My first Tom!!!

[Bigeclipse]

So I got my first Tom after 2 years of turkey hunting!  It was a very exciting weekend. Opening day was this past Friday, so I took off from work.  Got a later start then I cared for in the A.M.  Spooked a tom on the way into my spot.  Set everything up.  Of course he flew down in the exact opposite direction and walked off.  Around 9am I decided to run and gun.  About an hour later ran into a nice looking gobbler with what I estimate to be a 10inch or longer beard!  Of course he was close and uphill about 70 yards so I could not move from where I ducked down into.  Tried to call him down to me but as always, he just kept gobbling his head off but would not go down hill. He finally started walking off so I figured I would try and cut him off.  No dice. Never saw him again.  We can only hunt until noon here in NY.  Well, I decided Id get a super early morning the next morning.  I made it into my spot a good hour before sun up.  Heard one gobble on the roost but it was FAR away.  I did hear a hen fly down so I started calling a bit after that.  The same turkey gobbling on the roost started gobbling but the gobbles never sounded any louder. After about 45 minutes, there was nothing.  Well, I texted my father-in-law to see how he was making out and he said he moved from his spot at 645!!! WAY to EARLY and he had what I think was the prime spot.  So I figured I would try and make my way to that spot as stealthy as I could since I heard nothing where I was.  On my way there I heard another gobble off in the distance and tried to move in.  Again, nothing.  I stayed at his spot until about 830am and got REALLY bored so figured ok, ill run and gun.  This time I decided to make my way towards the front field on my father-in-laws property.  His property is currently in the middle of being logged.  The loggers are taking a break during the turkey season though. So I basically was sticking to the logging roads since they had no leaves and were very silent.  On the way out towards that field I heard a tom gobbling his head off.  I made no calls at this time so he was not gobbling at me.  I quickly dropped to my stomach to listen and try to locate where he was.  I estimated he was about 200 yards or so off so I belly crawled towards the field just in case he was already there so he wouldn't see me.  I made it to that field about 10 minutes later.  He was still gobbling but I realized he was in the woods next to the field a good ways and unfortunately that is not our property. I decided to sit at a tree on the edge of the field to see if I could pull him onto our property.  Started my calling sequences and immediately got a response.  He was really FIRED up.  About 5 minutes later here he came out strutting into the field.  He was at about 60 yards that I estimated.  He was slowly strutting towards me and actually looking right at my direction.  Fortunately I already had my red dot up and was on him.  I was shaking so bad and breathing so heavily that my glasses started fogging up.  Again, luck was on my side because he strutted and turned around for a set.  As he was turning around, I wiped off the right side of my glasses (the eye I aim with).  At this point, I estimated he was 40-45 or so yards.  AGAIN, my glasses started fogging but now he is again looking at me.  I was thinking "dammit I know he will come closure but I can almost not see him" At that moment, he stopped strutting and stuck his head way up as if on alert so I decided to shoot.  He immediately went down, kicked for a few seconds and that was it.  I paced it out and he was at about 40-43 yards like I had thought.  A bit further than I wanted but I did a lot of patterning with my shotgun and was consistently getting 150-175 pellets at 40 yards so I figured I had a tiny bit of room for error. Anyways, he has an 8 3/4' beard, 1 inch spurs and weighed a nice 21.8lbs!  Definitely a hunt I will never forget! Sorry for the long story.

[Chilly]

Congrats on your first of hopefully many!

[tomstopper]

Congrats on your first of hopefully many!

Congrats.....

[njdevilsb]

Congrats.  There's nothing like your first one.

[ridgerunner]

Good job, Congrats! Took me 2 years to kill one back in 1993..the important thing is you didn't give up and was successful in the end. Way to go.

[DawgsFan1]

That first bird is so special. Hopefully many more to come. Congrats!

[Tennessee Lead]

Great job congrats


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

[kyturkeyhunter4]

 :turkey2:Congrats on your first turkey, great job.

[Gooserbat]

Congrats on #1.  Many of the others will get lost in the mix but you'll always remember this one.

[Bigeclipse]

Thanks everyone.  I will definitely remember this hunt!  Honestly...im beginning to like turkey hunting more than deer hunting!

[alloutdoors]

Congrats on getting your first!

[Tony Harris]

Way to go

[trkycaller]

Congrats!

[Muzzy61]

Congrats, nice bird. Welcome to the addiction.

[owlhoot]

congrats