FINALLY!! Long read.

[drenalinld]

My brother a year younger than me has never killed a long beard. He does not hunt a great deal but usually 4 to 6 days per season. We have hunted at least 15 straight opening days here in AR. We have been close many, many, many times. Gobbler ALWAYS seems to give me a shot. A bunch of times I have let them walk hoping they would come around to offer him a shot or we might call them up again. Having only killed a couple of jakes, he does not have a lot of experience judging distance and has passed several shots I was encouraging him to take. I will say it's 40 yards, he will say it's 55. Several times he has told me to kill a gobbler and not risk it getting away when I had a shot and he did not. It has been REALLY FRUSTRATING trying to help him get a gobbler. Finally last Saturday, our opening morning here in Arkansas we made it happen. We didn't hear anything at our first listening spot. About 15 minutes after first light we got in the truck and moved about a half mile to another good vantage point. We barely opened the door and heard a gobble another half mile further in an area we knew well. We jumped back in the truck and drove down near where we thought we he was. When we got out the bird was 400 yards up the side of the mountain roosted just above one of my brother's deer stands on a flat bench where I killed a great 21" 8 point several years back.

We grabbed vests, guns and chairs and hoofed it up the steep mountain side. The gobbler made it very easy gobbling several times per minute so we constantly go confirmation of his exact location. We set up right where we topped out on the 30 yard wide bench looking straight up hill with the gobbler 100 yards away at 11 o'clock position. A few soft yelps were cutt off with big gobbles. He continued to gobble for another 15 minutes and I did a fly-down cackle with a Hooks Sassy Gal 3 while beating my cap on my leg. He gobbled a few more times and then got quiet. We started to hear drumming behind us and realized there was a 2nd gobbler now in the picture. He was getting close and we were afraid to flinch. Suddenly we hear the first gobbler pitch out and see him fly down and land just out of sight 50 or 60 yards to our left and just below the bench we were on. He immediately gobbled on the ground. I purred a few times on the mouth call and he gobbled twice more. The drumming was now directly over my right shoulder and CLOSE! Like feel it when he drums close! The gobbler to our left started clucking right behind a downed tree about 40 yards away right where the bench broke over headed down hill directly to our left. My brother was on my left and in perfect position to kill this gobbler.

We were starting to catch glimpses of the original gobbler behind the downed tree as he was working uphill and it looked like he would strut out into a great open lane for my brother to shoot him. I was a nervous wreck! I wanted so bad to ease around and peak around the tree I was in front of and be ready to kill the drumming silent gobbler behind me when my brother shot the gobbilng strutter to our left. I wanted him to kill his first long beard more, so I sat still and let it play out rather than risk any movement. The gobbler to the left finally stepped out from behind the downed tree into the opening on the bench and immediately went into full strut. I told him he is in range, kill him when you are ready. He thought he was still too far. The gobbler crossed the opening and got behind more brush all the while the drumming over my right shoulder is keeping the hair standing up on my neck. With the gobbler behind the brush I give a couple purrs and clucks and he give us a thundering gobble at 40 yards! A few seconds later he stepped back in the opening and just enough closer to give my brother confidence he was in range. He waited until the gobbler come partly out of strut and smoked him with a 3.5" #5. The gobbler behind us flew off. We jumped up and had a couple high fives and celebrated a minute then went to see the turkey. He began to flop and rolled down hill into a ditch with a couple feet of water standing in it. A beautiful bird just a couple minutes earlier now looked like a drowned rat making for poor photos but the smile was still on his face.





