So earlier this week I could of knifed a hen. Before she walked past me she was bugging pretty hard in a low cut green field. I had seen birds there before and knew it was a good spot so I figured I would head there this morning. I did some prospecting on my way there, and ended up with nada. So I got to that field again and parked it. No decoys, no calling. About an hour and a half in and after a nap I started doing some work on my phone. A few minutes into that, a gobble 70 yards away in the middle of the field snapped me out of my cellphone screen trance, 2 Toms were angling toward me, steadily walking and bugging. I had previously ranged a couple tree stumps in the field at 67 yards and knew ahead of time if anything came between me and the stumps favoring me, it would be about 40 yards, and it was toast, or so I thought. The birds did just that, walked between me and the stumps. I picked a spot and waited for the lead bird to walk into it. I felt like the Toms were favoring me and made the mistake of not stopping them. I took the shot and they scattered. There was also third bird bringing up the rear that I didn't see. A clean miss. I checked the shot site and even checked where the bird fled to. I didn't even cut a feather. Now my crummy season just got crummier. Now it was decision time. Go home or stick it out. I chose to stick it out because I knew the area was good. After making sure the shot was a miss, I decided to check out another green field about 200 yards away. As I eased up the logging road there is another small green field just before the field I was heading to. Sure enough a Jake was bugging in it. I think he ultimately saw me and spooked off. I then headed for the big field. As I cut the pie slowing creeping to the big field I saw a single hen about 100 yards away in the field. I was able to creep up to the edge of the field in the woods and get a good observation point where I could see the whole field. As I was doing that the hen I saw disappeared, but I no sooner got sat down and saw 2 more hens walking toward me from the far corner of the field several hundred yards away. I knew I was in the right spot. As the hens worked up the edge of the field they stopped at a dusting bowl. They were dusting so hard you could see the dust blowing in the wind across the field. Kind of like Pig Pen from Charlie brown. After about 15 minutes of that, the hens, now smoke phase in color, resumed working their way toward me. When they got about 80 yards from me, I looked at the corner of the field again and saw an army of turkeys coming the same way. From left to right, Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake, Hmmm?. The far left bird looked a little different from the others. As they got closer, I could see a white cap on the far left bird and he looked bigger. It was hard to see a beard as they were coming toward me. At about 100 yards I could see a definitive beard on the the far left bird. Meanwhile, the hens came to within 60 yards of me then turned right into a little alcove in the field and I couldn't see them. The 5 Amigos keep coming. Finally, the hens came out of the alcove, now about 45 yards away, but the 5 amigos went into it instead of going straight to the hens. However, just before the Tom went into the alcove, who was now last in line, strutted and I could see the full fan. When the 5 amigos went into the alcove the hens continued working to me, now about 25-30 yards away. After a few minutes I heard one of the Jakes gobble, and one of the hens broke off and paralleled the alcove through the woods, while the other hen stayed about 25 yards in front of me. I thought to myself I may be done if the boys saw the hen going through the woods away from me, but I guess they didn't see her or just let her go. A few minutes later I see the boys one by one filing out of the alcove and toward the remaining hen that was still about 25 yards in front of me. Finally, the gobbler was the last one out now about 45 yards away and working to me. At this point, I start to get my gun into position and the hen must of caught movement and went over to the gobbler. At that point the gobbler is now about 38 yards away and periscoped trying to figure out why the hen got spooky. While he was doing that, I was able to get my gun up and that was all she wrote for the gobbler. Finally... :turkey2:
Way to stick with it and not give up!! :icon_thumright:
Congrats!! :icon_thumright: :fud: :turkey:
Great way to stay the course. Glad you closed the deal!
Awesome hunt!
Congrats on a great hunt!
Great job!
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Awesome hunt persistence paid off this time good job on the Gobbler. :firefighter: