clean shot is one of the toughest challenges in hunting. These birds have superior eyesight that makes sneaking up on one a tall order indeed. Many things must go right to pull off a successful stalk on a big Tom.
Sometimes things just work out in the hunter's favor though. If you can find a bird that's riled-up enough, he'll often come charging in to face his rival head-on. That's exactly what happens here on this spot-and-stalk hunt in Alabama with Realtree's Phillip Culpepper.
Phillip spots the bird he wants in this field and the stalk is on with his decoy. Unbelievably, the big Tom closes the gap in a hurry and gets close enough to the hunter that he could almost grab it with his bare hands!
Turkey hunting does not get much better than this. Talk about a pulse-pounding hunt! We kept waiting for that bird to stop and realize he'd been fooled. It wasn't until he was mere feet away that he realized he'd made a huge mistake. By then, it was too late, and Phillip was able to pull off a perfect shot as the bird attempted a last second getaway.
For a minute, we thought that bird might try attacking this "intruder" into his field. After all, turkeys have great eyesight, but they are not exactly smart birds. We have seen plenty of videos of them doing some dumb things. We don't put attacking a hunter's decoy out of the realm of possibility if the bird is fired up enough. One thing is for sure, that would have made for an even wilder video.
If that doesn't get you excited to get out there and chase some big gobblers in the fast-approaching spring, we are not sure what will.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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