I met an angel this morning. His name is Peter and he gave me a turkey. I pulled up to the parking area at the same WMA that had been as quiet as a snoring butterfly last week. There was another hunter that had just pulled in and was getting ready. I hopped out of the car and asked him where he was intending to go this morning so that I could stay out of his area. Long story short, he invited me to go with him about a mile down the road where we could hunt 2 adjacent areas. I couldn't believe my ears. We took off and he proceeded to tell me all about seeing flocks of big gobblers down where we were going. We finally arrived at our splitting up spot and he told me to quietly slip down this field edge as there were probably birds roosted down there. I got down to the corner and sat up with a view of most of the field. 5 minutes pass and one hammers about 80 yards from me on the roost. This set off all of the other gobblers as I counted 5 different birds telling the news. Eventually I could make out that the gobbles were getting a little further away and I decided that it was time to move. I checked Google Maps and saw that there was a field in the direction that the gobbles were coming from. I snuck in, pulling a David Owens patented belly crawl to get to a tree near the edge of the field. Altogether I saw that there were 6 strutters and 7 hens feeding around on the far edge of the field. I sat and watched them for a while and they seemed to be drifting off to my left down the field. I spot 2 strutters that seemed intimidated by the other, much bigger gobblers and had separated from them. I decided that it was time to get aggressive so I yelped excitedly, both of them gobbled and they started slowly moving towards me. Eventually one of them wandered left and one went right. I checked for a clean fan, put the red dot of death on his wattles and launched an angry swarm of pre-tariff Chinese #9 bees for his dining pleasure. I knew that he wasn't the King, but my options were running out for this season. When I got out to him, I kneeled down, placed my hand on this quiet warm body and thanked God for this magnificent animal and the incredible opportunity that we have to hunt him on his own terms.
He was a legitimate 2 year old turkey and his total OG score is 55.5.
I've said it many times before and I will say it again, I Absolutely Love This Sport!
Cheers
FullChoke
