Shanman
Well-Known Member
Took the day off to see if I could get one to play up on the plateau, glad I did. At day break one sounded off down the ridgeline so I eased through the woods to within 150yds, he was very vocal and answered everything from the tree yelps, the wing, and scratching. He finally went silent so I started scanning through the underbrush, he showed up like a shadow in the dim light and caught me moving my head, dangit! He gently turned around and eased off but I gave him some soft yelps and he gobbled, he was maybe 45yds through the brush, the rattle in his chest was loud! I'll never grow old of hearing that, just awesome! He stayed out of site and made his way around the finger and came into view easing up the finger to my right, I called softly and 2 more down the same opposite finger gobbled then he gobbled. Now I had a better picture of what was taking place, the dominant bird was the one gobbling off the roost and the same bird that busted me, the 2 coming up the opposite finger had not gobbled off the roost and were his subordinates. Thought if I could get those 2 interested then the dominant bird might come back, so I concentrated on them with some lite calling and it worked. They turned my way and started easing off their finger headed towards mine, ole Tom didn't like that so he did an about face an headed to intersect them. They met just before going out of sight and crossing the slight depression over to the finger I was on, then I could see them moving up to my level on the finger all the while staying behind some denser vegetation. This is where I messed up and didn't let things play out long enough like I should have, when the first bird stepped in a gap he was looking right at me and I just "assumed" that it was the dominant bird because he had seen me earlier. Well, I pull the trigger and he goes down, then one with him flys ....... and one flys up 20yds away from them and at the exact place where he came in at the first time. So basically when they went out of sight in the depression the dominant bird peeled off and looped around the finger right back to where he first walked in on me. Sneaky son-of-a-gun let the 2yr olds take the risk while he stayed out of site and watched, it worked, he still lives and i brought a youngster home. Haha! Shot him at 7:19 this morning, was an absolute beautiful morning!
