Hunted Tuesday morning, had a bird hollering all morning. Looked behind my set up and seen three Toms walking behing me at about 60 yards, they were headed away. I called, they briefly looked and turned slightly as if to come in beside me. I lost vision of them but soon heard them gobbling to my left about 50 yards in the corner of the field. I could not see them because my sons pop up blind was 10 yards to my left, i was in a natural ground blind. After about an hour of them hung up and gobbling there heads off, i started cutting real hard on the diaphram. They finally commited and started walking in to the deeks, the first was in full strut the second was just walking. this was going to put them behind the deeks at 35 yards according to sticks i had placed in the field for markers. Just when its going to happen a Jake pops up from no where and walks in and stand in front of me at ten yards [
]i cant move and watched them walk away. fast forward to around 1.00 pm ish. I drove the property looking for lone birds to set up on with no luck. Decided to go to a place that i always see them in the middle of the day on a four wheeler trail and just set up and see if anything shows. I just crested the trail and almost bumped into birds real close. I ducked into the brush, set up and called with no luck after about 20 minutes. I did not even know if any were Toms. I snuck back out on the trail, walked up the trail a little more and seen what i thought was a pop up blind. Then it moved
Up came the binos and it ended up being three strutting Toms side by side
They had three hens pulling the lead and were headed away. Time to step out of the box, i hit the woods to my right to try and get ahead of them. if any one has ever been in strip mine woods you are feeling my pain. It is running rows of long hills and i had to go across all this mess. By the time i got to my destinatinn i was ringing wet with sweat, and breathing so hard i could barley hold the diaphram call in my mouth. The set up was perfect, i was standing up, and hidden in some small pines. I had three shooting lanes at 18 yards. after 40 minutes of nothing, i thought i had bumped them. I snuck out to the edge and seen them 60 yards out. back in and again 40 minutes of nothing, i snuck out again, now they are 50 yards out and coming at a snails pace. I accepted the fact that this was going to be a LONG wait and settled back in. After another 20 minutes something caught my eye from the other direction on the trail, its two more Toms walking towards to other three. They walk behind the brush, i draw and pop the first one when he steps into view. The shot caught him in the wing joint and he tries to fly but was going nowhere. He managed to get into the grass on the side of the trail and then his buddy started spurring him right in front of me. Then i hear more comotion and the other three run in and jumped all over him. He managed to get inside of the woodline while the four were pounding him the whole time. He expired quickly and the deed was done. I actually had to chase the birds off him
sorry for the long read but i thought it was a story worthy of sharing. sorry for the horrable pic, it was set on a timer, no one was around to take the photo. 20.5 lbs 9 1/2" beard 7/8" 3/4" spurs
Indiana bird down (pic) wild story
