Tom down yesterday in 92a

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April 28th, 2020, 08:30 AM
taketheshot

1 Attachment(s)

Tom down yesterday in 92a [VIDEO]

Dropped a bird in 92a yesterday morning just after 7am. Just before legal shooting time the woods came alive and there were gobbles all around me. I set up near a corner of the field that has an opening to a well-used game trail that runs along a ridge, connecting a few fields.

First birds to make an appearance are a tom, jake, and two hens. They come out of the trail in the same field as me, but start heading along the opposite treeline. The tom is leading the way and he’s moving fast, no interest in my decoys or calls. The two hens were following the tom, and the jake was locked on to one of the hens, desperately displaying his fan the whole time. After 10min or so tom turns around and marches everyone back into the bush where they came from.

The jake that was locked onto the hen stayed with her and they hung out in the valley to my back. The gobblers were very vocal and kept answering my yelps but one of the hens did not like that one bit and for the next 20min or so she was moving through the bush to my right, behind me, back to my right.. the whole time cackling her head off. The gobbles moved with her and they were all moving fast. The gobblers stopped answering my yelps until I started cackling like the crazy hen and I finally started getting responses.

A little while passes and a hen heads into my decoys. Pecking around and moving cautiously. A tom came up silently from the valley directly behind me. I had no idea he was there until I looked out the left window of my blind and saw him at 8 or so yards. He displayed his fan for a while but his insecurities got the worst of him and he charged for my jake decoy. I let him display his dominance for a while before lights out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3LUbj1QXRo

22.7 lbs
11.25” beard
1.25” spurs

Attachment 40115
April 28th, 2020, 09:13 AM
tom gobble

Nice bird and vid congrats
April 28th, 2020, 09:14 AM
kokes

awesome video, congrats
April 28th, 2020, 09:33 AM
sabmgb

very good vid, and bird. thanks for sharing
April 28th, 2020, 10:17 AM
GW11

That was great to watch, congratulations on a nice bird!

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk
April 28th, 2020, 10:19 AM
anfield21

great video! Congrats on the Tom
April 28th, 2020, 10:35 AM
Flash1

Amazing video and congrats on the bird. That was epic!
April 28th, 2020, 10:45 AM
GERRYL

Nice to get that on video. Congrats on very nice bird
April 28th, 2020, 10:56 AM
Articcat

Congrats on the nice tom and video thanks for sharing
April 28th, 2020, 12:06 PM
fratri

Nice, great video too...
April 28th, 2020, 07:09 PM
Deer Hunter

I enjoyed the video. Vicious little thing. lol. Congrats on a beautiful bird.
:thumbup:
April 28th, 2020, 09:04 PM
mikedinoro

Oh wow...

1) Awesome video & camera play
(go-pro? how far away was the camera to avoid getting pellets?. can you post a pic of the mount? love the idea, I will try it myself as well)
2) Nerves of steel...would have taken the shot 10 times earlier...nicely done
3) my dog went mental hearing the tom chirping :D
April 29th, 2020, 07:52 AM
taketheshot

1 Attachment(s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikedinoro

Oh wow...

1) Awesome video & camera play
(go-pro? how far away was the camera to avoid getting pellets?. can you post a pic of the mount? love the idea, I will try it myself as well)
2) Nerves of steel...would have taken the shot 10 times earlier...nicely done
3) my dog went mental hearing the tom chirping :D

There was a time when I would drop the bird much earlier out of fear of losing it. Since I started recording my hunts, I figure I'd let my birds play around with the decoys for a while. This jake decoy has been beaten up, tossed around and humped to the max (dumb jake a couple years back haha - clip is also on my youtube channel). There's about 3m between my jake and submissive hen decoy, the cameras are placed in the middle. It looks far because they are recording on wide. In hindsight, the one pointed to the jake should have been medium or narrow angle.

Attachment 40114

The mount is pretty simple and was an enjoyable off-season project. Wood dowel, shaved a point at one end. Wrapped in camo tape. Cameras attached using pole mounts (I bought cheap ones shipped from China for about $1.25 a piece with free shipping - takes a month to arrive but better than the GoPro price for mounts!). Cameras are seated in Frame mounts so the audio is more clear and there is an open port so I can keep the cameras plugged in. Cables run down the dowel to 2 USB battery banks that are constantly charging the cameras as they're recording. The memory cards would fill up well before the batteries die. I turn off the beep sound and lights (also put a piece of tape over the light just in case).
I bought my first GoPro new for full price. I later discovered that as new units come out people are quick to sell off older units with very little use to upgrade. The next 2 GoPro's I bought were second hand, barely used and by the time I sold off all the accessories that came with them (battery packs, LCD screens, wifi remotes, unneeded mounts), I ended up only paying $60 for one of the cameras and $80 for the other.

Perfect way to capture video from all angles. Going through the footage, you end up noticing things you didnt while in the field. One year I shot a tom over my decoys and after reviewing the footage, there were 3 jakes standing in the treeline not far from my blind just watching him. Without the extra camera angle I never would have known there were other birds there.
April 29th, 2020, 08:23 AM
410001661

I love the video........like how you put the camera near the decoy (and you did not shoot it - LOL). Congrat's on a nice turkey and thanks for sharing the great show he put on for you. Now go and fill that second tag!
April 29th, 2020, 08:46 AM
Bushwhacker

Quote:

Originally Posted by taketheshot

Dropped a bird in 92a yesterday morning just after 7am. Just before legal shooting time the woods came alive and there were gobbles all around me. I set up near a corner of the field that has an opening to a well-used game trail that runs along a ridge, connecting a few fields.

