On call until 0700 this am, so getting out before daylight was a no go. Slept in, casual morning, and hit the woods at 1230.
Set up in one spot where I saw a gobbler a couple weeks ago and worked it about 45 minutes, but no luck. Drove on up the mountain to look for tracks and sign.
Got up where I had seen some birds last year and decided to just grab my gun and one mouth call to check it out. No tracks at all, called once, no response, decided to walk up the hill and check out the view at our 1000 yard shooting spot. Glassing the field, and nearly dropped my rangefinder, when a tom gobbled CLOSE.
I immediately dropped down but there were no trees for about 30 yards. I figured I'd spook the bird if I moved, so just kneeled down in the grass and got my gun ready. He gobbled two more times, I think I jumped two more times, again very close, but I could not see him. Waited a bit and gave one series of soft yelps with the mouth call. He cut me off and I thought he would come running. But he went silent for about 15 minutes. Started to get worried he may try to go around the woods and flank me. No way I could have moved an inch without the cover. About the time I was debating whether to call again or head for cover, I suddenly could just make out his tail feathers through the grown up grass. He was in full strut, doing figure 8s, but SLOWLY working my way. My gun was pointed the right direction but sure was getting heavy as I had been holding it for 30 minutes. A few more minutes, he walked just a bit closer, and finally stuck that head up at 25 yards looking for the hen... BANG, FLOP!
Couldn't really tell how big he was when I shot because of the grass, but he ended up being a pretty good bird. It was a good day.
Set up in one spot where I saw a gobbler a couple weeks ago and worked it about 45 minutes, but no luck. Drove on up the mountain to look for tracks and sign.
Got up where I had seen some birds last year and decided to just grab my gun and one mouth call to check it out. No tracks at all, called once, no response, decided to walk up the hill and check out the view at our 1000 yard shooting spot. Glassing the field, and nearly dropped my rangefinder, when a tom gobbled CLOSE.
I immediately dropped down but there were no trees for about 30 yards. I figured I'd spook the bird if I moved, so just kneeled down in the grass and got my gun ready. He gobbled two more times, I think I jumped two more times, again very close, but I could not see him. Waited a bit and gave one series of soft yelps with the mouth call. He cut me off and I thought he would come running. But he went silent for about 15 minutes. Started to get worried he may try to go around the woods and flank me. No way I could have moved an inch without the cover. About the time I was debating whether to call again or head for cover, I suddenly could just make out his tail feathers through the grown up grass. He was in full strut, doing figure 8s, but SLOWLY working my way. My gun was pointed the right direction but sure was getting heavy as I had been holding it for 30 minutes. A few more minutes, he walked just a bit closer, and finally stuck that head up at 25 yards looking for the hen... BANG, FLOP!
Couldn't really tell how big he was when I shot because of the grass, but he ended up being a pretty good bird. It was a good day.
