10 minute tom

couldn't get out this morning as the kids had a PA day from school and the wife worked, so I told my boy once mom gets home we'll quickly get out to the bush and try our luck as the weather was great.. so, picked mama up and dropped her off and the boy hopped in the truck and away we went.. figured with the wind coming out of the south we could sneak into the little bush ( remember I mentioned earlier we saw a big tom strutting in the field the night before opener?) and set up just inside the bush over looking the back field.. we saw a bunch of birds strutting on our trip out and had our hopes up.. we did see a large male pheasant, the first time ever for us, so we took it as a good omen.. pulled up to the little bush and saw nothing in the field, so i told Porter " let's pull up and check the north side of the bush, it's down wind so they might be over there".. well, sure as the day is long, there is 3 in full strut in the field.. so i back the truck up slowly, they didn't see us and we get dressed and slip along the edge of the field and bush on the south side.. told my boy that the wind will blow any sound we make to them, so as i set up the blind if the sound of the rustling leaves gives them the impression of a hen scratching they might come in fast.. took a few minutes to set up the blind and put my new Avian X breeder hen out.. sat down in the blind, got all set up and called on my box call.. i didn't hear a thing but my boy said he heard a gobble.. called again and he said he heard another gobble, again i didn't hear it.. i put my mouth call in and called and i heard a faint gobble.. based on where they are coming from, the wind is blowing to them so we can't hear the gobbles as well... i called quiet again and BAM, they are really close.. boy's eyes are as wide as saucers, " i see them".. i asked where and he says " right there, to our left".. he is shaking bad.. look to our left and there are 2 bright white heads and they are full out running to us.. a nice tom and a jake.. jake goes toward the deke, but he spots us and gets spooked.. tom goes to our left and the boy didn't have a shot, he couldn't get turned around.. the tom see's something he doesn't like and starts to leave.. told him " can i shoot? do you want me to shoot? they are leaving".. he said ok and handed me the gun.. clucked twice to get him to turn our way and he did, put his head up and i put the bead of the Beard Buster site on his and squeezed the trigger.. he went down hard and didn't move.. he was at about 10 yards before he spooked and turned to leave.. i dropped him at 15 yards... 2nd biggest bird to date.. 26 lbs exactly, 11 1/8 " beard, left spur was 1 1/8" and the right spur was 1 1/4".. over all, we figured we hunted for roughly 10 minutes.. it literally took us longer to set up the blind then it did to call him in and kill him.. i apologized to my boy about 100 times on the way home.. really wanted him to drop him but they came in the absolute opposite direction we expected them to..

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here is a pic of my boy with the bird at the kill site..

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Great bird congrats to you both. Heavy bird and a rope of a beard.

There's a happy boy!! One day he'll be taking you hunting.:thumbup:

Great bird! Congrats!

That was another nice story to read
Congrats to you and the boy gets the next one :)

A great memory for you and your boy. Way to go! That's a big tom!

That is one nice tom congrats

Another Beauty ! ... Congrat's !