Well, after a pretty tough couple of weeks, things turned around big time today. The past few weeks, things have been very quiet around here. My Dad and I went out this morning to a field that we both took gobbler on earlier this season. We knew that there are a few longbeards still frequenting this particular field, but since my Dad shot a nice gobbler on Wednesday on this property, I was a little hesitant to try to hunt it again so soon. We decided to give it a shot and it turned out to be an awesome day. Things started out slow and quiet at daybreak. Around 6:00, I thought I heard a distant gobble so I called soft on my boxcall and got scolded by a hen about 50 yards in the bush. She went on for almost 2 minutes straight cutting and yelping at me so I gave it right back to her and fired her up something fierce. As I was messin with her, I noticed 2 longbeards cresting the hill out in front of us about 150 yds away but they weren't moving very fast. As I was watching them, my Dad spotted the hen and her crew entering the field about 50 yards to our left, turned out to be 2 longbeards and 6 hens. Almost immediately upon entering the field, the other 2 gobblers out in front came sprinting in to the other flock and attacked one of the gobblers in that crowd. They ran that gobbler off into the woods and out of sight. The hens worked their way up the field and over the crest from the gobblers. A few minutes later, 3 of the 4 gobblers came back out and I realized that they couldn't see where those hens went so i went to calling to try to pull them our way. They began working toward us but began heading up toward the hens so I figured, it's now or never. My Dad and I agreed that I would shoot first and he would try the follow up, he trap shoots so I figured he would have a better shot at hitting a moving target than I would. They were a little far but I had confidence that I could make the shot. I gave them a loud cluck on the mouth call and touched it off dropping him in his tracks, unfortunately, my Dad missed for the double. After the shot, I ranged it at 57 yards. Not a shot I would take if I knew the distance but he looked a lot closer than that. I will say that I've been shooting Nitro h378i's for 2 years now and after seeing what they did to that bird at 57 yards, I'll never shoot anything else. He dropped in his tracks, when I caped him out, his neck was jellied something fierce. All in all, this was probably the most exciting hunt that my Dad and I have had. Besides the missed double, it was a perfect day. Tons of gobbling and hen talk, gobblers fighting & strutting 60 yards out in front of us and best of all, filling my 2nd and last tag for Pennsylvania.
Stats were 17.5 lbs 10 1/8" beard and 1 3/16" spurs. This has been a great season for my Dad and I, the three birds that we shot so far, were all shot withing 30 yards of one another, and I shot this bird from the same tree that my Dad got his from on Wednesday. Next weekend, my good friend Bill Lyman is taking the trip down here to Pa, so we'll give this field a break for a few days and see if we can't get one of the 3 longbeards to come into range.
Ed
