Rainy Day Reward
Forecast of lots of rain starting at midnight through about 4 PM today. I thought I'd try and intercept 2 groups of turkeys I had previously scouted on oxbows, using wet leaf litter to my advantage. I slowly picked my way from a likely feeding area towards likely roosts at first light. Spotted this doe feeding on submerged vegetation, and crept in to 18 yards for a picture. She eventually winded me and took off.
I was only finding old turkey sign, approximately from when I last turned up group #1. I moved on to group #2 (two hens), and a shape at 200 yards caught my attention. Binos up and confirmed it was one of the hens. I backed up a little and approached behind cover, then relocated the bird at 90. She was leisurely feeding on seeds on a sand flat. I crawled in another 20 yards, and ran out of cover. At this point I was debating whether to set up for shot in the off chance that she walked towards me vs. back up 300 yards and make a huge loop around and slip in from behind. I x'ed the latter idea as she was on the move, albeit slowly, and chances were when I got back to where I left her she would not be there.
I ever-so-slowly nudged 4 yards closer until there was no more cover whatsoever, at which point it was just a dice roll on whether she'd walk 16 yards towards me vs. any other direction. As luck would have it, within 10 minutes she was angling towards me. 60 yards, 55, 50, 48...I debated getting greedy on a 45-yard shot, but decided I had as fine a shot as any and
squeezed the trigger. The bird flopped, but then started to struggle to get up. I shot out of the brush like a rocket to put her down, but apparently my base-stealing days are behind me, as I felt my knee twinge and I was down in a heap. After collecting myself up I hobbled over and finished her off.
As it lay, opening day:
![IMG_E2448[1].JPG](https://www.hunttalk.com/data/attachments/167/167388-b41b849175d8973d0269fe59e6fd38fa.jpg?hash=tBuEkXXYlz "IMG_E2448[1].JPG")
My knee felt fair on the 2-mile hike out. I bumped turkey group #1 onto private property about halfway back, and marked the spot on OnX. They appeared to have been loafing near a small, secluded, picked soybean plot.
Once I got home my knee was hurting a bit more and late this afternoon it gave out on me. Soon after this my ankle of the same leg began to crescendo into such intense pain to the point where I blacked out. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but this was unbearable. I was watching my kids but rendered helpless as I cried, screamed, tucked in a fetal position, and struggled to even think clearly as I kept slipping towards blacking out again. In moments of lucidity I was able to walk my 4-year-old through finding my phone so I could call my wife.
Long-story short and 1 hospital trip later (I was there last year as well on Oct 1st...I'm on a tear), I may have a dislocated bone in my foot at worst, at best multiple sprains. Review with the foot specialist tomorrow to learn more.
![IMG_E2452[1].JPG](https://www.hunttalk.com/data/attachments/167/167392-01e69a9fddf771d4dee367941df63ae6.jpg?hash=Aeaan933cd "IMG_E2452[1].JPG")
