Michigan bird down

[Hunter1979]

Been mostly a lurker on here for a while now. Thought I'd share my success.  Finally got a chance to hunt for the first time this year on Saturday. I made it out to the woods about quarter to six Saturday morning. Got the blind set up and the decoys set up right before shooting hours. I could hear the gobbles firing off all over the woods around me just about quarter after six.
Brought out my slate call (Brad Robinsons Brushbuster Game Calls) and decided to give a few yelps. Multiple toms sounded back. Yelping and gobbling continued for another ten minutes or so, when I decided to give them a break. Ten minutes later I started some light purring on the slate. Again, the woods lit up with the sounds of multiple gobbles in multiple directions.
By this time, I'm guessing it was close to 6:30. If you strained, you could hear some birds flying down from their roosts in the distant woods.
I started with some more purring, and it was driving the birds crazy. Every now and then, I would throw in a few excited yelps from the mouth call, but mainly I just let the slate do all the talking and work it's magic on the birds.
Finally, about quarter to seven, I saw two toms making their way toward me from across the field. I never heard them gobble, but they locked onto my decoys and came a runnin'! They ran right up to my decoys and stayed about 12 yards out, but they locked up. I had put a GoPro camera in-between my decoys to try for a different camera angle. I think they wanted to strut right there, so when they saw it they froze. It probably didn't help things that I made some noise while trying to film, and they started to move out. They only made it about five yards or so when I decided enough was enough, pulled up the Benelli, and shot the lead gobbler in the face!
Overall, a great (albeit short) hunt. Bird weighed in at 23.5 pounds, 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" spurs, with a 9.5" beard. Beautiful Michigan bird.



https://youtu.be/cjCwEI3iiAs

[zelmo1]

  And nice bird, Congrats

[mgm1955]

Beautiful bird!! Congrats!

[Gooserbat]

Good job

[strutnva]

congrats

[bbcustomboxcalls]

Good job, Nice bird!

Bill

[Huntingwithahoyt]

 That was awesome....I love hunting Michigan and I'm from Florida....my best turkey hunting buddy in the world lives there and I can't tell you how many great hunts we have shared up there!!!!!!!
Today was my last day of the season and I went out with a bang on another nice Osceola.....congrats!!!!!  Can't wait to get back to Michigan


Sent from: 20 ft up in a treestand!

[alloutdoors]

Great bird, congrats!

[tomstopper]

Congrats on a very nice bird. Liked the video to.

[Hunter1979]

Thanks guys, been reading a lot on here, I'm glad I got to post a story!
@huntingwithahoyt. Birds are really starting to come alive in southern Michigan right now. Should be awesome the next two to three weeks!  I've looked into heading down to Florida for an Osceola during spring break, seems like an awesome time!

[Muzzy61]

Congrats.

[taylorjones20]

Congrats!

[owlhoot]

nice bird :icon_thumright:congrats

[slwayne]

Good job Hunter1979.  Read your post on Michigan Sportsman.com this morning as well.  My season doesn't start until May 11 and the anticipation is killing me.  I was all lined up to call for a couple of buddies who had licenses for early season and both of their hunts fell through so I haven't been in the woods since scouting trips before the season started.  I'm jonesin' big time!

[beagler]

Congrats!