Last night I was working in the garden and heard one gobbling behind the house. Snuck down in and followed the gobbles until I could pinpoint the group of trees where he was roosting. Got up this morning and headed down...he was pretty hot. Was gobbling even before first light. I set up about 100 yards or so from the group of trees where I knew he was waited till it got pink and threw a cackle at it and beat my hat against my leg.

After that I clucked a few times, a few purrs and then waited for what seemed like an eternity for it to fly down. He was really hammering it off the roost! He flew down and actually walked away from me...then circled behind me! I felt like I was reliving a big buck nightmare!

He slowly worked down an overgrown logging road behind me as I tried the best I could not to stick my head around the tree and spook it. Thankfully I had a rock outcropping to one side of me and so I set down my gun and did some kind of duck and roll so I could see behind me. I' m sure if that bird would have seen me it would have keeled over from laughter! I had to stand up to see over the rocks and just as I did I saw him duck behind a tree about 25 yards out and closing in...he walked a bit closer and went behind another tree...I swung my gun up and took him at about 15 yards...to say my heart was racing would be a complete understatement!!

What a great hunt...didn' t go exactly as planned, but they never do!

Below are some pics; Weighed 22lbs, 10 1/2 in. beard, 1 1/4 in. spur on one side and a broken spur on the other that was about 3/4 in. looked like it was broken clean in half.

The kids hadn' t gotten on the bus for school yet and where quite excited to see me walk up with the bird...as the bus pulled up they both held it up with great pride so all of their friends could see :-)

Had a great morning...just wanted to share the story!