HuntingNet.com Forums - First Bird of '06

I finally scored this morning on a nice mature bird. He weighed in at 21lb, 9.5" beard, & 3/4" spurs. Came in silent. We were sitting a field edge where the birds roosted off of last night. We had him and 2 others gobbling on roost this morning. We set up and waited... The hens started flying down and the toms came down in the woods behind us a hundred yards or so. I only called a couple of times to get them to be interested in the field. I was watching the field corner when a hen came in over my right shoulder in the woods checking the field, and then went back in... a few minutes later a heard a spit & drum right over my shoulder. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a tom stutting just 10 yards away (but my gun was facing the field). He slowly made his way over to my left and got behind some brush and I quickly moved the gun over. He got between 2 trees about 30-35 yards away and gave me my only shot. He went right down. Bird 1 down for the year. My heaviest yet.

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