Hunted the front of our property this morning under the advisement of my wife Lee, who spotted a big gobbler in the field next to our property the evening before. I roosted there that night, but could not raise a bird anywhere. This morning I set up in our north end, next to that same field. Lee had to be to work early, and would not be able to join me for the morning hunt. Beautiful sunny morning, and very quiet. So quiet you could hear insects burping. Not a gobble to be heard anywhere.

At 5:30am a hen cut and cackle a little bit on the roost. 5:50am, I spot two hens fly down to the opposite end of the field a few hundred yards away. Dead silent for the next hour. Several times, I nearly decided to pack it in, and just head into work. I made only a few calls using a PD mooky screamer 3 mouth call and a slate. 6:30am a hen scolds me, and we have a short argument, four volleys of conversation to be exact. Five minutes later, two hens appear 80 yards out, looking for me. Shortly after, a fan tail appears over the horizon, followed quickly by three more hens, with a sixth hen loitering out in the middle of the field by herself. Moments later the group closed the gap, and the girlfriends got their boyfriend in to some trouble. 6:40am I had the gobbler down.

Gobbler weighed 20.5 lbs, swung a 9.5” beard, and sported 1” spurs.



NWTF Score= 59.5000