Mojotex will recognize this area well.
I took off work Friday and headed to south AL to hunt with a buddy this weekend. He has some great turkey woods and our hopes were high. Rain was expected most of Friday, so we wanted to get in at least a morning hunt. Since we didn't arrive until around midnight, it was not easy getting up early, but the chance at killing a turkey is an excellent motivator. We had several birds gobbling good, but one was hung up and out of sight, so we decided to make a move on the other, more hot gobbler. He was gobbling at everything and seemed to be heading our way. We move down a road to where we think he is, only to realize we were a patch of pines too far over. We had to hump it through them and set up on the next road over. We get set up and he is still gobbling pretty regular. After several series of calling and subsequent courtesy gobbles, he just shut up. I expected him to come from straight in front of me or from my left. However, as we all know, turkeys rarely do what we expect them to. I heard drumming to my right, but couldn't see anything. Then we hear a gobble to our far right down the road, and a lot closer! We quickly spin around to face him. All of a sudden I catch a glimpse if a tail fan. Then I see his head popped up and looking for a hen. My buddy is behind me and starts scratching in the leaves. The turkey takes a few more steps, spitting and drumming the whole time. He stops again for what seemed like forever. At this point he is behind some small trees and I don't have a shot. I need him to take another couple of steps. My buddy never sees him, but knows he's close. He scratches in the leaves a little more and he took his last two steps ever. The Nitros dropped him in his tracks at 33 yards. He was a good 2 year old bird: 8.5" beard, 13/16" spurs and a couple of interesting tail feathers.
My view after the shot:
Closer....
After snapping more than enough pics, my buddy wanted to head after the original bird we were chasing. So we walked down the road a ways and hung up my bird.
We gave it a valiant effort, but he wouldn't cooperate anymore. At least one bird got to take a ride though!
We hunted some more Friday, since it never really rained. We bumped a bird as we approached one of the fields, and after that we didn't hear or see another bird, but we know they're definitely there!
We decided to try the same area Saturday morning. Heard one sounding off on the property line, but he shut up once he hit the ground and we didn't hear or see another bird all day Saturday. We hunted hard and covered LOTS of ground. It was extremely odd. Not sure if it was the weather or what, but when you can't find one willing to play the game on thousands of acres after they were on fire the day before, it's odd. With over 80% chance of rain predicted Sunday morning, we decided to head back Saturday night. I hope he makes those bastard turkeys pay next weekend for their transgressions.