My goal every year is to kill one bird and anything else is gravy. My lease is an hour and a half away so hunts are limited. Yesterday morning I met a buddy and we headed down for my third trip. Was about to sit down at 5:45 and heard a bird gobble further down so eased back into the woods and circled into the bottom and set up about 10 yards from the field. Made a few calls to let him know there was a hen there and then shut up. He finally flew down but I couldn't see him. Thought he was gonna come through the woods but after probably an hour I saw his head pop up over a rise in the field. He finally came over where I could see him and I ranged him at 89 yards. He was alone without hens. He would gobble, eat, take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Only if he acted like he was gonna go the other way would I make a short call to keep him looking. I had ranged a spot at 40 yards and finally after another hour he crossed that mark. I just let him keep coming ever so slowly and when he got to 20-25 yards I decided that was plenty close and squeezed the trigger on the SX3 and gave him a face full of longbeard #5's. Looked at my phone and it was 8:09. Thankful and blessed to chase these birds.
19 lbs
9 1/4" beard
1" spurs
19 lbs
9 1/4" beard
1" spurs
