It was thelast full day of hunting we had for the trip. That morning, I walked in quiet,by moonlight and posted 200+ yds below a gobblers roost site. It was cold and frosty before sunrise. I waited quietly for the morning chorus to begin. At 5:45am a pheasant sounded off, followed by a waking Erckle’s francolin. Within the next few minutes all sorts of game birds were waking up the world. Aftersetting up on the same roost site several mornings, I knew this guy would go off at 6:09-6:10am, gobble for 20mins and then go silent. I looked at my watch,and bingo. At 6:09am he lets out the first of 25-30 gobbles. I listened to tryand hear a change in tone indicating he had flown down from his roost. At6:31am I hear the change. A slight hollow, echo-y sound indicating he wasgobbling on the ground and in the trees. I then heard his gobbles get fainteras he walked directly opposite of where I was. Frustrated is one word you coulduse. He pulled the same move on me every morning I was up there, no matterwhich direction or distance I was set up. Tag soup was looking like apossibility.
After alunch and a snooze in some shade, I was listening for the birds to begin theirlate afternoon return towards the roosting areas. The turkeys would often taketheir time, filtering back up fromParker Ranch. If one gobbles, and you can get in front of where he’s likelyheaded to, you sometimes can get a chance by calling very softly. At around2:10pm, I heard a loud gobble that was uphill of the road. I grabbed my gun anda call, and took a slow walk to find a spot I could listen and maybe move aheadof him. I gave out some soft yelps on my homemade slate call, and listened somemore. He gobbled again, higher uphill, and closer. I angled across the hill,keeping cover between me and the next ridgeline over. He sounded off louder. Icouldn’t see much through the tall grass, but he was closing inside of 100ydsand headed my way. I was about to run out of cover, so I backed to the access road, below him.
All of a sudden, I could hear him spit & drum. He was uphill of me in a broken brush / tree line that ran down to the road. It took a few gobbles for me to figure out which side me might be on. I inserted into the tall grass on the left side of the tree line. It was breezy, and I stepped with the wind so it would cover my sound. I peered into every hole & space trying to get a glimpse of him gobbling a drumming away. At one point, I could see where an opening in the brush was. I looked down to plan my next step. When I looked up there he was, all white headed and red necked, looking at me with his head high above the grass.
I put my red-dot on his neck, and Bah-Kow!, he rolled over at 40yds. My buddy heard the shot at 2:30pm. The following morning, we were back up the mountain, trying to get my buddy a bird. We were 400-500yds from my guy's roost site, and we didn't hear any gobbles that morning from down in that area.
Win. Longbeard XR is one awesome turkey load. The call & striker on the fan are ones I made.
Last edited by JoeA; 03-13-2018 at 02:31 PM.
Reason: typo