Bird #2

After a nice day with my friends and our annual steak dinner, we went scouting. Saw lots of jakes (good sign for next year) but not many toms. The farm of 1000 gobbles from last year had no toms. We did see 2 nice toms in a field I had not hunted before but was a possibility. Then we found a nice flock that had hens, jakes, and before we left, 5 longbeards. One had a pencil thin beard that I mentally said I would pass if presented the shot. Had a pretty good idea where they went to roost.

Tuesday again came early. I would have to get in early to get on these birds too. It wasn't as cool as Monday am, but I was still in 3 layers of clothes. I pushed as close as I dared and set up behind a large pine that had branches to the ground, giving me room to reposition and also blocking the birds from seeing me based on where I thought they were. At 5:26 am I was proven right in my prediction of where the group was. A cacophony of gobbles filled the air from less than 100 yds. Now I had to predict which side they might come down on. About 5:45 they began to pitch down mostly in the direction I had guessed but they basically flew straight down and didn't sail out a bit like I thought. I could see hens, toms, and jakes through the pine. Finally some birds came into view but it was hens and 3 strutting jakes. With the longbeards there, I was really surprised they were letting them strut. The hens started to move in front of me in range. A longbeard strutted on the other side of them, about 60 yards, and out of range. Then it looked like the rest might move to my left a bit closer. I could see the glowing heads of the toms through the pine tree from time to time. Then 3 hens popped out to my left at 10 yards. One saw something but thankfully no alarm putt! They slowly moved on and I was able to reposition quickly. Then a tom popped out at 15-18 yds. It was the pencil beard. I let him walk thinking that the next bird that came out with a thick beard was getting it. The pencil beard kept slowing moving by and nothing else was coming out. I began to regret my decision when a thick bearded tom popped out at 25 yards. That was all I needed! Tag filled! The crazy rest of the story was most of the birds didn't know what happened on the shot and hung around. As to not blow them out of the area I held tight. The bulk of them never got more than 120 yards from me and stayed in there for an hour. I videoed a nice tom come past at 38 yards. I finally texted one of my friends to come drive in there to run them off since they are used to farm traffic. I finally got my hands on my tom over an hour after the shot! Limbhanger!



Beard


Spurs