I've been working a lot lately and haven't had much time to post. Last month, I was drawn for jury duty on 4-11-17, but the jury pool was already filled when I called to check in. That allowed me a day off work to hunt. I went to the bigger of the horse farms, because the other farm owner had been seeing 3 different longbeards near the big farm recently.
Instead of parking beside the road and easing up the creek bottom, recent rains had left more water in the creek, so I drove around to the back pasture and eased into the woods on one of the horse trails I help maintain. I'd built a low brush blind beside the swamp a few years ago, though I hadn't killed anything there yet.
At dawn, geese flying overhead were honking and the breeze through the trees kept me from hearing much. I heard a faint gobble, which sounded like it came from down along the creek, across the road. I could only hunt the land on this side of the road. He must have been facing away from me on the limb, because the next several gobbles were louder, probably on my side of the road, which meant I could probably work him when he flew down. His next gobbles were from a different place, obviously on the ground.
I called, but the wind muffled my cutts & yelps. When the wind slowed, he gobbled and I hit him with more cutts & yelps. He definitely heard me that time and gobbled back. I let him stew a bit. Behind me to my right a hen also fired up , but she was across the arm of the swamp, so she'd either have to fly across or go around to get to me. The gobbler followed the creek bottom up to the horse trail, he then went to the highest ground and gobbled his @$$ off for 15 minutes. I stayed quiet, like I'd lost interest. I thought he was drifting away, because he'd gone quiet. I cutt hard on the long box again and he double gobbled back. Just then, the hen behind me got fired up and started cutting and yelping herself. The gobbler couldn't stand it and he came strutting through the small trees, just stopping long enough to gobble.
He kept on towards me instead of following the other horse trail and when he got inside of 30 yards I putted on the Tom Teasers mouth call to bring him out of strut. He poked his head up and went to half strut. I busted him with 2 ounces of Hevi #6s at 28 yards. He weighed 21 pounds 2 ounces, had a 10 inch beard, and 1.125 inch spurs. I was a great hunt. The time from when I heard his first gobble until I shot him was 35 minutes.
Jim
Congrats. Thx for sharing the awesome story with us.
Nice gob, congrats!
nice bird, congrats
CONGRATULATIONS!!! :turkey2:
Well played Sir, well played!
Got to love civic duty.
Congrats
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Well done, Jim! :icon_thumright:
Congrats and great story!
Congrats Jim!
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Nice tom. Congratulations!
Congrats! Great story too.
:icon_thumright:
Congrats!
Congrats on a fine gobbler! It's nice when a plan comes together.
well done :icon_thumright:
Very nice gobbler,congrats!! :happy0064: :happy0064: :happy0064: