A great hunt this morning
I got there, tried setting up on some birds that were gobbling off the roost. One came in to about 40yds (just didn't feel comfortable for the shot) and after a couple of minutes waiting for his girlfriend to come out of the bush to greet him, he turned away and headed to the middle of the field.
I tried to get around and ambush the bird. Made a 300 yd circle only to find the bird still in the middle of the field not budging... On the positive side, my view now exposed about 6 hens and another gobbler. So I have 2 Toms and 6 hens in the middle of a field about 150 yds from the nearest bush on the far side....
I decide to try my luck and go around to the other side of the bush (back tracking about 400yds) setting up on the edge (about 150yds away from my closest gobbler).... I let out a few calls but no surprise, he isn't moving... Why should he, he has his girlfriends right around him.....
About 1.5hrs have passed since I started my hunt... These guys don't want to give up the middle of the field without a fight and that was just what I was going to give them....
I decide to make the effort so I walk back to my truck (just over 200yds away at this point)... drink a bottle of water (it was hot) and bring along my Jake decoy back with me....
I make my way to the bushline, they are all still there about 150yds out..... I crawl out just beyond the grass line with the Jake decoy. Before staking the decoy into the ground I move him side to side and drop his tail a few times just to grab the Toms attention.... As I creep back into the treeline, I see the nearest Tom making his way toward us, he is interested in this new guy :)
He wasn't running it was more like a quick walk... It was a little weird as the other birds noticed him coming over, they all started coming my way....(not nearly as fast but all coming my way regardless)...
I let him come right in until about 20yds or so before trying to stop him (to raise his head) by saying to him "hey bud" had to say it twice before he actually stopped and raised his head for the shot at 15yds.... So after 2 hours some of bush whacking and a little bit of ingenuity, I got it done :)
Big heavy bird, 1" spurs, nice long beard coming in @ 11"......
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