Odocoileus v.
Well-Known Member
Wow, what a rush! I'm hooked!! Saturday morning I got into the woods a bit later than I had hoped. I had about a half mile walk through the woods to the edge of a green field where I expected them to pitch down. Just as I was getting near the field, it was getting just light enough that I didn't need my headlight. About 150 yards to go til I reached my blind....gobble in the trees nearby. I'm thinking 'do I sit here, or try to make the blind?' So I backtrack and circle around to the blind....still gobbling it's head off on roost. Just as I'm 20 or so yards from my blind, I see about a dozen hens pitch down into the green field , followed by a couple of toms. I take a seat by a clump of brush and watch them go the opposite direction. When they were just out of sight over the rise, I hurry up and stick a couple of hen dekes at the edge of the field and crawl to my blind just in the woods to start calling. After a couple of quiet assembly calls, another tom starts hammering way behind me. I cutt some and he hammers even harder, talking over me, this time closer and closing fast...needless to say my heart was pounding! I turn around and set up my gun on a clump of dirts and keep cutting. Still hammering! It's not long before I see him and his big ol' softball head following two hens throught the woods in my direction, all puffed up and strutting. Well, the hens decide to move off to my right (not good), and he thinks about following them, but a couple of purrs help him find my dekes and he starts strutting and spinning around on his turntable at about 65 yards. After a couple of minutes and a few more cutts he just couldn't stand it and started in almost a dead run to the dekes. I picked out a shooting lane in the brush that he was headed toward and put the gun on it. When he was almost to the lane, I realized I didn't have my mouth call in, so I did the best possible putt I could with under the circumstances and he stopped in the lane with his head up looking.....BOOM! 52 Yards, # 6 Hevi Shot in a M'Berg 835....he didn't even flop! I ran to him to put my boot on his head and his head was folded up under his body. Hevi Shot's the real deal! 22 pounds, 10 inch beard, 3/4 spurs. Not a bad first bird ever, and an even better hunt!
