following is pictures of higgy15jhs bird, and a story to boot.
We hunted this single tom for over 11 hours last weekend, which was the last weekend of season. Opening day ended in two setups involving this bird coming in and gobbling within 100 yards only to be taken away by hens. we ended up roosting him, and making a plan for sunday, the last day of season.
This is him saturday morning, oooo so close to flopping, probably 80-100 yards off.
so we come back sunday, showing up late, as it was already light enough for the early hens to be on the ground. So needless to say, we practically sprinted to the field we planned on setting up in. got there and he was gobbling not 300 yards past it, up on a ridge. we set up the pretty boy, started calling. he would gobble like crazy, but not to our calls. but after he hit the ground he worked his way down the ridge, and into our field, about 150 yards away. Once he entered our field, he would gobble back to anything i threw at him. i was reeling him in. but for the third time, he hung up and refused to budge any farther, insisting i come the rest of the way. well a couple soft clucks and purrs got him continuing in. the whole time he was out of sight from the pretty boy, so it was useless. While watching him close the distance to around 50 yards a hen came in from behind us, and started putting not ten yards away. we were busted. the gobblerf stopped strutting and gobbling, and just sat there deciding on where to leave the field at. so he went back the way he came from and went to the top of that ridge.
we thought our morning was over, but being the last day, we ran to the other end of the ridge to another field some 500 yards away where we figured he was eventually heading. sat down set out pretty boy ten yards away. and settled in for a four or five hour wait. we heard a thundering gobble two hundred yards away on top of that same ridge all of a sudden. he was making good time. we threw on facenets and i let out some cutts and yelps, followed by some purring later on. about two minutes after that with no response, he shows him self, coming off down that ridge coming out not ten yards away from an old abandoned house. he gets about half way across the field when he sees the pretty boy, but when he does its game over. he comes sprintingfrom around 80 yardsoutand doesnt stop till jarrod drilled him at 15 yards. miscommunication on when to shoot ended up in not getting the actual kill shot on film, but i got the rest of the hunt. ill try to put together a small clip of it.
so we each ended up with one gobbler a piece for the season and couldnt be happier.
the house in the background of the above pic is actually the house he came out beside not ten yards away.
great ending to terrible season