We did not hunt Easter Sunday but got back out there Monday morning. We were on top of the mountain to start this morning. Right after first light a gobbler started gobbling about 800 yards from the truck. We were able to drive to about 300 yards from the gobbler and started to hear a 2nd gobbler just a little farther from the road but in the same direction of the 1st gobbler. We got our gear and busted out through the thicket to get to them. It was tough sledding through the honeysuckle and by the time we got within 100 yard of the first gobbler he was on the ground. We had just sat down to work this bird when we hear a log truck's jake brakes getting closer. We soon realized they were headed our way and then a 2nd log truck and then a pickup. They drove within 200 yards of us and parked then fired up skidder and loader and started dragging logs and loading trucks. We remained about 45 minutes and called a few and even got a response but they were headed the other direction. We went back to the truck and made a big circle to get on the other side of the gobblers. When we got there the equipment was so loud we had little confidence we could hear a gobble. We called a few times and didn't hear anything so tracked back to where we had started the morning because this has been a great area up in the mornings to find strutting gobblers. We were still a little too close to the equipment but did some calling anyway with no answers we could hear. We decided to get off the top of the mountain down on the side where we had hunted Saturday and get away from logging equipment. My truck batteries were dead! I did not want to ask the loggers to give me a jump start because our relationship was slightly strained after I found a gobbler carcass in the middle of a logging road two weeks before season and confronted them about it. They denied knowing anything about it, but I am sure they could sense my doubt.

We were two miles as the crow flies from my brother's truck at the lease gate at the bottom of the mountain and almost 4 miles by the road. We hatched a plan to walk along the brow of the mountain where we could hear gobblers on top and off the side to a point directly above his truck and walk down the mountain to it. We struck out with a call or two and our guns to hunt our way back to his truck. Maybe 600 yards into the walk I hear a gobble and it is close! We have made it out near the brow of the mountain and the gobbler is just under the brow maybe 125 yards away at the most. My brother did not hear it. I stopped him and said, I just heard a gobble. He gobbled again while I was talking and we both heard it this time. My first instinct was to get to the brow of the mountain which was maybe 50 yards from the logging road we were walking down. While trying to slip up to the brow, he gobbled again and we both dove to the nearest tree on the edge of an old loading ground. We were back to back on the same tree. When we clucked and purred he lost his mind gobbling 12 or 15 times non stop. After about 10 minutes of him gobbling every 20 to 30 seconds  and strutting back and forth just under the brow I told my brother we would be better off to get away from the brow just a bit. I told him to call and make him gobble and let me course him good and if I thought he was below us enough we would high tail it back from the brow to set at the base of two trees we picked out on the edge of the logging road and hopefully persuade the gobbler to come up on top and kill him in the loading ground. For once, it worked perfectly! He answered my brother's call and was still in the same strutting pattern and we ducked away from the brow and took a seat at the base of two big pines. Over the next 30 minutes he must have gobbled another 100 times with us calling to him very softly a couple times. He finally got quiet for about five minutes and then we heard him drum. We knew he was on top with us. After another REALLY REALLY quiet five minutes I saw him in full strut at 40 yards near the tree we originally set up on. I was sure glad we didn't stay there it would have been close up and personal and a tough shot! I told him I see him at 11 o'clock. He said kill him. I said there is too much brush. I yelped as softly as I can on a mouth call and he blew our hats off with a thundering gobble. It took a few anxious minutes but he finally moved about five yards to our right and into an opening my brother could see him. He said I can kill him. I barely got out the words go ahead and BOOM, he was tagged out! It was great to see him get his first two long beards and better than if I had killed them myself. Now maybe I can find a couple for me.

[Limbstrutter]

Way to go. Sounds like an awesome hunt . Congrats.

[boomer]

Congrats!!!

[jblackburn]

Congrats to your brother!! Good luck to you!!

[JALA Strut]

Awesome hunts...Congrats to your brother!

[SS Calls]

Congrats guys! 

[letinmfly]

Congrats!!

[Crawdad]

David, I really enjoyed your story as if I were sitting right there by you & your brother, I was even getting nervous myself just thinking about that turkey drumming over my shoulder & couldn't see it. I could just see that a wrong move by your brother by not being able to see the turkey behind you, could spook them both & neither of you getting a shot. Good job buddy.

[Hognutz]

Congrats.. It seems that the more a guy hunts and kills, the more fun it is to help/watch someone else get a bird. Props to you and congrats to your brother!!

[DirtNap647]

congrats

[drenalinld]

Thanks, guys! It was great to aee him finally smack a couple! Now I really want to break in my M2 20 ga.

Fun hunts, Robert!

[albrubacker]

 

[hunter22]

Good stuff David. Great stories. Congrats to your brother and you for helping him get his 1st and 2nd gobblers. Now it's your turn.

[Mike Honcho]

Congrats!  Good luck on your hunts.

[Roughneck]

Congrats