SpurHunter
Well-known member
I started out at AEDC hoping to find the Gobblers that I had heard last Sunday I had three hens fly down a hundred yards from me and feed for over 30 minutes as close as 20 yards but I never heard or saw the first gobbler anytime in two hours.
I decided to head for the lease and see if I could strike up a mid Morningbird.
That's where I made mistake number one, I walked into my first field with my gun over my shoulder no head net and I never made a call, and of course I stumbled into two long beards and a hen that busted me and took off.
I roamed around trying to strike with no luck for about an hour.
I headed back towards the truck not sure if I was going to call it a day or not when I heard a gobble. It was the direction I was going so I double timed it and then heard a secondary bird and before I could even think a third bird in a different direction.
I decided to chase the third bird as I knew where it was and a really good plan of action to intercept it.
I got set up and he gobbled a time or two and a hen that was with him or near him put on a vocal show like I've never heard before. She would yelp so loud and fast and transition into putts, clucks and and purrs, I could've sworn it was a hunter but she was moving around so it was for sure a real bird.
The gobbler only sounded off maybe 10 times and I thought for sure that it was over when some deer blew at me real close and he shut up for about 20 minutes.
I had just replied to a text asking me how it was going when I had told my buddy it was pretty much over, I hit send and he gobbled 50 yards from me down the hill. The gun came up the safety came off he just needed to come another 10 yards or so where I could see him and it was game over. I could hear him strutting and this went on for about five minutes then all went quiet and he would not reply at all.
I hung tight and called even the hen cranked back up but he would never answer again I really don't understand why he shut up. When I finally called it 30 minutes later, i stood up I realized the side of the old fence that he was coming up had a huge tree blocking the trail and he would not go around it and he would not go over it, I have seen gobblers do this in the past with silly things, certainly he could've jumped over it without much effort.
I played around for a little while longer only getting one reply from another bird and decided to go stuff my belly.
When I came back I noticed some birds that normally are in a different spot pretty regular, but this time they were in a spot that could lead right up to me if they did the right thing. I hoofed it to get into position before they got too close to their roost site.
As I was clearing a spot at the base of the tree I looked down the logging road and the two gobblers had just jumped out of it into the brush to my right and were just standing there poking around.
I guess they really didn't see me because they did not get spooky, the hens were there next to them and they just hung out for a minute, I quickly sat down and got prepared.
They were just barely out of range for me were they were standing, but I started some very light calling and they started to color up pretty quick. The hens continued on up the hill and for some reason they turned back around and went down the hill towards the field that they were using.
I really felt like they would take another route up the hill and I would not have any chance but I finally got one of them to gobble about 10 minutes later that raised my hopes.
Another five or 10 minutes went by and I could see a white head poking up around the corner of the logging road, then a tail fan. He was going in and out of strut working his way straight up the trail toward me on a string. I let him get into my effective range, which I can't mention on this forum, and dented the primer and he hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, never moving a muscle.
I shot a bunch of turkeys from very very close to very far and I've never seen that happen before but it was pretty stunning.
He tipped the scales at 22.4 pounds with a 10.5 inch extremely thick brushy beard and had just under 1 inch very sharp spurs.
I know spur length doesn't tell the whole story but I would certainly think that it could be a three-year-old or even a four-year-old bird with the size of him all around, regardless he was certainly not going to get a pass.
I decided to head for the lease and see if I could strike up a mid Morningbird.
That's where I made mistake number one, I walked into my first field with my gun over my shoulder no head net and I never made a call, and of course I stumbled into two long beards and a hen that busted me and took off.
I roamed around trying to strike with no luck for about an hour.
I headed back towards the truck not sure if I was going to call it a day or not when I heard a gobble. It was the direction I was going so I double timed it and then heard a secondary bird and before I could even think a third bird in a different direction.
I decided to chase the third bird as I knew where it was and a really good plan of action to intercept it.
I got set up and he gobbled a time or two and a hen that was with him or near him put on a vocal show like I've never heard before. She would yelp so loud and fast and transition into putts, clucks and and purrs, I could've sworn it was a hunter but she was moving around so it was for sure a real bird.
The gobbler only sounded off maybe 10 times and I thought for sure that it was over when some deer blew at me real close and he shut up for about 20 minutes.
I had just replied to a text asking me how it was going when I had told my buddy it was pretty much over, I hit send and he gobbled 50 yards from me down the hill. The gun came up the safety came off he just needed to come another 10 yards or so where I could see him and it was game over. I could hear him strutting and this went on for about five minutes then all went quiet and he would not reply at all.
I hung tight and called even the hen cranked back up but he would never answer again I really don't understand why he shut up. When I finally called it 30 minutes later, i stood up I realized the side of the old fence that he was coming up had a huge tree blocking the trail and he would not go around it and he would not go over it, I have seen gobblers do this in the past with silly things, certainly he could've jumped over it without much effort.
I played around for a little while longer only getting one reply from another bird and decided to go stuff my belly.
When I came back I noticed some birds that normally are in a different spot pretty regular, but this time they were in a spot that could lead right up to me if they did the right thing. I hoofed it to get into position before they got too close to their roost site.
As I was clearing a spot at the base of the tree I looked down the logging road and the two gobblers had just jumped out of it into the brush to my right and were just standing there poking around.
I guess they really didn't see me because they did not get spooky, the hens were there next to them and they just hung out for a minute, I quickly sat down and got prepared.
They were just barely out of range for me were they were standing, but I started some very light calling and they started to color up pretty quick. The hens continued on up the hill and for some reason they turned back around and went down the hill towards the field that they were using.
I really felt like they would take another route up the hill and I would not have any chance but I finally got one of them to gobble about 10 minutes later that raised my hopes.
Another five or 10 minutes went by and I could see a white head poking up around the corner of the logging road, then a tail fan. He was going in and out of strut working his way straight up the trail toward me on a string. I let him get into my effective range, which I can't mention on this forum, and dented the primer and he hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, never moving a muscle.
I shot a bunch of turkeys from very very close to very far and I've never seen that happen before but it was pretty stunning.
He tipped the scales at 22.4 pounds with a 10.5 inch extremely thick brushy beard and had just under 1 inch very sharp spurs.
I know spur length doesn't tell the whole story but I would certainly think that it could be a three-year-old or even a four-year-old bird with the size of him all around, regardless he was certainly not going to get a pass.
