Had a great day today. I hunted the morning and decided to stay all day and try to figure them out for another day. After the morning hunt and catching a little lunch at the truck I took off with blind and gear. Set the blind up in the back of a field next to the woods where I figured the birds would strut by. Since I got up at 4:30 to get to the farm in time for first light I thought I'd lay down in the blind for some quick shut eye around 3 pm.
About 4 I was awakened by a faint gobble. I got up and peeked out the window. Not one or two gobblers but six, about 90 yards away on the ridge. All in full strut, a truly amazing site. The amazing thing here is they were all adult birds, no jakes. Two of them were thick bearded old birds and the other four where younger with thin shorter beards.
They gave me an unbelievable show for around an hour and fifteen minutes. They had 3-5 hens with them and were headed my way. I didn't call at all figuring they would just wonder by me. They got to about 60 yards when they saw my decoy. They gobbled and gobbled trying to get her to come to them. This went on for around 20 minutes. The hens had veered off and weren't coming doing their job, so I decided to start calling. They absolutely went nuts over the calls but just wouldn't commit. The boss bird would strut back and forth in front of the others keeping them from coming to me. I'd say he's been in this rodeo before.
They got to about 30 yards away but were over a small ridge and I could only see their heads and fans. Boy if I would have only had a shotgun...nahhhh.
Well I've been hunting for 30+ years and that was one of the most amazing encounters I have ever witnessed in the woods.
Hope your luck is better. Sorry for the poor image it's off my cell phone.
T.J.
Topic: Turkey day (Read 217 times)
