Turkey Hunt at Froling Farms

By Chet Decker

You have to get up early to hunt turkeys. I left my house in Macomb at 3:45 am to get to Froling Farms in Ionia, MI. Roger Froling, my host, guided me to the blind and I was set up by 6:15. Once Roger’s truck left the field, the turkeys began to gobble in the trees behind my blind. This was good news to me because I hunted at Froling Farms two weeks prior and for two days the wind was exceptionally strong and I heard no gobbles and saw only one hen, so gobbling toms was a welcome sound.

I waited patiently as I heard the turkeys fly down and gobble as they walked through the woods far to my left. Four birds emerged from the woods about halfway down the field and walked across the field, well out of shotgun range, as I watched, urging them to turn to their right and approach my blind. No such luck. They continued across the field, oblivious to my urging, and walked into the field to my right. So now I had to practice what every hunter must learn, patience.

This day, my patience was rewarded as two toms walked back into my field, and in their curiosity, walked straight towards me. They were well within shotgun range, but walked side by side, preventing a clean shot at one of them. Finally, one stepped ahead of the other and that was his fatal mistake. A load of number 3 shot from my 12-gauge Benelli put him down and scared the liver out his buddy as he flew off. He was a dandy tom with a 10 ½ inch beard.

I want to thank Roger Froling of Froling Farms for his donation to the Detroit Chapter of SCI. Roger has been a generous donor of buffalo, youth deer, and turkey hunts to the Detroit Chapter for a number of years. I was privileged to hunt buffalo with him two years ago and Roger is a wonderful host. Thank you, Roger, for my very first turkey!