So, this morning was the start of NH's youth season. I got Harrison up, and we had breakfast and headed out to a spot I had roosted a bird the night before.
We got there, and at first light, he started hammering! Game on!!
I simulated a flydown, and Harrison did the cackle. Long story short, he went away from us.
So, we sat there and strategized. We headed to a place where I had heard a gobbler the afternoon before.
We go there and settled in. Nothing was responding, and the wind and rain started picking up.
I got a text from my son's baseball coach to tell me the games were cancelled, so we now had no time constraints!
We went down to where we heard the gobbler the afternoon before, and struck him up, but he wouldn't budge!
By now, we were looking for a new plan. We headed out of the field, and looked back, and there was the gobbler, gobbling and running to us!
We beat it back to where we setup, and started calling. I was afraid the bird had busted us, but he came right in!
Only problem was he came to H's right, where no shot was presented. The bird crossed the road, and headed into another field!
We ran down the road and got into the woods about 100 yards below him.
I hit the call, and he hammered it! We saw him, but he was 50 yards above us on a ledge. He walked back to the field and stayed there.
I continued working him, and he continued to gobble.
Here's where it goes wrong....
Two guys were out road scouting, and one guy hit his mouth call, and it sounded like a cat caught in a dryer! I franticly tried to get their attention. They saw me, and took off. But when they slammed their truck doors, that ended our hunt. The bird gave us a few over the shoulder gobbles, and that was it.
Not to be deterred, we headed to another spot. We no more than got settled in, and we heard a hen cutting up a storm. Harrison engaged her, and she came into the field with another hen purring and cutting!
They wandered off, and nothing happened for a while. The Harrison hit the Primos Power Crystal, and 3 birds hammered it!!!! We played cat and mouse with 3 jakes, but could not get them to come in. They skirted the small field we were hunting, and gave us some over the shoulder gobbles, and that ended our day.
I was really bummed we couldn't get Harrison that first tom, but bad luck is a part of hunting.
It was still a great day, with a ton of action!!!!!
