kellyguinn

Alright guys. I'm pretty sure I have all our birds updated on the picture and score thread.


Will yall please double check and make sure I didn't leave any out.


My season here is done with. I was lucky enough to tag out in Kansas and in Oklahoma along with taking my first Eastern. To say it has been an exceptional season would be an understatement. The only downside is how quickly it has all come an gone. I only spent 7 days in the field and finished with 5 birds. Unreal!


The last one (the eastern) came as a buddy pointed me in a few public areas that he said he had heard birds. I set up in the morning with no gobbling coming from the roost but when they hit the ground they were very vocal. They were what sounded like right beside me but down a pretty steep hill and I just couldn't coax any of them to come in for a look. At about 8:30 am it was like a light switch went off and all gobbling stopped.


I sat still till about 10 or so then decided to check a few other spots out since I had never been there. I did the searching till about 2pm with no luck and decided to drive 25 min north to a different WMA. Walked a fence line for about 2 miles and stopped occasionally to do some calling with no luck so I figured I had better get back to the truck and go set up where I had heard them in the morning.


While driving out of the unit I glanced to my right and seen 5 birds. At least 1 had a beard and I could make out 1 hen as they went on alert and hurried back into the timber. I drove a few hundred yards further down and out of sight and snuck out of the truck and into the woods. After a few light calls I could hear the hen and she was not happy. It wasn't long before she was almost on top of me. As she continued to tell me off the others I saw started gobbling...(Game On) They never did show up and eventually she wandered off back to where she came so I quietly got up and snuck around a big hill to get on the other side of them. I did a few calls and they started putting. I though I had blown it but I shut up for about 15 min and hit the high pitched box call again and here she came again looking for a fight. This time however they followed. 4 toms all with over 11" beards. I waited till the last one came in so that I could get a good look at all of them and unfortunately the first was the largest. By the time he wandered back to where I could move the gun toward him the others were less that 10 yrds from me and had noticed something wasn't right. As I slowly tried to aim the first 3 ran right and the last one (which was originally strutting up the rear lol) ran left. Then he stopped and ran right back to where the others were at 10 yards and I dropped him. Not the largest of the group but I am very happy. He has great coloring on the wings and even white streaks going up one of the tail feathers that is kinda neat.


Over all I walked about 15 miles that day. That was after getting up at 2am to make the 3 hr drive. Hunt till I got the bird at 5:30pm and then after showing him off start the drive home where I arrived at 11pm. Awesome experience and I can't wait till next year. Only down side is that part of the state has a 1 bird limit.