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It's been a long and frustrating season so far, but I FINALLY sealed the deal this afternoon. :jackson: :toothy9: :icon_thumright: :turkey2:
Where to start? Rain, rain and more rain. Followed by hens, hens and more hens. Followed by coyotes, trespassers and dirt bike riders. It seemed that I wasn't destined to catch a break. :TrainWreck1:
I'd been eyeing a pair of gobblers since before the season, but all game is safe in the yard. It's not sporting and I don't want to get divorced. :toothy12:  After the first weekend of the season, along with several shotgun blasts at the neighbors' properties, the boys disappeared. The wife and I were certain that they got killed. I finally patterned several of the elusive gobblers after tangling with them unsuccessfully for weeks. Then one afternoon about a week and a half ago, my target gobblers showed back up strutting through my yard after 2 hens. My hopes soared.
Still, with so many hens, all the gobblers have been very henned up. Finally less than a week ago, the hens started nesting, and the gobblers became solo and the gobbling picked up dramatically.
Getting back to the patterning, after weeks of dueling with them, I started to notice that they roosted with hens, spent the morning with them, and followed 2 main trails that the deer also used. After playing hen games every morning, the area gobblers would follow the hens down these 2 main trails. Now that the hens were making themselves scarce, I thought to myself that these trails would be the logical spot for a rendezvous with lusty gobblers.
Very heavy fog this AM, so I slept in this morning, and at 11:00 I was set up on one of the trails. Imitating the the turkeys, I kept my calls soft and to a minimum, mainly clucking and purring on my slate. At 12:45, as if on cue, a nearby gobble rang out in response to a crow. :gobble: Gun up, and I let out some soft clucks on the diaphragm and..... :gobble: I was dialed in and soon they crested the ridge 75 yards out. I shut up and let them come looking.
70, 60, 50 then 40. I had my eye on the big boy who was visibly larger than his buddy. But the big boy stayed out of range, while the smaller tom kept coming.
That's when it happened!!! :o I felt scratchy tickling in the back of my throat, and fought the urge to cough. I worked up some saliva and swallowed it to no avail. It went down the wrong pipe and I busted out in a coughing spell. The big boy fast walked even further flanking around me. The smaller tom did an about face and walked off. When he passed behind a large tree at 35 yards, I shouldered the 20 and when he stepped out, I put the dot on his head and dropped the hammer!!
He dropped but did not flop!!! My 20 stoned him DRT at 38 yards.
Well, the monkey's off my back and Mr. Big is still out there. :funnyturkey:
And yes, it's raining again all day tomorrow. ::)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250507/12baae7fb9f12fbd0a3f8d47ae741ba2.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250507/28d69414b61423ea684071bc1e03de30.jpg)

And yes JeffC, I'd rather be lucky than good any day of the week!!! ;) ;D :funnyturkey:

Good story.  Sometimes you have to gameplan strategies when you're having a tough season.  The coughing part made me laugh haha.  I know it wasn't funny at the time though.  Nice job rut.

The bodily functions are a killer, lol. I sneezed all over the receiver of my gun and missed at 3 yards, only by 3-4 feet. Great bird and adventure brother. Z

Congrats brother. Awesome bird!

Good job Jim!

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Good job getting it done Rut. :firefighter:

Thanks guys!! :thanks:

Way to stick.  I knew they were in trouble!   :you_rock:

WTG Rut!!! Congrats  :jackson:

Awesome job Jim!! Great red with awesome pictures, thanks for sharing. You just letting the Big Boy get Bigger!!

WTG Jimbo! Congrats on a good one.