2nd MD Bird down

[Thebody]

I'll get the pics up tonight and the story.

20.8 lbs
11.25 inch beard
L 1 1/4 inch
R 1 1/4 inch

[RutnNStrutn]

Awesome bird!!! Congrats!!! Keep slamming them!!

[Tennessee Lead]

Man what Spurs congrats!


Sent from my iPhone that I ain't smart enough to use with tapatalker

[Thebody]

Pic

[Deputy 14]

The man is on fire. Well done.

[Hayudog]

Fantastic. You are on a roll. Congrats

[Thebody]

Off to NY on May 1st, so I hope I can stay lucky.

This morning started pretty early, around 5 am so I could get in real quiet to some 10 year old planted pines near an old logging road turned deer food plot.  I had seen a bird strutting in this area on Saturday (opening day) and on Monday.  Hens roost near this spot and I wanted to get there early to get myself covered in pretty good, pines arent much cover, but there is a thick area of briars and small scrub on the edge of the logging road that acts as a barrier.  This barrier also only gave me two shooting lanes so I had to be set up right. One side of the road is planted pines, the other hardwoods and big pines with a creek. 

At 5:45 a bird starts hammering about 100-150 yards from my set up, just on the edge of the logging road in some tall pines and hard woods.  That section borders a fresh clear cut also.  Along with him is a Jake that sounds pretty mature, but you could just tell he was young.  The mature gobbler hammered until 6:10 when he hit the ground.  I'm thinking "game on" because he gobbles 3 more times and getting close. 

I'm looking in one of my lanes with gun up at the logging road and I catch a glimpse of a softball white head walking parallel to the logging road just inside the hard woods.  He was at 40 yards, but I was sure he would pop out in the road at any moment.  After he passes the lane, there is no way to see him due to downed hardwoods and a small hill.  I wait for him to pass my lane and give a couple of soft clucks. No answer....5 minutes pass and I hear him gobble 200 yards away toward a bean field.  He got me!!!! Tricked.

I wait 30 minutes (probably too soon, but I was in pain over his treachery) and move all the way around the property toward the bean field and set up in an other area of pines.  I caught a glimpse of him strutting in the field with 5 hens and the Jake and watch them move off in the other direction to the wood line of another property about 400 yards away.  I gave some yelps and a some cutting, so I figure when he's done with old girls maybe he will remember me. Laying prone with binoculars I could see across the field through a gap in scrub brush as they disappeared.

I relax and get set up in a patch of briars and the biggest pine I could find. After 30 minutes I see two Jakes come out of the wood line which borders the field and head my way.  They get within 30 yards and are in no hurry to get anywhere.  I'm really not sure how they didn't see me, but I guess the low limbs and briars did the trick.  After some time they cruise out of sight so I decide it may be fun to give the Tom Teaser mouth call a good test.  At this point I'm wishing I had shot that bird when I saw him at 40 yards in the woods earlier and all kinds of shoulda woulda coulda is going through my head.  I then spot 5 birds in the field at 200 yards and I assume it's the group of birds coming back, so my excitement level picks up.  They are still far away and are turning going back the way they came.  The Jake was trying to strut, but would never really puff out, just half a$$ lift his fan.  I could see the red head and was pretty sure it was a Jake.  Still far, but I didn't feel good about lifting the binoculars.         

I yelp and get nothing out of the Jakes or the birds in the field so I cutt a little and I hear a gobble in the wood line at about 150 yards which parallels the bean field.  What "I think" is the gobbler was in the wood line and the other birds in the field not far from him and they were working away from him.  I like to think my call pulled him to me, but it was likely the fact they were done with him and he needed new company.   

I'm in the pines about 30 yards from the field and I just sit and wait.  The birds in the field were gone by now to another property and some hardwoods.  A good 30 minutes goes by and crow sets him off again, but now he's danger close.  I don't move for what seems like an eternity and he gobbles 5 times trying to get a glimpse of what was calling to him, but he must have been sitting tight. 

As luck would have it he decides to come on in, but stays out of the field and decides to hit the pines where he can see better (I assume).  I see him at 35 yards as he comes across a trail that separates the pines from hardwoods.  He comes into sight and let the Federal #7's fly.  Bird down.

It was a good day.  I saw lots of birds, more than I had ever while hunting here.  I guess the clear cutting worked to my advantage in some aspects.  I have seen lots of Jakes this season and a good bit of hens, but the roosting has changed a whole lot.       

[Twowithone]

Congrats on that Gobbler.

[RutnNStrutn]

You're on a roll brother, keep it up!!

[Thebody]

I'm done in Maryland, so it's off to NY for the opener on May 1st.  My Georgia hunt was a bust this year.  The birds down that way just didn't seem excited this year where I was.  My buddies are all having ruff years. 

[RutnNStrutn]

I've heard the same thing about Georgia this year, and I've been experiencing it in S. Carolina as well. Very odd. Glad yo are having success though!