Persistence and public land

[Jbird22]

Congrats! I really enjoyed the read!

I've been hunting the same bird locally for 11 mornings this year. He sounds very similar to the one you killed except this one will gobble liberally even though he doesn't answer calling much at all. I've debated leaving him and heading to greener pastures but I find my self coming back for more every opportunity I get. Hopefully his luck will run out soon!

[strutnva]

congrats

[101st501]

You did a great job and I loved your story.

[ScottS]

Awesome story. Good job!!

[jblackburn]

sweet!  that'll be a memorable tom! Congrats!

[g8rvet]

Great story, great bird.  Way to stick and stay.

[Ihuntoldschool]

Nice bird, congrats.  Couple questions,  what do you mean by he would only gobble 3-5 times being a public land bird ?  What do you mean when you say if you call to him it was game over, do you mean this gobbler was call-shy?   Does this have something to do with public land?

Thanks.

[tomstopper]

Good job! Way to stick with it!!

Congrats....

[beagler]

Nice!

[3seasons]

Nice bird, congrats.  Couple questions,  what do you mean by he would only gobble 3-5 times being a public land bird ?  What do you mean when you say if you call to him it was game over, do you mean this gobbler was call-shy?   Does this have something to do with public land?

Thanks.

Where i hunt at (public land in Mississippi) there is no shortage of hunters. We get pounded by out of state hunters.  I don't have a problem with it at all because i too go to other states hunting myself. The problem with the public land hunters here in MS is that they are ,bluntly, rude(not all but I'd say 7\10 on average. It doesn't matter if you are there first or if you're working a bird in more times than not someone is going to come in on top of you or slip in and get in between you and the bird and try to shoot it.  They bump them or hose up the hunt and this causes the birds to get lock jaw pretty quick on top of they will hear every call imaginable so they get call shy\savvy in a hurry. 

Yes you can find a good gobbling bird at times and some that will work perfect. Not saying all birds on public land are like that but highly pressured ones seem to be.

This particular bird gobbled good the first couple days of season and was actually coming to our setup when my dad killed his first bird of the season. So he got double educated, not only did he hear a lot of calling, he saw his buddy roll.  After that his gobbling was minimal and if you made a call to him he would disappear.  I ran into a couple different people hunting him while i was hunting, they were some of the more decent guys I've met. I actually got ones phone number so if one of was able to get that bird the other wouldn't be hunting a ghost. I sure was happy to call him.

I've hunted birds that will gobble at every call while running the other direction. Seriously running and gobbling, never did catch up with those. I've watched strutting birds break strut and hide at the sound of a call or a truck on a gravel road 3\4 mile away. After about 10min they will ease back out. When you can see the birds and how they react its such an eye opener.

Hope that answered your questions and makes some sense. 

[3seasons]

Thanks, Im sure proud of him

[NJstrutter]

Hunting public land can be frustrating at times, but when you succeed it makes it all that much sweeter. congrats!

[steveo]

Way to go........public land kill so much sweeter ! those birds can be tuff........   congrats

[ouachitamtnman]

Very nice

[surehuntsalot]

congrats