Watched him strut around with hens in a field for a couple hours. I only called a few times throughout the morning. I stayed in a thick fence row that's wide enough to walk around in.
The final setup I had excellent cover and shade from all the privet and honeysuckle. I let out just a few yelps to let him know. He had 5 hens so it was up to them at this point.
Finally the birds started working my way. About 50 yards out the hens disappeared. The tom worked down the edge coming from my left, where it was too thick to shoot through. Instead of walking right in front of me, he dipped into the fence row I was set up in. It was too thick to see, but he finally showed up on the opposite side of the fence row only 15 yards away. He was easing down the edge of the next field, looking hard and going into half strut every couple steps. It was way too thick to shoot. I let him pass by going from right to left till he was out of sight.
About 10 minutes later, I decided to ease out and see which way he was headed down that field. I hadn't got up yet, I thought I'd heard something so I waited. Sure enough, I saw his head bobbing back my way from left to right. This time he came right into the thicket and stuck his head up giving me a clear 10 yard shot.
23 pound 10" beard 1 5/8" spurs Tennessee bird.
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