Got off work at noon, hit the lease at 1230 after a quick bite. I spent the next 1.5h and 1.5 miles hiking around the swamp the boss was in 2d ago. Not a peep. I had to pick my son up from school at 315, so I had till 255 to hunt. Got back to the sign in shed at 215, said what the heck, I have a few more minutes, so I signed out of that area and signed into an area I hadn't hunted this year, but did get a pic of a gobbler on 3/12 in a food plot. I drove my truck 3/4 of the way down the logging road to the plot, gathered up my stuff, and started walking. About 50 yds from the truck, I thought I heard a gobble in the drain to the north. I got my call out, did a 3 note Yelp, and he cut me off! No more than 150yds off the logging road. I ran 100yds down the road away from the truck and toward the plot and yelped again. Again he cut me off, no closer though. Checked my phone, it was 225.... 30 min till I had to leave...
Once i get set up at a fork in the road, with one fork headed to the plot 75yds away, and the other lane bushhogged in the pines I let him have it. Very aggressive cutting and yelping. He ate it up, trying to cut me off, only to be cut off by me before he could finish. Coming on a string at this point, but he couldn't come straight to me due to the thickness of the underbrush between the two of us. I was hoping he would veer and clear the thicket to my right toward the plot, but no, he decided to head towards the left side of the thicket, which would pop him out on the road right between me and my truck. I started throwing my calls toward the food plot and then mixed in gobbler yelps making them sound like they were coming from behind me... that did the trick, he spun 180 degrees and started gobbling working his way to the right of the thicket and away from my parked truck. I went silent for a couple of minutes, checked my phone for the time and it was 250. Crap, don't have the time..... hit him with a series of hard cutts and cut me off 30 yds away right down my gun barrel pointed down the fork of the road. A few seconds later, and red head crossed through the brush followed by 2 more headed to the plot... at this point I'm thinking it must be a Tom with 2 Jake's, so I've got to get a full visual on which one to shoot. Just a few minutes more and they'll either come down the road to me or pop out in the other lane in the plot.... they decided to come back down the first lane, fully exposed at 20 yds, and it ended up being 3 longbeards. I picked the biggest one and destroyed him when he cleared the other 2. 255 PM, time to haul butt outta here to pick up Ethan!
He's my best bird ever from MS. Approx 21 lbs, 1 1/4 spur on one side and 1 3/16 spur on the other side. 10in beard.
Probably one of the best 20 minutes I've ever had Turkey hunting.... don't think my pulse got under 120 bpm the entire time.
The last pic is the lane he came down, with him on the ground. The thick underbrush is off the lane on the left side
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