This was the 4th year I have hunted with my cousin Paul in Indiana and we have not harvested a bird yet...until this trip.
We didn't hear a gobble from the roost in the early am so we set out scanning. We found a lonely single gobbler at 9 am. He hit a Frank Kruer long box call at 350 yds. Gave him a couple minutes and checked him and he hit us quick so we set up. He worked well closing every few minutes...he got to within 80 yds and went quiet, thought he was sneaking up the edge of the field/woods edge but after 30 minutes he never showed. We got up and found him in the upper hay field with a couple hens he clearly picked up on his way to us. While standing watching him and deciding what to do we saw movement in an off-property green field, a closer look indicated 4 strutters 400 yds with 5 hens. They appeared to be slowing working south. We couldn't make a move directly at them, even through the woods as the 1st gobbler would bust us so, since my cousin knew the land I suggested we put a fast move on them...a long up and down 1.5 mile plus hop scotch down ravines and up ridges to get ahead of them so we double-timed our move and set up in a small corner field at the back of the property. I hit the long box and one jumped on it.
At this point we actually thought it was our 1st gobbler, since it came more from his early location. I waited a couple minutes and checked him again and got a quick double gobble--yikes, looks like we stole the 4 strutters away from the hens -yippee!! We set up with dec's, in the corner of a far back field, not 20 yards off the wood line. We waited a bit and I hit him them lightly with some soft yelps and 3 came back hard and fast from 70 yards as they made their climb up the last small ridge...guns up and ready they snuck in quiet at 14 yards! (dang that's close!) off to our left at 10:00. At first they didn't want to enter the field...they were a little hesitant knowing they could easily see us and were not comfortable...we were patient statues and though my cousin could have dusted any of them I was confident they would enter and we could double up. After about 5-6 minutes of watching them sneak in and around trees and brush, (man, that was hard to do) they made their way in front of us....I kept telling Paul, wait....wait...wait, I went right and my cousin went left on the count of 3. We roared, 1 went running across the field, 2 took a dirt nap and a ride in the truck (not much flopping at 15 paces!). My cousin's bird is smokey colored, with almost white primary and secondary wing feathers. His toe nails were also gold color instead of the normal black. He had a 11.75" paint-brush beard, 1.25" spurs and weighed 21.5 lbs a solid 3-4 yr old. We are getting him full mounted in strut. This was the first time I used a long box and brought the birds from location all the way to the gun. Without a doubt this was the greatest hunt I have ever experienced.
