It was a short but fun hunt this morning. Big Tom and I were walking up the power line when we stopped and Tom owl hooted. A gobbler responded immediately about 75 yards away. We quickly set out a decoy and set up. Tom owl hooted again and he gobbled again. We then had an owl start hooting and this tom responded to every hoot. We started with some soft tree talk and he became unglued with a series of gobbles the likes of which I have personally never heard.
He sounded like he was trying to double and triple gobble all in one gobble. Almost sounded like he was gagging!!
At about 5:25 we decided to do a fly down cackle...at 5:30 he flew off the roost and I could see him land in another tree...immediately after that I heard wings flap as he hit the ground...at 5:35 he was dead.
Nice two year old bird weighing 17lbs with 7/8" spurs and a 9" beard. We used one of Tom's boxcalls and a prototype potcall that Tom made a few years back.
