Strut&Rut

Called in 2 hens today - one got to 5 yards and I think she saw me blink. She startled and took a short flight, but no putts. She threw out a few clucks and the 2 stayed in the area for a while, then slowly wandered over a ridge. I waited an hour and when I got up I heard distinctive clucking from the other side of the ridge, I think I may have spooked a quiet tom working his way in. Regardless, no putts so the birds weren't spooked...

Starting to really warm up here and the birds are going into full-time silent strut as the hens finalize their nests. I may hunt tomorrow morning (woods are beautiful right now) and if I don't connect I may take a week off while the hens finish laying...

Strut&Rut

Appears our lead was short-lived...

Arrowmaster dropped a few birds for Team 1 and will post pics and scores soon. After he posts we'll be alone in 2nd place. Swamp_Slayer also bagged birds for Team 1 but never posted pics or official scores. If SS doesn't post anything then 1 more tom will put us in the lead - if SS posts his pics, one of us needs to bag a monster or we'll need 2 more mature birds...

firelt72

My season is done. We are 1 and done here. hmmm Yes Arrow got a MO and NE bird on his recent trips.

Bocajnala

No luck in ohio this week. I'll be hunting PA tue and wed morning next week.
-Jake

springspur

Nice bird, how many tags do you have left?

firelt72

springspur none we are a 1 and done state. I'd love to go elsewhere too, but can't with son graduating this week.

kellyguinn

Congrats on the bird firelt72! I posted it to the score thread.

kellyguinn

Think if you can pull one off scoring 50 pts we should be good. We are up by 17.44 pts but like I've been saying team 1 has 3 birds not posted yet by SS.

Strut&Rut

I had a red head in the red dot this morning at ~40 yards but froze on the trigger - something didn't feel right. He came in hot but literally was running past me to the field where they strut. He gave me one short-lived opportunity for a head shot, but his neck was below my line of site and literally all I could see was the top of his head.

Of course he popped up in about the only spot I didn't anticipate when I setup in the dark. It was also stupid early (~6:10 or 10 min before sunrise here) - based on the past week, he pitched down about 15 min early and must have ran to my setup. Honestly, it was still dark enough in the woods that I just couldn't tell if there were any saplings/twigs between us so I laid off hoping he would stick around or move closer in my direction.

Glad I waited - 30 min later I could see 3-4 saplings between me and him, I'm convinced the pattern would've been too scattered to drop him cleanly (if at all). On opening day in CT, about 15 years ago, I lined up on a nice tom and proceeded to harvest a beautiful 1 inch Oak sapling - I never touched the tom and he ran off gobbling at the shotgun blast. I still have that stick (with the shot in it) in the bottom of one of my totes as a reminder to myself

I waited an hour then looped around to the edge of the neighbor's field. Counted 4 strutters and only 3 hens - I had them gobbling and the hens were getting pissy, but they eventually went off on their normal travel route to the other side of the field.

All of those strutters will score 50+, and there's at least one obvious 3-4 yr old in that mix that will score in the 60's or higher. I'm the only one hunting these properties and therefore I'd like to better last year's bird from this same property, which I dropped around May 25 and scored in the low 60's.

Strut&Rut

The Team 1 score also doesn't reflect Arrowmaster's birds yet - once they post his best bird, we'll be behind by ~40 pts.

Thus, if I bag a good bird then we'll take the lead, or if both me and Boca connect on toms then we'll be close even if SS posts his best bird. SS is active duty, so I'm not sure pics and/or scores will ever get posted (unfortunate) by the close of the contest.

I believe me and Boca are the only 2 members of our team still hunting - is this correct?