Well, I' ve been hunting this one particular area on and off since the season opened. There were three toms there and every time I would get one of them gobbling and coming towards me, another hunter would barge in and ruin it. I finally decided since I couldn' t get away from the hunters in the morning, I would try to catch one of them going back to roost. And catch him I did. I nailed him 40 yards from his roost tree at 7:15 yesterday afternoon.
He was with another gobbler and they never made a sound coming in. I had set out a hen decoy and they were actually in the process of shying around the decoy when I shot him. The decoy didn' t draw them in, but at least it held their attention long enough to give me a shot.
He had a 9 7/8 beard with 7/8 spurs and weighed 16 1/2 lbs. I shot him at 40 yards with my Browning A-5. Shells were 2 3/4 Win. Supreme number 4' s. I' ll post pics as soon as I get them on the web.
One thing that made the day rather special was that my cousin and hunting buddy got a great bird yesterday morning. He weighed eighteen lbs, had a 10 inch beard and 1 1/8 spurs. That' s a nice bird around here.
It isn' t often that the two of us get birds on the same day.
Congratulations!! That is doing what it takes. I found that late afternoon hunts were pretty exciting this year as well. I took my second gobbler at 4:50 PM!!
Finally!!!
