Awesome birds! The landowner we were waiting for shot his bird at 45yds, it got up and started flying and he shot again and knocked it down, but it took off running and he backed out. He returned a few hours later with his two trained bird dogs to try and track it and never found it.... This was on Wednesday. Saturday I was out with my fiance and my dog (a 6year old golden retriever that has never hunted or been around birds at all) when I heard a pheasant cackle pretty close to us. My dog heard it too and loved the sound so we decided to see if he could sniff it out. He starts acting really birdy and we dropped the 20ft rope he was on, and he just took off. He had his nose to the ground and suddenly veered toward those willows (which is kinda swampy, water up to your ankles). Anyway, he gets about 10 feet away from some downed trees and suddenly this HUGE tom busts outta there! He tried to take off but you could tell he was the wounded tom and couldn't fly. My dog was hot on his heels and definitely would have caught the turkey if his rope hadn't gotten hung up a branch. It stopped him just for about two seconds, which was enough for that tom to disappear. MAN were we surprised! Who woulda thought that my clown of a dog would sniff out that turkey. We never did see it again that night, but there's no way he could have made it across the river so he's gotta be holed up in the willows still. We called the landowner and told him his bird is still alive, so he's made it his mission for 3rd and 4th season to get that bird. We all three went out hunting this morning, us set up where the toms go to strut and him in the willows trying to call out that wounded bird. As luck would have it, the wounded bird showed up while the landowner was standing out in the open, and so he froze. As he was trying to stand still with this wounded bird eyeing him, the other 4 toms show up too!! They were all within 20 yards of him, checking him out. After a minute they turned and walked over to some public ground and we didn't see them the rest of the day. They had gone through the willows and behind us, so we didn't even see them. He was true to his word though and didn't shoot another tom when that wounded one is still out there. Maybe he will get him tomorrow.

Shotgun season starts next weekend for me, and I'm not sure if I'll buy a shotgun tag or just keep at it with my bow. I don't really have the money for another tag (school tuition...ugh), but we'll see.