bvoss
Well-Known Member
I have been fortunate enough to kill two birds already this year and after taking some friends over the weekend and putting them on birds on Sunday night I was already stewing around in my mind that I may try out a farm that I have permission to hunt near where I work ( I am a school teacher). I have to be at work at 7:30 so it would have to be a quick hunt, but it was going to be a great morning to be in the woods. I got to the spot a little late and I could hear him gobbling up on the ridge about 400 yards from where I parked. I made a B-line to the top of the ridge and started cutting the distance. When I got to about 150 yards from him I staked my hen decoy in the ground and sat down next to a big Hackberry. Right when I sat down his hens pitched off and flew back towards my truck, but he stayed on the limb gobbling. I started sweet talking him and he answered but when he pitched down he flew down to the base of the ridge where the ridge meets the greenfield. When he flew off I got up, stuffed my decoy back in my vest, and headed to where he was roosted. This put me only 200 yards or so from him. I sat down and started cutting at him and he got fired up! He was hammering at everything I threw at him. I finally just started clucking and purring and scratching in the leaves and he kept screaming at me. Next thing I knew I saw him at about 75 yards or so bobbing through the woods. He would take about two or three steps, stop, and strut. He continued this process until he went behind a tree about 15 steps away. When he stepped out behind it I filled him with a load of Nitro 4x5x7's from my 835! He had a 10 inch rope, one in spurs, and weighed 19lbs. I pulled the trigger at 6:15am. Boy did I have a great story for my middle schoolers!
