I have been guiding all of our season and have not had much time to hunt for myself yet this year. Got to go out yesterday morning to the nicest day of the season so far (minus the fact that it was 30 degrees). It was so calm that we could hear gobbles up and down the river bottom for literally miles. Got set up on a bird on his roost early and started with a few tree yelps, then flydown cackles, the whole nine yards. He would never answer me, but would answer when other birds gobbled at me.. I think he was one of those ***** toms
Anyway, he would not fly down from the roost, even though i stopped calling to him around 730. At 8 my buddy, who was set up calling about 30 yards behind me snuck down to my position to make a game plan to go after a different Tom since this one was not cooporating. While we were just sitting there talking quitely, i hear the familiar Pfft-vooooommmmmmm! Just then a tom, who came in completly silent came over a ridge top that was 50 yards away.( sneeky little bassturd) I could tell he wasnt that good of a tom, but had a full fan so i decided i was going to shoot him anyway. The bad thing was that my gun was about 2 feet away on the ground and on the opposite side of my shooting hand. He came to about 30 yards and started strutting up the hill to my left, looking for the hen that he had heard only minutes before (no decoys, never use them in the woods). I reached slowly for my gun as my buddy stopped him with a few clucks. He saw me and started to walk fast so i just pulled up and BOOM!!! Dropped him like a rock at about 35 yards. He was fairly small bodied and obvously a 2 year old, but i found a bonus when i walked up and found that he had 2 beards, one was 8" and the other 2". He probably weighed only 17 lbs and had 3/4 inch spurs. Not the biggest tom i have ever shot but hes my first double beard!
Not much of a second beard (or first for that matter) but ill count it.
First Bird of the year
