Got up and went hunting before work yesterday morning.

I was walking to where I wanted to be, and bumped a hen off the roost, about 100 yards out my front door. Heard a gobble and headed to it. Me and a buddy then, went and set up on a fence corner and put out a hen decoy. We had seen 3 hens fly down into a field, and they picked up and flew back over into a wooded area.

We figured a gobbler was somewhere in there.

As we were sitting, two jakes appeared about 15 steps away and came on in to us. At about 8 steps, and after eyeballing the hen deke the whole way, I put the bead on one's head and let er rip!

It was swampy out there. We've been getting lots of rain and it was flooded really bad. The turkey hit the dirt and flopped and flopped and flopped. It really messed him up for the pictures, but it's a bird nonetheless.

Not a huge one, but he weighed 15 pounds, had 3/8's spurs, and a 5 inch beard.

My first Arkansas turkey.