bowhunterfanatic
Well-Known Member
With this being Easter weekend I got an extra day out of school for Good Friday. Friday morning I made an attempt to kill one of these birds with no luck. I chased them all over the bottom for a couple of hours and actually got out in front of them a couple times but never could get them to commit. Friday evening I left the birds in the field around 6:45, expecting them to roost relatively close to where I last saw them. Saturday morning my brother was able to go with me, but nothing went as planned. I misjudged where the birds had roosted by about 40 yards and we wound up trying to set up on the field edge directly underneath the tree all the hens were roosted in. To my surprise, however, the gobblers had left the hens late the previous evening and roosted around 300 yards further down the field. We tried to get on them with no luck. We had another bird gobbling his brains out in the next field over on a different property, but someone was in the field hunting so we didn't even attempt to call the bird to us. We watched for about 15 minutes as the gobbler completely ignored the hunter and went the opposite way. Saturday evening I was determined to know the exact tree the birds roosted in, so I stayed on the field edge until the 3 longbeards walked off into the woods out of site. This morning me and my brother crossed the field well before daylight and set up around 70 yards from the birds. Right on schedule, 2 of the 3 birds started gobbling on the roost. About the time I expected the birds to come down I yelped a couple times but got no reponse. I was semi worried but knew there was only one hen roosted near the birds, and knew that as long as the birds made it into the field they would more than likely come to the decoys. The birds shut-up after hopping off the limb, so I called one more time hoping for a response but still didn't get it. Not long after that the dominant bird started gobbling on his own and I knew he was in the field. As soon as he made it far enough into the field for me to see him I called one last time hoping him and his two buddies would see the decoys. They did, and that was bad news for them. They came running right to them. I gave my brother the 1, 2, shoot count and he hammered one. To my surprise my safety hadn't completely clicked off when I hit it, but one of the birds tried to run straight away from us and after getting my safety off the Hevi 6's took him down!
Brother's bird on left: 10 1/2 inch beard
1 3/8 inch spurs
My bird: 11 inch beard and 7 1/2 inch beard
1 1/8 inch spurs
Forgot to weigh them but I'd guess mine ~ 20 lbs, his ~ 19
Brother's bird on left: 10 1/2 inch beard
1 3/8 inch spurs
My bird: 11 inch beard and 7 1/2 inch beard
1 1/8 inch spurs
Forgot to weigh them but I'd guess mine ~ 20 lbs, his ~ 19
