Let me clarify. the club will release a bird for you on a pre-paid basis. So far this season (fall-winter) only one bird was released and harvested. Any birds we've been seeing tracks from are last springs leftovers i.e. birds that were released a year ago and never harvested, no their wings aren't clipped, they all fly up to roost at night otherwise the yote's would get em. Legal to shoot these birds as long as you're on hunt club property, makes for a nice tune-up before the real season starts. Anyway.....

It's still real early with no calling heard. We set up on opposite ends of a long 300yd or more field where we've seen a lot of tracks in the snow. Sure enough a Tom comes out into the field halfway between us, ignoring the calls and the dekes and feeds in the sorghum,then goes back in the woods and comes back out to feed. Three times he does this in roughly the same spot. we break for lunch and I decide to set-up mid field where he's been , well you can see where this is going..... About 4:15 he comes out again and walks not 25yds from where I'd been set up all morning!
I guess even released birds wise up sometimes!