After our Saturday experience with Blue Jeans Charlie, Jack wisely decided we should go to another spot on Monday since the birds probably had not returned yet from whatever county they were blown out to from our denim wearing, gobbler call shaking, constantly walking friend. With the weather forecast predicting certain rain and lots of it Jack had a good spot picked out in a field that was about 175 yards across, at least 500 yards long, and surrounded on 3 sides by woods. There were some patches of brush in one section of the field so we set up a pop-up blind there in between some bushes to keep us somewhat dry. The blind was put out the night before and we went to one field edge to see if we could roost some birds but heard nothing. The field was the biggest in the area and one of Jack"™s friends had seen 3 longbeards, 4 jakes, and a pile of hens there a few days earlier, so with the rain we were confident we should see some birds.
Monday morning we headed out early and got up into the blind well before first light. The rain was steady and constant with the wind driving it into the side of the blind. It took longer than normal for the light to creep in. As we sat in the blind waiting for camera light Jack commented that if I hadn"™t been in town visiting that there was no way he would be out there in that weather. I told him that if I hadn"™t driven 4 ½ hours that there was now way I"™d be out there either.
As the dark grey rainy skies became lighter and lighter we didn"™t hear any calls or gobbles. This didn"™t concern us too much because with the weather we were having it wouldn"™t be unlikely for the birds to stay on the roost longer than normal.
A little before 7 o"™clock we heard a gobble behind us in the distance. Jack swore he could hear a hen too, but I couldn"™t hear it. It is very possible that he did since he was running the camera and wearing the headphones that he was picking up a lot of sounds I couldn"™t detect. We unzipped the tops of the windows in the back of the blind to try to see the bird that was gobbling. The gobbles were coming closer and we were getting anxious. After a few minutes the bird materialized on the quad road going up the steep hill behind us into the woods.
He slowly made his way down the road and Jack could tell through his binoculars that it was a good bird. He got to the edge of the steep hill leading to the edge of the field and was around 75 yards away. At this point he began half strutting back and forth on the edge of the hill gobbling his head off and we were worried that he had hung up. I gave a few soft clucks and some purrs and the longbeard came out of strut and started making his way down a deer trail on the hill.
Jack was hoping to get some footage, but with all of the front windows open and the bird directly behind the blind there was no way to get windows closed and opened without making a lot of noise with the zippers. I half opened the window in front of me in case the bird gave me a shot. I ranged out some of the brush out in front of us and it was 33 yards away.
Once the gobbler got to the bottom of the hill we lost sight of him as he went into a low point. If he went to our right Jack would definitely see him and he would most likely come out to our decoy set. If he went to the left he could get into the brush and pop out anywhere from 2 yards away to 150 yards away with no way of us knowing where he was going.
It was maddening as we waited for him to make his way up since he had stopped gobbling. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only 2 or 3 minutes I spotted his head to our left. I told Jack I saw him to the left and he was moving left to right. I wasn"™t sure what his intentions were and he wasn"™t coming straight in so I wasn"™t going to take any chances. If he cleared the brush I had ranged I was taking the shot.
He moved in behind the brush and as he stepped out I hit him with a few putts. This brought his bright white head up to attention. I put my sight right at where the colored skin meets the feathers and fired. The bird piled up and beat the ground with his wings.
Jack urged me to ready another round as he thought I had missed. I saw another bird that I hadn"™t noticed that looked as though it was attacking my bird. I told Jack we could get a double and just as he asked if he should shoot I told him, "śNo"ť because I could see it was a hen. Knowing my bird was down the celebration began.
I wish could have gotten the bird on film, but I am in no way disappointed knowing first hand how hard it is to film in a blind. Not to mention that I now had my first spring gobbler on the ground after many seasons of chasing them unsuccessfully, watching and filming others get them, and now returning from a hiatus of over 15 years to the spring woods. It is a wonderful feeling, a great time spent with a good friend, and now a treasured memory.
I want to take a moment to thank Jack for taking me out to his spots and helping me get my first bird. It was great to share it with you bro.
The bird has a 10.5 inch beard, one 1 inch spur and the other broken off at ½ inch, and weighed about 22 lbs. He will be getting a full mount in the half strut gobble pose I remember him at while he paced the top of that hill.
Jack and myself:
April Showers Bring Dead Longbeards
