Well, yesterday was opening day in VA. I went out Friday to put some birds to bed and only heard one. It was raining Saturday morning when I got into the woods. I owl hooted once and heard him gobble. He was farther away than the previous day. So I walked a good ways and hooted again. GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE. He was really close. So I began walking and saw him in the tree. I hid behind a pine and decided to wait. Well I glanced down for a second and looked back up and he was no where to be found. I thought he may have jumped down silently. So after a few minutes of searching the tree I started out to follow. He was still in the tree and I spooked him.
I decided to go into a pine bottom and wait the rain out. It stopped raining enough for me to call on the slate. Soon as I put the call down I saw something red. It was two gobblers, a jake leading the big boy. I inched my gun up and shot the longbeard at 25 yrds. He never gobbled or gave me any warning that they were on the way. This is my first tom.
He weighed 17 lbs and had 1" spurs. His beard is 9 1/2 inches.
