Making the rounds on my turkey tour there are bound to be a few missed opportunities and apparently my time was up when I rolled into South Carolina. I had the privilege to join up with my gator hunting buddies near Monks Corner, SC.
There are turkey hunters, and then there are turkey fanatics. These guys are fanatics, no question. Their entire spring schedule revolves around turkey hunting and they plant hundreds of chufa patches to ensure amazing turkey hunting all season long, that’s right hundreds of patches.
This was the first time I’d experienced hunting over a food plot planted specifically for turkeys. The chufa plots are planted almost a full season in advance in either late spring or summer. It grows throughout the year, dies, and then it’s ready for the turkeys the following spring. It may look like a field of dead plants, but the turkeys know exactly what lies beneath. They will flock to the fields and spend hours digging up the chufa, which is a high-energy food source for turkeys that help keep the birds healthy and on your property.
After watching numerous turkeys stream in and out of the fields, two gobblers finally appeared. They didn’t see the decoys but started to dig right in on the back part of the field, behind my blind. It was the one area I hadn’t cleared a shooting lane, and sure enough as I released my arrow, it found one lone stick and dropped just below the feeding gobbler.
My heart sank as the two toms strolled away not necessarily spooked, but not willing to stick around for another shot. My time was running out and I switched fields for my afternoon hunt. I had a couple gobblers stroll by wide, just out of bow range but nothing in close. To end the evening I watched a beautiful bearded hen dig up chufa right next to my blind. She had a thick 8-inch beard, but in South Carolina only male turkeys are legal. I decided to put down my bow and get some great footage to add to the turkey tour vault.
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