Got to my spot at 0600. Heard birds doing roost talk at I sat down. Sounded like hens and jakes. No gobbling at all. I just sat there and let them talk. Two flew down at 0610 and I saw no beard during their fly down. But boy when the hit the ground they left it fall out. Each one had a nice long beard hanging down. They were out of range but one after another more birds flew down. Each time it was the same story. Nothing showing til they were down on the ground and they let their beards drop. All total I had eight toms around me that I could count. I was afraid to move to set up for a shot for fear of being spotted. At 0620 one made that fateful step and got the 2 oz lead sandwich. It wasn't the biggest but he wasn't bad...10 inch beard, 1.25 spurs, weighed 22 lbs.
Strange thing to me about it was that all those birds were older birds. Not a jake in the bunch. There was no gobbling at all. Only a little sign of dominance shown by one bird (never got in range). Seems to be a little unusual to me for this time of the year to still have mature gobblers grouped in such a large number and no hens or Jakes around.
Strange thing to me about it was that all those birds were older birds. Not a jake in the bunch. There was no gobbling at all. Only a little sign of dominance shown by one bird (never got in range). Seems to be a little unusual to me for this time of the year to still have mature gobblers grouped in such a large number and no hens or Jakes around.
