My nephew's day and mine started out by leaving our house at 2:30am to meet up with BigTom. We arrived at Tom's house at 5:00am and proceeded to our hunting grounds.
Our first set up was in a favorite spot of ours and we set up by placing a decoy in the field. Wasn't very long before we heard our first gobble and we began to work the bird. After a good half hour of calling to him he finally made his way into the pipe line.
He gobbled but seemed to be more interested in feeding rather than looking for the hen he had heard. He started to walk away when Tom hit him with some very seductive calls from a scratchbox. That was it, he commited to coming in.
It took forever for him to get closer and when he saw the decoy he headed to her. My nephew had been set up for the shot for quite some time and he was ready. The bird got to 18 yards and I told my nephew to shoot him. BOOOOMMM and the bird flew away. He missed!!!! The bird was a jake with a 4-5" beard but he gobbled and acted like a seasoned veteran.
We were all disappointed but it was only 7:00am.
We decided to leave the area and head back to the car and go over to Rattlesnake Hill. So named because of the two Rattlesnake dens up there.
Our first set up was in a spot where Tom had seen two gobblers the previous two days in a row. We placed the decoy out and proceeded to start calling. Unfortunately we didn't hear anything and after an hour of sitting there we decided to walk up the pipe line further. As we prospected we heard nothing.
We were ready to turn back when I told my nephew to give me "LOUcifer". "LOUcifer" is a collaboration call between myself and Al.
I gave a couple of loud yelps and not 50 yards away a bird gobbles. All three of us make a bee-line to the other side of the pipe line and get set up. I gave a couple of more calls with "LOUcifer" and I could hear the bird drum.
We could hear him walking in the leaves and Tom gave a few quiet purrs and yelps on his new prototype scratchbox and he gobbled again. We could hear him coming and with the gun already raised my nephew whispers " there he is." I saw the bird a few seconds after that and when I could see he was satnding still I told him to shoot. BOOOMMM...this time the bird went straight down. He made a 38 yard shot and killed his first longbeard.
I'm not sure which one of the three of us was more happy!!
The bird weighed 15.6lbs with 3/4" heavy spurs and a 10.25" beard.