First birds to make an appearance are a tom, jake, and two hens. They come out of the trail in the same field as me, but start heading along the opposite treeline. The tom is leading the way and he’s moving fast, no interest in my decoys or calls. The two hens were following the tom, and the jake was locked on to one of the hens, desperately displaying his fan the whole time. After 10min or so tom turns around and marches everyone back into the bush where they came from.

The jake that was locked onto the hen stayed with her and they hung out in the valley to my back. The gobblers were very vocal and kept answering my yelps but one of the hens did not like that one bit and for the next 20min or so she was moving through the bush to my right, behind me, back to my right.. the whole time cackling her head off. The gobbles moved with her and they were all moving fast. The gobblers stopped answering my yelps until I started cackling like the crazy hen and I finally started getting responses.

A little while passes and a hen heads into my decoys. Pecking around and moving cautiously. A tom came up silently from the valley directly behind me. I had no idea he was there until I looked out the left window of my blind and saw him at 8 or so yards. He displayed his fan for a while but his insecurities got the worst of him and he charged for my jake decoy. I let him display his dominance for a while before lights out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3LUbj1QXRo

22.7 lbs
11.25” beard
1.25” spurs

Attachment 40100

Beauty! Nicely done. I was hunting a few WMU's North of you in 84 around the same time yesterday. Had 4 turkeys approaching my blind on a string, stop and turn around only to cross the road and vanish for the day. I wasn't calling, so maybe the decoys spooked them?
April 29th, 2020, 02:22 PM
mikedinoro

Quote:

Originally Posted by taketheshot

There was a time when I would drop the bird much earlier out of fear of losing it. Since I started recording my hunts, I figure I'd let my birds play around with the decoys for a while. This jake decoy has been beaten up, tossed around and humped to the max (dumb jake a couple years back haha - clip is also on my youtube channel). There's about 3m between my jake and submissive hen decoy, the cameras are placed in the middle. It looks far because they are recording on wide. In hindsight, the one pointed to the jake should have been medium or narrow angle.

Attachment 40114

The mount is pretty simple and was an enjoyable off-season project. Wood dowel, shaved a point at one end. Wrapped in camo tape. Cameras attached using pole mounts (I bought cheap ones shipped from China for about $1.25 a piece with free shipping - takes a month to arrive but better than the GoPro price for mounts!). Cameras are seated in Frame mounts so the audio is more clear and there is an open port so I can keep the cameras plugged in. Cables run down the dowel to 2 USB battery banks that are constantly charging the cameras as they're recording. The memory cards would fill up well before the batteries die. I turn off the beep sound and lights (also put a piece of tape over the light just in case).
I bought my first GoPro new for full price. I later discovered that as new units come out people are quick to sell off older units with very little use to upgrade. The next 2 GoPro's I bought were second hand, barely used and by the time I sold off all the accessories that came with them (battery packs, LCD screens, wifi remotes, unneeded mounts), I ended up only paying $60 for one of the cameras and $80 for the other.

Perfect way to capture video from all angles. Going through the footage, you end up noticing things you didnt while in the field. One year I shot a tom over my decoys and after reviewing the footage, there were 3 jakes standing in the treeline not far from my blind just watching him. Without the extra camera angle I never would have known there were other birds there.

Thank you so much for the info....brilliant suggestions. I will do the same.
I watched the videos on your channel, including the humping one and the awesome 3 down....I think I could hear your guys celebrating in the blind
April 29th, 2020, 02:54 PM
toddy

Nice job! If I owned $150 dollar decoy the bird would be dead long before it makes contact with my precious plastic lol.
April 29th, 2020, 04:23 PM
taketheshot

Quote:

Originally Posted by toddy

Nice job! If I owned $150 dollar decoy the bird would be dead long before it makes contact with my precious plastic lol.

I’m not too concerned, haha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovx3JjAXRoc&app=desktop
April 29th, 2020, 04:25 PM
taketheshot

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikedinoro

Thank you so much for the info....brilliant suggestions. I will do the same.
I watched the videos on your channel, including the humping one and the awesome 3 down....I think I could hear your guys celebrating in the blind

Yeah we were stoked when that happened. The previous hunt was when I reviewed the footage and saw 3 jakes watching me drop a tom. Came back with my dad and uncle and sure enough, 3 birds showed up.
April 29th, 2020, 07:04 PM
mikedinoro

Quote:

Originally Posted by taketheshot

Yeah we were stoked when that happened. The previous hunt was when I reviewed the footage and saw 3 jakes watching me drop a tom. Came back with my dad and uncle and sure enough, 3 birds showed up.

Awesome!
Keep on hunting & posting brother, good luck!
April 30th, 2020, 07:06 AM
bellerivercrossbowhunter

Great job on the video. I hope to get out next weekend for round 2... lol