Two years ago I was working a gobbler that hung up and would not get any closer to me. I worked him for about a half hour and he circled around to one of three adjoining fields. The fields had thick woods between them but were connected by farm roads. I decided to move on him. He was gobbling from the smaller field on the end, so I set up on the edge of the large field in the middle. I put out a hen and a jake deke towards the corner of the field, visible from the farm road. I expected that if he started to come in, he'd take the road, see the dekes, and give me a nice 20 yard shot. Well, he stood his ground gobbling for another half hour or so, not getting any closer. I mustered up some serious restraint and shut up. After 10 min or so of just scratching the leaves, I gave him a few soft clucks to which he thundered back, but still didn't get any closer. After some more leaf scratching, I let out another soft cluck and he thundered back, but he was a little closer. I played this game with him for what seemed like forever, but he was definitely getting closer. The problem was, he wasn't on the road. He was coming to my calls thru the woods. I kept up the leaf scratching with the occasional soft cluck, and I could hear him making his way thru the woods, but he was behind me. When I thought he was pretty close, I quit calling but didn't hear him for a few minutes and didn't know where he was at. I decided to give him another cluck just to make sure he was still there and GOBBBBLLEEEEE GOBBLLLEEEEEE! He had stepped out of the woods DIRECTLY behind me. That was a point blank gobble directly into my ear. I probably could have swung my arm around and grabbed him by the neck. the hair on the back of my neck was standing at attention. I froze in place and watched him thru my peripheral vision as he strutted, spitting and drumming into the field. When he was no more than 5 yards from me he turned towards the center of the field, and I tried to bring my gun up. He turned towards my dekes and I froze again. He startedrunning straight to the dekes, and I figured he was going to kick the snot out of my jake, so I'd nail him when I he got there. That bird must have caught me moving, he never did stop. He just ran straight passed the dekes into the woods. I never did get a shot, but that was the longest I ever worked a bird and my closest encounter with a longbeard and one I'll never forget.