Well, the day started out at 3:30 am with a "Daddy, I gotta go potty". So, I rolled outta bed knowing my alarm wasn't supposed to go off for another 1 1/2 hours. After making sure my youngest was nice and comfy in her bed, I made my way back through the house to let Boone, the newest addition to our family out for a potty break of his own. Next thing I knew my wife was throwing elbows telling me my alarm was going off.
After making a quick cup of coffee I pulled out of the drive and headed to the farm. At 5:46 I left the truck and within 100 yards I was walking by a gobbler already sounding off. I was right on top of him but not really in a place that I wanted to set up so I quietly snuck by and got between him and the hens I could hear to the southwest of his location. I was able to get set up without spooking anything while other birds started to sound off. I had birds to the east, south and west of me gobbling and yelping.
I let out a few yelps and got responses from several toms. I then yelped a few more times and then went silent. I typically don't like to call a lot as I think playing hard to get works a lot better than constantly calling. It may seem like they will forget your around, but almost always a bird will eventually come in even if it is 3 or 4 hours later. Sooner or later their curiousity will bring them in, usually.
So, the gobbling stopped at about 6:20 and I figured that they had hit the ground. A lot of birds seem to quiet down for a few minutes after first leaving the roost and then fire back up once they get comfortable back on the ground. 2 hens came from the south, one coming into the decoys at about 15 yards. They then headed north to the two toms that I had walked by. Shortly after that I saw a tom come into a bottom food plot strutting following two more hens. Probably about 15 minutes later a hen yelped to the west of me. I called back and forth with her for a few minutes and a tom lit up. 30 seconds later he was a lot closer and I new he was coming in. I peaked out the back of the blind and he was 15 yards away in full strut. When he came around the corner he walked right by the blind and stood between the tom and hen decoys facing away.
Not being one to wait around I came to full draw, anchored and let 'er go. The shot hit between the left wing butt and the back passing through. He ran about 5 yards and stood there in half strut. I could tell he was hit hard but I knocked another arrow and shot him through the hips breaking his right leg. Again, he stood there so I put another through center mass at 15 yards. He finally went down flopping around and coming to rest about 30 yards away. It's amazing how tough these birds are. Good luck to everyone heading out this spring.
Topic: HEY! All you guys on the TallTines waiting list... (Read 1142 times)
