The best gobbler I never called

[Cut N Run]

I hunted at the small horse farm near the house yesterday because it has been good to me in the late season over the past 5 years.  I got in the woods early because I decided to use decoys and it never hurts to give the woods time to settle if you've been moving around.  I hunted this farm twice this year and hadn't seen a single turkey.  All the gobbles I heard were on other people's land I don't have rights to hunt.

About the time I set up (5:03 AM) I saw some headlights sweep across the tops of the trees in the neighbor's field.  He could have been more quiet closing the truck door too.  That guy was going to be hunting ~300-400 yards away in the neighbor's field edge and I wasn't happy about it, but there was nothing I could do.  Closer to daybreak, I heard a couple of obviously human owl hoots from that direction that got no gobble response.  Once it got lighter and some crows were sounding off, I heard bad sounding crow calls from where the owl hoots came from.  Not long after that, I heard another guy fire up his crow call down by the swamp, another several hundred yards off the property I was hunting.  Still no gobbles. I'm less thrilled by it with each new human crow squawk.  I texted my best friend, who was hunting a few counties away with his nephew and they had four gobblers sounding off around them. I texted that I was considering leaving. My friend texted back to remember how good that spot is in the late season & to be patient.  Now there was a flat sort of mechanical series of hen clucks where the owl & first human crow calls were and the Mr. Crow Call in the swamp was still going at it. I was getting depressed at how my day off was starting out.

My buddy texted that the gobblers had gone silent since they flew down and did I have a suggestion.  I told him to cutt hard and follow with a long yelp run.  He texted back several minutes later that the calls didn't raise a gobble.  I texted back for them to hold tight and listen for drumming.  As soon as I hit send, I thought I heard drumming myself from up on the ridge. When the breeze picked up enough for me to move my head slightly I searched what I could see of the ridge.  Nothing, but I definitely heard drumming again and it sounded closer this time.  Suddenly movement behind the rock pile caught my attention.  it was a fan and the top of a white head.  He had seen those decoys and was taking his time about getting to them.  As soon as I saw he had a full fan and a thick beard, I eased the safety off and waited for him to pass behind a good sized tree to move.  When his head popped out the other side of the tree, I busted him with Hevi #6s at 18 yards.  He never flinched.

He weighed 20 pounds 12 ounces, has a 10 inch thick beard, and 1 inch spurs.  It was the first time I never called to a gobbler before I killed him.  I wonder if all the racket those other guys were making didn't drive him my direction?

  This spot is also pretty amazing.  I have killed 6 longbeard gobblers from the same tree over the past 5 years and all of them have come in the last 8 days of the season.  All but one have been over 20 pounds & the one that wasn't weighed 19 pounds 15 ounces.  There's proof that luck counts.

I'm tagged out with a week to go, though I believe I'm going to go call for a newbie later in the week.

Jim

[Tail Feathers]

Congrats!
That is definitely a "honey hole"!

[spaightlabs]

Beautiful bird!

[SteelerFan]

Congratulations on a dandy!!

**And don't go spreading those viscous rumors about not needing a call to kill a turkey - someone's significant other might see that! 

[renegade19]

 

[surehuntsalot]

congrats on the bird

[kyturkeyhunter4]

Congrats! Sounds like a good spot

[mgm1955]

Congrats!!

[Improvinghunter101]

Congratulations!

[outdoors]

                Congratulations
WOW , THEY SAY PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

[3bailey3]

Awesome bird and congrats on the patience, I would have left after all that noise

[WyoHunter]

Congrats! Great read and a testament to the virtue of patience of which I'm sometimes lacking.

[beagler]

Nice Job!

[saltysenior]

you say you never called.....a turkey walks around most of the day... sooner or later a hunter will be where that bird is walking to....not to mention the noise the other hunter are making....but the decoys helped you

[Gold Spur]

Congrats, nice bird...