26.6 Pound Tom shot in Bruce County- video

[JMatthews]

Here is some advice for new hunters: watch the behaviour of the bird you are hunting so that you know when to call.
Here is an example from my hunt yesterday:


I watched a Tom strutting and he had 3 hens around him. He continued to strut after one of the hens left and then he followed the 2 hens into the woods.


Surprisingly the 2 hens came out of the woods 3 minutes later, with the Tom following. He gobbled once and I made a soft call. He did a half strut and then started following the hens. Only this time he was not strutting. As they came closer, I made a soft purr to get his attention. Then he headed right to my Tom decoy.


Lessons from this hunt:
- Never assume a henned up Tom will not come in to your decoys. I always use a breeder hen with the Tom in strut or a Jake decoy. All of the Toms shot this year came right to the Tom decoy.
- Once the Tom stopped strutting I knew I had a good chance of calling him into my decoys.


26.6 pounds, 13” beard 1” spurs shot at 8:30 am


Here is the link to the video of the Tom coming in. ( ignore date and time on video)


https://youtu.be/NTKX3QRhSlY?si=RZAQqaUIgZg89oBd

here are the photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149864...res/qy34VNzxLb

[genec]

Wow, nice bird!!
Congratulations.

[JMatthews]

Thanks !

[Markster]

Big bird! Congratulations

[JMatthews]

Thank you