The birds have been gobbling well all season, and as I've always felt, the hunting gets even better as the season progresses. Here in Georgia the toms are covered up with hens early in the season, but as the weeks go by it seems a receptive hen gets a bit harder to find and the gobblers respond better to my calls.
I haven't had a chance to hunt in 2 weeks and was glad when this morning 4 hens flew down in the corn patch in front of me and fed around. A gobbler was further back in the woods but I felt he'd be headed to this spot. I called to him and got some modest response, but it was maybe 10 minutes after the hens had flown down from their roost that my soft cluck generated a big-time gobble that was now maybe 30 yards away. He was still behind me in the woods headed towards the field. I sat still as the 4 hens were still feeding quietly in front of me while my decoy waited seductively for a suitor.
A couple of minutes later, not one but THREE nice gobblers stepped out and headed straight for my decoy. 2 were strutting and they were no more than 20 yards in front of me. Quite honestly, after already taking two gobblers this year, I started to just reach down for the video camera I had with me. With the hens, my decoy and three beautiful gobblers all in my view, it would have made quite a show to share. BUT, I couldn't help it and slammed the tom as the other birds tried to figure out what in the world had happened.
He was really nice bird with a 10 1/2' beard and 1" spurs. Not as big as one I shot a couple of weeks ago, but a great way to complete my 3-bird limit. Another fun season!
