Tagged Out for Week A

[buckman37]

I put the birds to bed last night and got in early and set up as close as I thought I could get away with.  As morning light came and the woods woke up with little birds, the turkeys remained quiet so long that I was beginning to doubt my set up and was thinking that they must have moved over night.  With my head full of doubt, I am pretty sure my heart skipped a beat when he gobbled...and he was closer than I expected him to be.  As I scanned the trees, the lack of leaves exposed dark spots...4 of them, all hens.  The tom gobbled once more and that was it.  All of his girlfriends flew down towards me and I thought it was going to be a very quick hunt.  Well as the girls milled around and made a bunch of noise, the tom was silent and no where to be seen.  Three more hens ran out into the field and when they hit the field, the woods blew up with gobbles.  I thought for sure the big boy would come out to gather up his harem, but to my disbelief, 2 jakes entered the field in full strut like they owned the place.  My heart sunk again thinking that there is no way a mature bird would put up with this type of behavior as it continued for several minutes as the flock was leaving the field through the hedgerow.  A couple of hens stayed on my side of the hedgerow and worked towards me, but I paid them little attention waiting on the tom that I had seen the night before.  At about 70 yards, the lead hen spotted my decoys and started a conversation, which I gladly responded to.  As she got angry, I responded even more sassy to the point that she and another hen ran in for a fight.  At one point they were less than 10 yards from me and I about held my breath so I would not get busted by the steam that resulted.  What I didn't realize was that the tom had at some point silently followed the hens in.  I never saw where he came from and I only knew he was there by hearing his spitting and drumming to my left and CLOSE!  I saw the full fan in the corner of my eye and once he got to where I could make my move, I went for it and dropped him.  

 

He weighed in at 22lb 3oz sporting a 10-1/4" beard and 1-1/16" spurs.  NWTF Score = 63.9375

 

[BowhunterNJ]

Awesome! Congrats on a great bird and hunt! Really enjoyed the story! Man your heart must have been pumping out of your chest in those last few moments!

[Sotaroas]

I'll second the great story, and congrats on the Tom ! Great hunts happen when you put it all together!

[Devil Horns]

_{Nice work! Congrats on a great gobbler}

Edited April 24, 2015 by Devil Horns

[runum n gunum]

Nice Story and Congrats on a Great Bird