Montana Opening Day Tom

[hobbes]

The weather was marginal on opening weekend and we were hunting some public land we'd never seen before Friday. We lucked into locating some birds on Friday evening and called in two birds on Saturday. I tried to get Isaac the shot but #1 showed up at 10 yards on my side bolted and I sent a shot over his head. That was at about 630 am after leaving a leaking tire in the middle of nowhere. After changing the flat then fixing it in town we found a bird at 130 and killed him at about 215 pm. I swear I tried to get Isaac the shot. We rotated around that tree until I was dizzy but the tom was bound and determined to make sure I killed him in the last opening I had where Isaac didn't
have a shot. One of my best Merriam's. The beard was 9" with slightly hooked spurs just short of 7/8"  but his weight felt really good. I didn't have a scale but I would guess approx 20 lbs. He felt huge for a ponderosa pine/ hills bird.

I've written up the full story on Greathuntingstories.com

We won't get out for a couple weeks now because of the nasty weather predicted this weekend, but we should be after them again the following weekend.  Excited about hiting this new spot when the weather is nice.  Hoping to look for a Spring bear to put the sneak on this weekend.  Hoping to do a late season hunt in Washington also.

He was stiff by the time we hiked 2 hours to the truck, so I had a hard time displaying him well.




Isaac holding the bird:



Not much in the way of spurs, but not bad for these birds:


Tailgate shot:


Snow on Sunday morning:




Spoils from the hunt:
The beard measured longer than I thougth at 9"


The difference in color from the feather we found and of the darker feathers on my bird (he had some creamier coloring than this feather)

[catdaddy]

I always love your stuff!! Congrats on the nice gobbler! 

[hobbes]

Thanks Catdaddy!  I should have added that this is my first bird here in MT.  I only hunted them 4 days in MT last year and the few I found kicked my butt.  This is a new/smaller area of public land that I found while using my maps and satelite photos.  I hope the pressure stays down when the weather is nice also.  I need to get Isaac his first MT bird also.  A second for both of us wouldn't be a bad deal either, but I'll keep my expectations down.

[DirtNap647]

congrats

[TRKYHTR]

Great hunt and pics Hobbes.

TRKYHTR

[Terry]

Sounds like a great hunt!

[Wrangler95]

z-guntootsmiley:



Very nice gobbler,congrats!

[Gooserbat]

Congrats

[ghillie]

Congrats!  Beauty!

[alloutdoors]

Nice bird, congrats!

[Limbstrutter]

Awesome pics ... Congrats...

[tomstopper]

Congrats.....

[captin_hook]

Congrats. Nice pics.

[ElkTurkMan]

Congrats, I loved the pictures.

[beagler]

Nice!