Got it done

[Shellwaster]

After a long and wet day Saturday on a south Georgia WMA with only one faint gobble I decided to sleep in on Sunday and let the storms pass. A good friend and I hit the same WMA (since I was drawn for the quota hunt and he was coming along for the ride and to film) at around 9:30. After a couple different setups he and I called it quits at 12:45 and went out to his farm to feed cows and move them into another field.
But before the chores we checked a food plot and to keep on par there was nothing but a couple deer. He hit his box call and no response. We ease through the woods to another plot only to find nothing in this one. Just for grins he made a couple excited clucks on a mouth call and was answered by a bird on the other side of the first plot in the woods. As we stood frozen in the young pines as cover we spot the bird. I immediately drop down but due to the ground cover I can no longer see the bird. After what seemed like 10 minutes without seeing or hearing the bird my buddy lightly clucks, this time it was answered by 3 gobbles and I see him strutting through the pines looking for the lonesome hen that got him fired up. As he made his way ever so slowly I see another bird with him. At this point I had to keep peering above my FastFire III to judge yardage. The strutter got behind some small pines at about 30 yards and let out a thunderous gobble between the constant drumming. At this point I knew they could hear my heart pounding.
I could no longer see the strutter but could hear and feel his drumming. Meanwhile the subordinate bird, who never strutted or drummed, kept walking straight toward me. He got to about 20 yards and I couldn't stand it any longer and wasn't willing to gamble loosing both these birds waiting for the dominate bird to present me a clean shot. I put the red dot where the feathers start on the neck of the subordinate bird and squeezed the trigger. The 3" Nitro 4x5x7 out of the 12 gauge barked and the bird never flopped. It wasn't a clean head shot due to how close he was so he took it in the boiler room.
So after a hard 11.5 hours at the WMA I was able to get it done within 30 minutes at his farm. I accomplished several firsts for me in this hunt; got a bird to gobble multiple times in the afternoon, killed a bird in the afternoon and killed a bird on opening weekend. He weighed 20 pounds, had 1-1/8" and 1-1/4" spurs and a 9" beard.
Please excuse the stupid expression I had on my face.

[alloutdoors]

Nice bird and a good read, congrats!

[njdevilsb]

Congrats.  You never know when it might happen.

[tomstopper]

Awesome bird. Congrats & I also enjoyed the read.....

[Wrangler95]

 



Very nice going,congrats!

[captin_hook]

Congrats.

[kevin2]

Nice job. Killer photo too...

[Gooserbat]

Good look'n bird.

[JVA54]

  Congrats!!

[hookedspur]

Nice bird and a good read, congrats!

Yep Good Job

[chatterbox]

Way to go! Great read, and a great pic!
Just goes to show that the subdominate can be a hoss!

[Bustabeak]

Awesome bird! Saturday in Georgia was tough. As well as today. The winds killed us today. Congrats on the awesome hunt!!

[Gold Spur]

Congrats! Awesome bird...

[Rio Fan]

Beautiful bird, congrats!

[JLeòdhas]

Congrats on the bird.