Just returned from Wisconsin. I started out the first morning with blind, decoys, and bow only to have a huge gobbler strutting at about 80 yards but he and his hens didn't want anything to do with me. I switched later in the morning to the gun and went to the run n' gun approach which I enjoy. I got two gobblers to respond at noon and traded calls with them and then played it silent. They didn't move from their position on the opposite hillside so I figured they might have hens with them. I circled downhill to a different position along an old logging road and called again. Wouldn't you know it...they gobbled where I'd been 10 minutes before. I switched to soft clucks and purrs.A few minutes later down the road they came single file. Caught me with the gun down and were at full alert when I slowly raised the gun and knocked the lead bird down. He had a good beard at 10", one spur at 15/16", and the other was worn off at .5" but he only weighed 19.5 lbs. Strange as a bird with that size beard from that area is normally around 22 to 23 lbs. Anyway, one down and one hunt in Minnesota this next weekend to go. We had a great time camping/hunting and one of the guys, Kevin, got his first bird as well. Here are stats from NWTF calc and some pix from the hunt. Do I need to post this somewhere else as part of contest??
Your score is 19.5 + 9.375 + 5 + 20 = 53.875
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x249/ironranger1961/wisconsinGobbler.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x249/ironranger1961/Spur2WI2007.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x249/ironranger1961/Spur1WI2007.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x249/ironranger1961/BeardWI2007.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x249/ironranger1961/WIhuntLandscape.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x249/ironranger1961/TheCrew.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x249/ironranger1961/DeadmanCanyon1.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x249/ironranger1961/Jeff-ValleyView.jpg