Ok, until last year I had never turkey hunted, figured I had only so many days of hunting before the wife said something and was gonna save them for duck and pheasent hunting. Well A fried took me the last morning last year, and we had a nice bird strut in front of us for over an hour and I decided maybe I would give it a try this year.....
Had been out 8-10 times but until this morning this guy had always out foxed me, or got plain lucky a time or two.....
10. 25 inch beard, 7/8 one spur, one inch the other, weighed slightly less then 23 pounds. He feels pretty hollow, I would be willin gto bet he has lost a few pounds in the past week from chasing hens. I know he lost several pounds between carrying him out of the field and getting him on a scale ;-)
I had a good idea where he would be roosting with the way the wind was, walked into the field about 4:45 headed to a ground blind I had made out of brush and weeds about twoo weeks ago during the second season about 70 yards from the corner I thought he was in. Was putting my decoy out about 80 yards away from the ground blind thinking that if he came off the roost and went to her, I would have a shot, if he was acting decoy wise like he had the last week, it would not be close enough to scare him off. So any way I was walking the last 40-50 yards to where I thought I was goin gto sit and he gobbled at me CLOSE. It is still pitch black so I hunker down next to a 3 foot cedar tree figuring I will figure out what tree he is in and make a game plan. For 30-40 minutes he is gobbling about once every 30-45 seconds, occasionally taking a break for maybe five minutes but starting up again. I wait until it sounds like he is facing the other way and belly crawl about ten yards to a bank and another small tree where I can sit a little better. By this time it is getting a little more light out, so I am tryin gto find him in the tree without moving. Suddenly I hear CLUCK CLUCK basically straight above me. I am afraid to move so I freeze, turns out there was a hen in the large tree next to me. I was in a good position to tolerate sitting perfectly still so I sat like that for however long it was, Gobbler still going about every 30 seconds, now with a hen clucking above me..... At about 5:50 she drops down about thirty yards out, 30 or forty seconds later he drops out. I was ALMOST sure it was him, but he was facing away, and though legal shooting time, not real bright yet. I figure I will let him strut once to be sure, but he starts wlaking away! I had a mouth call in, to this point I had made NO SOUND.... So I yelped one time to make him look, he pooped his head around and I saw the beard swing and pulled the trigger. He had been on the ground less then thirty seconds, I had been with in 40 yards for right at an hour!!!!