BILL J.

Friday I hooked up with a buddy that had permission to hunt a couple of properties. We hunted public land in the morning and scouted @ 8:00. The last place we went to had six toms strutting in the middle of an 80 acre field adjacent to where we could hunt. We snuck in and called with no luck, they were staying with there hens. Next morning we set up close to the field edge. I've never heard so many different toms before!!! There had to be 15-20 within earshot. The hens flew down right in front of us, some passing as close as 10 yds., but the two toms that were roosting behind us sat back and gobbled. One by one single hens would yelp and work back to the toms. After 20 min. or so, I heard some coming back to the field, and when I turned around to look, I saw a blue and red head coming. Well, we brought our guns up (sitting side by side) and didn't know that the other tom was right behind us, along with three hens to our side. After the first putt I knew we were done. The weird thing is the hens still came through, one got to within 10 ft. of us. The toms circled and came out about two hundred yards and joined two other toms and the remaining hens and paraded down the field. It was still fun though. I would have been more dissapointed if I hadn't nailed one the last day of the third season in 21. I'm definately looking forward to next year!