Well it was a long time coming but opening day has finally arrived. My good friend and fellow callmaker, Gregg Guthridge from Shadow turkey Calls arrived on Sunday afternoon in Athens ,Ohio. nextmorning, at a very early 5 a.m. we headed out for one of my favorite haunts. Gregg and I decided to split up , so I left him at a prime morning spot and moved a couple hundred yards up the ridge from him, hoping we had a good chance at intercepting them as they came off the roost. I hadn't even made it to my spot yet when I heard a thunderous gobble right near Gregg. Soon a jake joined in and they gobbled hot and heavy for almost 45 minutes before fly-down. When they came off the roost , they slowly worked towards our locations, gobbling all the way. All of a sudden a different Tom gobbled right behind Gregg, startling him, and then the turkey let out a loud putt. Knowing he had to do something quick,Gregg fired a hopeful shot but the bird ran off. Soon after , we met up and discussed his "miss" in a video interview. We moved around a little and then at 10 o'clock, Gregg decided to follow up on his earlier shot ,and to his surprise he found his bird laying near where he had shot. It was a great Tom at 21 lbs., 10 inch beard and 1 " spurs. We finally were able to celebrate a little bit after Gregg spent nearly 3 hrs bummed out about "missing" The very next morning we switched farms and split up on a long ridgetop. I heard a hot tom gobbling on the roost and a while after fly-down. While doing some soft calling on a new slate call that Gregg made for me, I watched as a different big Tom came running in to me... completely silent. I never even heard him gobble on the roost. He ran the 100 yd dash towards me and I stopped him at 20 yds with a single 12 ga. blast. He was also a nice bird at 20 1/2 lbs. 10 " beard and 1 " spurs. We got to leave the woods early again, before it got too hot ! We spent a fantastic 2 days chasing turkeys and I am looking forward to hunting with Gregg again! Ohio is a great place to hunt turkey , especially when you're joined by friends. !!
