2013 Picture post and bragging thread
03-23-2013, 07:30 PM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: North Louisiana
Posts: 3,050
First bird of the year. A nice Louisiana longbeard. This bird finally made it to my property after listening to him gobble half a mile away the past two weekends. This past Wednesday I filmed him on the pipeline strutting. I set up this morning where I saw him Wednesday. Daylight came with no gobbles. I yelped a few times in the next hour but still no gobbles. About 8:30 I decided to get up and move. When I came out to the pipeline there were about 7 or 8 hens on the line about 75 yards to my left. Unfortunately they saw me and busted out of there. I knew the longbeard had to be with them. Sure enough he pops out of some high grass on the line about 150 yards to my left. He crossed the line into a clearcut next to my property. The hens flew to my property and he was wanting them to come back. I waited a few minutes and gave a series of yelps. He immediately answered. He eventually made it back to the line and was coming fast to where I busted the hens. Only problem was I wasn't there. I would softly call and he would gobble. I started back in the woods towards him. I am now in the woods looking for a tree to sit by when he lets out a gobble right by me. I immediately dropped to my stomach. There was no time to set up by a tree. I was lying flat with my gun ready. He circled around to my right. I finally saw him coming. When he went behind a tree I moved towards him still lying on my stomach. It was real thick where he was, so I had to be very patient in getting a shot. He finally gave me a shot and it was over. The shot was about 25 yards. Busting those hens gave me the chance I needed to get this bird. The gobblers over here are henned up bad and are gobbling very little. He weighed 17.4 pounds, beard was 10", and both spurs were an inch.
03-29-2013, 08:02 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: North Louisiana
Posts: 3,050
Went to south Texas for three days. Rios aren't supposed to be this hard to hunt. I had to work my butt off to get these two birds. The birds were henned up bad and very little gobbling. Add high winds to the mix and needless to say those were tough conditions. I killed bird 1 the first afternoon. He was with several hens and would not leave them. I had to change stradegies and work the hens. After failing to get the toms attention, I started calling aggressively to aggitate the hens. It worked. I was talking to the hens and the tom started gobbling. After about a 10 minute session with the hens, they started coming my way. Eventually the big tom made his way to me and I took the shot at 25 yards. The problem with this hunt is I chased and cut these birds off for an hour before everything finally fell in place. Because of all the crawling I had to do for this bird, I had prickly pear needles stuck in my body from head to toe. A painful but fun and successful hunt. This bird weighed 22.4 pounds, had a 9" beard, and spurs 1 1/4" and 1 1/8". He scores 64. On day two I worked only one bird. He of course was with hens and I couldn't get him to a range I felt comfortable with. The hens eventually took him away. Day three I worked 10 jakes within spitting distance but no sign of a longbeard. I went to another spot around 2:00. On my first series of calling I got a response. This bird actually gobbled good, but would not budge. I called off and on for about 20 minutes and he responded but stillould not move. I figured he was with hens. I made the decision to cut the distance between us and go after him. I would sneak about 25 yards and call. He would answer. I did this three times before he finally got interested enough to come take a look. There was tall grass where I was, so I knew it was going to be a quick shot. He finally started coming to me,but he took his sweet time. He finally gave me a shot at 35 yards. Another great bird. 19 lbs., 9.5" beard, and 1 1/8" spurs. From the first time he gobbled, it took about 45 minutes to seal the deal. Later that afternoon I called up 16 jakes at another location. Talking about a good future crop. First pic is of bird #1. Bird #1 scores 64 and bird #2 scores 60.5