OOD 2022 BIG GOBBLER FUN CONTEST LEADERBOARD - official thread to post your scores and pics

[Lenny]

Updated Leaderboard

Articcat 48
Markster 46.5
Jerryklimczuk 42
TurkeyJohn 40
Lenny 21

Took a buddy out yesterday for his first hunt of the year. We started mid-morning, and had an immediate gobble after walking in to one of my favorite spots. I look at him and ask - can it be this easy? We snuck around and set-up, with me about 4 yards behind him in the brush calling. The gobbler started working towards us, and then out of nowhere a hen materializes, doesn't want to challenge my hen calls, just alarm puts, and walks over to the tom that we still hadn't seen. He immediately shuts up, and stops responding to my calls, but still gobbles occassionally at crows calling as they fly over. All goes quiet, and all of a sudden I hear a bird take off from under the cedars at the edge of the marsh we are on - and I see the hen gaining altitude and getting out of there in a hurry. What the heck? 30 seconds later, in an explosion of flapping and thrashing, the tom takes to the air, barely. He was really working to get up and stay up, big beard hanging down, barely clearing the tops of the cattails the whole way across the swamp. He was so fat he could barely fly. He crashes into the pines on the other side, starts gobbling, she responds, they go back and forth for a while, celebrating their close call and escape perhaps. I've never seen a hen rescue a tom like that before! We circled around the swamp and tried to get on them again, but the wind really came up, and we couldn't hear them if they did respond, so we called it quits. Playing it over, we must have spooked the hen on our way in, and she got her boyfriend out of there!

[sabmgb]

may not be a real big bird but nice looking. good for you on evening shoot, I have tried a few times with no luck,

[Articcat]

Here's my story for Saturday morning, was at the farm at 5:00 walked in and set up the decoys and waited to hear any gobbling.
It was not until 6:30 that a couple of gobbles went off in the distance to the west of me which i thought might be across the road but were actually on the same property but not where i expected them. They continued to gobble as I called softly when i heard a hen to the south of me. She finally appeared over the rise and was coming in to the dekes putting and purring all the way in and stayed for a while so I left her alone to cluck and purr which I thought would add to my dekes which it did as the toms gobbled and appeared about 150 yards away with 4 more hens and looked like 2 jakes with them so started called andIMG_0088.jpgIMG_0088.jpg only the jakes responded and came running in like a train strutting and running all the way in. One jake had no beard and the other jake one had what looked like a 5" to 6 " beard so I took him and now I'm tagged out for the season.
the jake had a 4-3/8" beard and 1/8" spurs and weighed 18.3Lbs.

[Articcat]

IMG_0085.jpgIMG_0086.jpgIMG_0087.jpgIMG_0089.jpgIMG_0084.jpg
Sorry didn't mean to post 2 pictures of me but hear are the rest of the pictures

[waldo17]

Well done sir.

[Markster]

Nice looking birds guys!

[Lenny]

Sounds like a great morning Articcat, congrats on being tagged out.

Updated Leaderboard

Articcat 48
Markster 46.5
Jerryklimczuk 42
TurkeyJohn 40
Lenny 21
Articcat 11.25

[Articcat]

Thanks' Lenny,

[Deer Hunter]

Did go out on first weekend with nephew. We double up on Tom and Jake on first day. 2FC3F867-8422-497B-ACC2-0FE4C2490DC4.jpgC5919C26-3DBA-40D8-B7DB-35DDA662037B.jpg
Hunted three days. Was great to be with family. Sorry didn’t measure nothing yet. I shot the Tom, beard was in rough shape but I’m sure it was 7-8” and spurs around 3/4”.

[tom gobble]

Nice double congrats Deer Hunter