ManofTheFall

It was kind of a crazy hunt. After Monday's hunt we knew we had to move the blind. We moved it to the only place we thought we would have a chance at the gobblers we were targeting. The only problem is we had to go through the roost to get to the blind. Tuesday morning as we are stealthily creeping along to our blind we jumped one bird off the roost. Just after 6AM we figured it must have been the real big one we were after because we never heard him gobble. However we were over run by hens. They were everywhere which was very good for us of course. We really didn't even have to call any. The hens were doing the calling for us. As we are quietly talking in the blind and hens are clucking on all sides of us, all of a sudden my buddy says get your gun up now!!!!! He says there is a Tom standing about 15 yards directly in front of us. We never seen where he came from and he never made a sound. It was as if he appeared out of nowhere. He was all puffed up, tail feathers spread and he was strutting his stuff. I didn't even bother looking at his beard, I just put the bead of my Remington 870 12 gauge on him and let him have it. He went right down for a good old dirt nap. This was at 7AM. My buddy says well, let's get going. I said, are you nuts? Turkeys are singing everywhere and they still were even after I shot him. So just a little calling and by 7:30AM he took a 40 yard shot and another one and it went down for a dirt nap. Now we will only be shooting Long Beards. Unfortunately, I can't go back out until next Monday. I think we also found another way into the blind without having to walk right through the roosting area. I was hoping for a Long Beard first and his score isn't much, but hopefully I will be able to upgrade with my next bird. Well, here are the measurements and the pics.

Eastern

Weight - 17 pounds

Left Spur - .5"

Right Spur - .5"

Beard - 4.5"

TOTAL SCORE = 36