Here is my bird from 4/19. Not the biggest, but at least I didn't get skunked this year! 7/8" spurs on each side with a 9 1/8" beard, and he weighed in at 18 pounds.
It was a great hunt, with him sneaking to flank me from my right with a partner while I was waiting for the one gobbling in front of me. The one in front of me was blowing up at Mike Lapp's Canarywood/Leopardwood box, as they always do, as well as with my new ceramic call from Gary Anderson (Daybreak Calls). When I noticed the two sneakers out of the corner of my eye, I had no cover and no help from mother nature - just wide open space between me and the two gobblers at about 20 steps away! I was sitting 90 degrees away from them with the worst side profile position you could imagine. I couldn't decide whether I should try the swing and shoot or let them keep walking. One turned away, and one of them made my decision a lot easier by starting to putt. I swung, the one facing me ran, and I rolled the other one over! Those were the first two gobblers I had actually seen all season, so it was a good day to say the least.
I rolled another one about a week later on 4/24, but it had a heart-breaking ending. I watched him sail down in front of me at about 85-100 yards after some good tree talking between us. I don't know if he could see my decoy behind me, but he didn't want to come in at first. He was sneaking around behind some thick stuff, and I could see him pop into a strut, pop out and look around, moving left right behind that stuff. It seemed like I had my gun up on my knee forever, and my right leg fell completely asleep. I pulled out my little A.J. Cassette push-pin from my vest as stealthily as possible, and that finally did the trick (he even gobbled right in front of me). I had to kind of prop my left elbow up on my left knee to finally get the shot because he had moved to my right. Perfect distance for my gun, I aimed for the head like always (straight at the face, which may be a little too high with my gun), he flopped, and when I jumped up to stomp him my right leg gave out and I almost fell straight over! At the same time, he was floating backwards with his flopping, when he popped up off the ground and started sprinting away! I did my best attempt to hobble after him for a followup shot, but a perfect U-shaped root grabbed my only good/left foot, and this time I DID fall flat on my face, as well as ripped my pocket and lost my phone/striker/other items for about an hour and a half. I found blood, feathers, but unfortunately no bird. Good thing I fully harvested that first one, because the second one is going to haunt me for awhile. I usually am pretty bummed at the end of turkey season (still am), but I have to admit that this time I need the rest!
- Gaines
