HuntingNet.com Forums - Killed my 1st bird ever this morning

(I guess i'll just copy and paste what I wrote in the team thread.. It was a great morning:D.)

Weight: 23 pounds
Spurs: 7/8" (both)
Beard: 6.5"
12 ga. Mossberg 835, 3.5" Winchester High Velocity, 6 shot.

This is my 2nd year going after turkeys, and I learned a lot from the mistakes I made last year. (made alot of mistakes last year)...This morning I said a little prayer and headed out at about 5:30. This is the first time ever hunting this property in Ohio so after fighting through thick honeysuckle for a little ways I made it to where I wanted to set up. No birds gobbled on the roost, or even for the first 1/2 hour of daylight. Then finallyafter some soft clucks and purrs I got a couple of jakes to respondto my right. The jakes were trying hard to gobble, it was funny. When the jakes sounded off,3toms immediately gobbled back, not100 yards down the ridge..I gave some yelps and thenshut up hoping they'd work up the ridge, but then I see them ACROSS the creek on a grassy hill. They werestrutting back and forth andgobbling their heads off. They weren't coming any closer.I was worried they'd hang up so I made my move. I belly-crawled through some more honeysuckle to about 20 yards from the creek. 2 birds had broken off and were gone, but 1 was still there. I started cutting and yelping one more time to sound excited and thats what it took. After the cutting, this bird came full speed back down the oppositeridge straight towards me.

Ok, this part is gonna sound crazy. He got to the creek and decided to change his mind. The only possibleway I was gonna get a clear shot was to wait till his head got behind a tree, and stand up. I shot him while standing behind a treeat 35-40 yards, eye-level on the oppositehill,other side of the creek. He flopped over, rolled down the hill, and took a bath in the creek. The ride home driedhisfeathersthough.:DIndiana opener is tommorrow, can't wait to see how the birds at the farm are acting.