Okay guys, I'm back from my week long hunting marathon. I have been hunting the local military reservation, which can be extremely crowded even though its almost 11 square miles. Well, It stormed opening morning so I did not get to go for the early morning. I attempted to strike up some action in the evening, but had no luck there. On Tuesday; however, my first owl hoot was answered by a gobble not 100 yards away. I set up and called and he answered nearly every call. After flydown he continued to gobble at everything yet walked steadily in the opposite direction of where I was. I figured he had hens with him that were not in the mood to share him.
So that evening I went and roosted an old sounding gobbler on Area 10 with one of my brothers (Dylan, the one that killed the triple beard.) He had no hens with him and was roosted not 10 yards off of a tank trail. We had it zeroed down to the exact tree he was in. So Wednesday morning rolls around, and we get out there super early before Dylan had to be at school and set up our decoys. As soon as it was light enough to tree yelp, we did, and he answered it. It was a sure thing we thought. We thought wrong. About 7 am the turkey busts from his roost tree and lands about 20 yards directly behind our setup and we could hear him sprinting in the other direction. We had no idea what happened. So I took Dylan on to school and came back to hunt the mid-morning. As I was preparing to leave empty handed again, an old fella comes walking down the trail to me and asks if I had been there early that morning. When I told him that it was me, he apologized and admitted that it was he who had busted our bird as he walked in from the opposite side of Area 10 and offered to give me a ride back to my truck which I accepted. I realize that other hunters messing up your hunt is a risk you take on public land, so I was not too upset and he was a really nice guy.
Thursday and Friday were both gobble-less days except for late Friday evening, we roosted another bird on Area 10. Saturday morning rolled around and we thought we had another sure thing in the bag, but as we drove to our parking area at the start of the tank trail, we passed by two other hunter at the next road over not 350 yards away. We set up well before daylight and called softly as the sun broke over the horizon, and the gobbler was fired up. But immediately after flydown he stopped gobbling and disappeared into the timber, as the other hunters busted him from behind... this was getting old.
So last evening i called the base's Hunt Track system and found an area that had zero other hunter signed out in for the following day, Area 7. Now area 7 is split into 3 smaller areas along the northern border of the reservation. This morning me, Dylan, and my other little brother Aaron parked on Area 7s western border and owl hooted. It was immediately answered by a gobble about 250 yards away. We moved 100 yards down the road and tried it again. This time two answered. the original one and one off to our left. We were in good shape and had the perfect setup spot in between the two toms. over the course of the next 20 minutes of yelping and cutting, we heard no less than 12 different gobbling turkeys within 300 yards of our setup. It was incredible if not magical. At 6:40 am a strutter and his wingman entered our view at about 45 yards directly in front of us. With vegetation preventing a good shot we let them walk right on in to 12 steps where me AND Aaron both scored IDENTICAL nice 2 year old easterns.
Species: Eastern
Beard: 9.4375 in.
Spur L.: 0.875 in.
R: 0.75 in.
Weight: 16.5 lbs.
Score:
51.625
And As promised, here are pics of Dylan's triple beard after the fact:
