After being beat down by a public land gobbler last year. I finally dropped the hammer on one this spring. I drew the 1st week here in wisconsin and decided to try my 'secret' spot in an attempt to fill my tag. Well, turns out there was atleast 3 other guys that knew of this 'secret' spot, so I had to try another.
Unfortunately, there was somebody at who had driven back into the 2nd spot I was gonna try. Being that we walked in like we were supposed to and didnt know he was there until we were committed....and that it was a fairly decent sized piece of timber, I decided we would just slowly walk the trail going back in. I saw no boot tracks in the sand and heard no calling so I felt confident he was on the other end of the property somewhere. Had I noticed something, we would've backed out. Who knows, maybe he was looking for mushrooms or something.
Anyways, I had taken a friend of mine...a city slicker who has been amazed by nature ever since I got her away from the concrete jungle. We walked back in a ways and set up in a comfortable spot hoping we could get something to come in. There were a few gobbles a long ways off, then all was quiet. After 2 hours she was becoming restless and we decided to head for breakfast. As we were walking out on the trail, a crow fired up and a gobbler sounded off just ahead of us.
I had her hustle back to a big oak on the corner of the trail while I set up a decoy in front of us. When I got situated next to her, I let out a couple of soft yelps to which he gobbled. I told her she would see him first as he was going to come up the trail and around the corner to us. As we're sitting there I notice her fumbling with her cell phone trying to get video of it.....I really wanted to jump on her to stop moving around, but knew she was excited and didnt want to ruin her good time. After 5 minutes or so, she whispers to me....."is he coming?' I said, "I dont know, he could be coming, he could be standing there strutting, or he could be walking the other way."
No sooner did I get that out of my mouth and she says, "there he is." He strutted up to the deke....spittin&drummin...it was a great show for her to witness....then I killed him!
He is one of my best birds and 1st on public. 21lbs, 1-1/4 spurs and 10-1/4" beard. And I was very happy to be able to share it with someone who's never had any type of interaction with hunting before......and the fact that she loved it makes it that much sweeter!
Great story and congrats on the gobbler :icon_thumright:
...it was a great show for her to witness....then I killed him!
That made me chuckle :toothy12:. Congrats!
Great story! What county did this hunt take place?
Congrats on a nice Wi. public land bird..
Congrats
Awesome ..... great story !!
Great story and success, congrats! You better hang on to that gal, sounds like she's a keeper.
Congrats
Quote from: longbeard95 on April 23, 2012, 10:02:25 PM
Great story! What county did this hunt take place?
Somebody fishing?
:icon_thumright:
Great job. Congrats.