HuntingNet.com Forums - NY Opening Day Bird.

Thanks everyone...
here is the story ..

We got up at 4:00am and were in the woods by 5:00am. The first spot we went to was the sane spot where my buddies kid got his during the youth hunt.. That day they were turkey gobbling all over the place. Anyway we get in the woods well before daylight and set up.. As the sun comes up we hear nothing.. I wait a bit and began calling and we still hear nothing.. We try all over the area walking and calling and not one bird was heard.. This went to about 7:00am.. I figure they have moved to somewhere else and decide to go get a bite to eat.. We head out and go to the deli.. While there we ran into a friend of ours and asked him if we could try behind his house and said ok.. ( not like we gave him a chance to say no, my hunting buddy is also his boss) So we eat and head over to his place.. We hit the woods and did a little walking & calling with negative results... Now I’m starting to get a little discouraged not hearing any birds but we kept at it... We got on top of a little knoll and I hit the call and heard a gobble not real far away and right below us.. We all duck and I have the kid crawl into the center of knoll and stick the decoy in the ground. We then set up on either side of the knoll.. I hit the call one more time to keep him interested and I put my gun down so I can get into a shooting position.. Now I am sitting on top of a falling tree and looking at the decoy when I realize I am in a bad spot because the decoy is above me and I can only see the top of it.. Well it's to late to move so I figure I will just let my buddy shoot. I look down to pick up my gun just in case and when I look back up I see a tom strutting right in front of the decoy.. He never made a sound coming in.. This all happened in a matter of less then 2 mints.. I say holy %&^.. All I can see is his tail feathers and his head, I have no idea how big he is.. I glance over at my buddy and he has his gun up.. I sitting there saying to myself shoot, shoot... No shot comes.. Not knowing what he is not shooting I bring my gun up on his head.
( the turkey’s not my buddies-LOL) well the bird spot’s me move and he turning to bolt.. Well I’m not letting that happen so I took my shot and he dropped... I look over at my buddy and ask him why didn't you shoot. Unknown to me the way the bird was to his position the birds head was behind a tree.. We had a good laugh over that.. We then went over to the birds and was I surprised to see how big he was... After photo’s a tagging we headed out and went to another spot to try and find one for my buddy.. We walked for miles and I actually got a little lost because I wasn’t paying attention to which way I was going I have no idea how many miles we walked and never heard another bird.. Now I will concentrate on getting a bird for my buddy and taking my next one with the bow.. The wife isn’t to happy because now we have another animal off to the taxidermist on top of everything else I have there waiting to be mounted.. The bird turned to be a 21 lbs., 9" beard and 1" spurs... Wife is now mad about the taxidermist bill.. I took him to another taixdermist and going to cost 750.00 to have him mounted gobbling from the roost.. She's not happy about that and that I have 4 otherheadsat another taxidermist.. :D