“Johnie Wood Hunts Turkeys with ThermaCELL All Across the Country”
Part 4: Taking Mr. Leonard’s Tom
Editor’s Note: Johnie Wood of Montgomery, Alabama, teaches classes on turkey hunting and another class, the Total Hunt, for the non-profit organization, Outdoor Women Unlimited. Wood, who hunts turkeys all over the nation, has taken more than 200 birds and has put together a World Slam of wild turkeys. Wood has hunted with ThermaCELL for 3 years but was one of those hunters who initially resisted this new technology in insect repellent. However, today Wood is a ThermaCELL disciple and teaches everyone he meets about ThermaCELL.
 Question: Johnie, tell us about Mr. Leonard’s Turkey.
Wood: I’d been hunting this turkey that lived on Mr. Leonard’s property for about 3 years. Every time, each year, that I’d hunted this tom, this ole gobbler had beat me. He went home with his breast, his beard and his spurs intact, and I went home with an empty turkey vest. Now, I know there are people who may say, “I bet that wasn’t the same bird you hunted for 3 years.” But I know it was the same gobbler, because he roosted in the same hollow, and year after year he beat me the same way he’d always beaten me. This turkey always would come down the same logging road. And, regardless of where I set up on that logging road, the turkey would always stop about 70 or 80 yards from me and turn and go into the woods.
The closest I ever came to taking this wily turkey was one year when I had him coming to me, and I moved off the road and into the woods. The turkey walked to within 20 yards of me. But a low limb from a sweet gum tree was about 15 yards in front of me that completely covered the turkey’s head. I would have had to shoot right between the sweet gum limb to try and take the turkey. I knew that my chances of missing the bird were much greater than my chances for taking him. So I didn’t take the shot. I already had developed enough respect and love for that tom that I didn’t want to take a chance that I would wound him and not take him cleanly.
The morning I finally took a tom on Mr. Leonard’s property, I was hunting in a pine thicket. This ole bird was so smart that if I called to him when he was on the roost from one side of an open hardwood bottom, he’d fly to the other side of the bottom and walk off.  When I’d go to the other side of the bottom and call to him, he’d still fly off the roost in the opposite direction. This ole turkey and I practically knew each other’s first names because we’d been close to each other so many times. Then on April 25th one year, the region I was hunting had one of those warm spring mornings. I decided to try to take Mr. Leonard’s turkey one more time.
The weather was warm enough that the mosquitoes would have carried me off had I not had my ThermaCELL. As soon as I sat down on a pine stump, I turned on my ThermaCELL and let it cook. The ThermaCELL was critical to my success that day, since I didn’t move off my stump for 2 hours. I realized that the mosquitoes in that pine thicket would have drug me out through those woods screaming and hollering if I hadn’t had the protection the ThermaCELL offered during that 2-hour sit. Mr. Leonard’s Gobbler really worked on my mind that morning. I’d call to him, and he’d sound like he was 1/2-mile away when he gobbled back to my calling. The next time I’d call to him, he’d sound like he was only 150- to 200-yards away. I’d be sure that gobbler was coming to me.
However, after I waited for awhile and then called again, that bird would sound like he was 1/2-mile away again. I knew that the bird wasn’t turning around and gobbling away from me when he sounded so far off, because he was coming through some open hardwoods. But I decided that this gobbler was trying to pull me out of that pine thicket out into the open woods where he could see me.
After 2 hours of my playing with this turkey, he gobbled.  Then a few minutes later when he gobbled again, he’d moved even farther away from me. I decided I had to get off my stump, move closer to that turkey, reposition myself and then call him in to take him. However, just as I began to pick up my calls, I heard a turkey drum. And I thought to myself, “There’s no way that turkey could have come to me that quick from as far away as I heard him gobble the last time he talked.” So I froze and listened. Now I could hear the turkey drumming and walking through the leaves. When that turkey gobbled, I finally realized that I had been calling to two different turkeys that morning. Although one tom (my original Mr. Leonard’s Gobbler) was far away, the other turkey was within 200-300 yards of me. When the faraway turkey wouldn’t gobble, the close-up turkey would. And after the close-up turkey gobbled, he’d shut up. The next time I called, the faraway turkey would answer me.
The cover was so thick around the stump that I couldn’t see the turkey, although I knew he was less than 50 yards from me. I quietly and deliberately rolled off that stump and lay on the ground on my stomach. As I looked through the cover, I could see the gobbler’s feet about 15 steps from me as he walked back and forth, strutting and drumming. The gobbler was so close that, with my naked eye, I could see his spurs and his beard, but I couldn’t spot his head. Now I could shoot his feet out from under him, but I knew he’d fly off and get away from me. And I thought, “What would be the point of shooting a turkey’s feet?” I was in a heck of a spot.
For about 15 minutes, I stayed motionless on my stomach, watching this big tom’s feet and his wing tips as he strutted, drummed, and gobbled. I noticed that ever now and then the gobbler would lower his head and peck the ground to get food. So I mounted my shotgun and aimed for the little opening where I could see the turkey’s feet.  Finally that gobbler stuck his head down to peck for food, and I squeezed the trigger. And that’s how I finally took this turkey off Mr. Leonard’s land.
If I hadn’t had my ThermaCELL cooking, there’s no way I would have been able to lay on that ground in that pine plantation without being eat up by mosquitoes. Although I never did take the long-distance tom (the original Mr. Leonard’s Gobbler) , the turkey I took weighed 23 pounds, had a 12-inch beard and had 1-3/4- inch spurs – the biggest eastern wild turkey I’d ever taken. And I knew immediately the ThermaCELL made the difference in my being able to take that bird and not take it.
Tomorrow: Mr. Ed Takes His Tom
Part 1: Thank God for ThermaCELL and Snake Boots
Part 2: My Adventure into Mosquito Heaven
Part 3: What Happens When You Don’t Have a ThermaCELL
Part 4: Taking Mr. Leonard’s Tom
Part 5: Mr. Ed Takes His Tom |
