Cornfed
Bowhunting Addict
I harvested this gobbler at 7:10 a.m. opening morning... not the heaviest bird in the woods, but a nice mature gobbler....
He weighed 19 lbs., 9 1/2" beard, and 1 1/8" spurs.
I was determined to get to my spot earlier than normal to completely set up before first light. I know the location they generally like to roost so I was very hopeful they would be there come first light. I had photographed 2 mature longbeard in this exact spot two weeks ago while scouting along with 6 jakes.
After getting my decoys set (2 buckwing feeding hens)... I decided due to the high number of jakes seen before that maybe I would hold off on using the jake decoy initially. The owls were really starting to sound off and I was beginning to get concerned with no gobbling activity. Well, that all quickly changed when a gobbler sounded off from a tree 75 yards in front of me. Then the river bottom really came to life... in a few minutes I counted what seemed like 6 or more different gobblers. Since the close gobbler could see my decoys from his tree I opted to hold off calling until he hit the ground. He jumped around 6:10am.... within seconds the treetops where unloading all kinds of hens. They began to feed out into the cornfield adjacent to my setup. There were 4 mature longbeards and 4 jakes and 15 hens. To make a long story short... I spent about an hour working the boss hen trying to coax her into a fighting match. She talked her head off for about an hour but would never come closer than around 75 yards... I tried everything... fighting purrs, cackling, aggresive yelping, etc. She was very irritated by my challenges but would not close the distance. Then around 7 a.m. my luck changed..... a couple gobblers came in from behind me and gobbled from approx. 50 yards. I yelped back at them with my trusty box call and then layed in next to me. I could hear them coming from my right... they were spitting and a drumming. I reached out and clicked on my Spott Hogg wrap light knowing it was 'showtime'. They appeared at my right at 15 yards and spotted my decoys. Surprisingly they skirted them and started angling away. I knew it was now or never.... I took quick aim on the second bird since he was the closest... he was angling away. I nailed him just below the wing butt and he went down and quickly regained his feet and hobbled past my blind going into the small timbered draw behind me. The other bird just kept alarm putting and walking around inside of 30 yards for several minutes (I only had one tag /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif ).... to make this long story much shorter. I had to wait for over 2 hours before I could leave my blind to recover my bird due to the flock of previously mentioned turkeys. They strutted around and fed approx. 75 yards from my setup until mid morning. It was a great morning to be out... probably one of the best I have seen in 15+ years of turkey hunting.
He weighed 19 lbs., 9 1/2" beard, and 1 1/8" spurs.
I was determined to get to my spot earlier than normal to completely set up before first light. I know the location they generally like to roost so I was very hopeful they would be there come first light. I had photographed 2 mature longbeard in this exact spot two weeks ago while scouting along with 6 jakes.
After getting my decoys set (2 buckwing feeding hens)... I decided due to the high number of jakes seen before that maybe I would hold off on using the jake decoy initially. The owls were really starting to sound off and I was beginning to get concerned with no gobbling activity. Well, that all quickly changed when a gobbler sounded off from a tree 75 yards in front of me. Then the river bottom really came to life... in a few minutes I counted what seemed like 6 or more different gobblers. Since the close gobbler could see my decoys from his tree I opted to hold off calling until he hit the ground. He jumped around 6:10am.... within seconds the treetops where unloading all kinds of hens. They began to feed out into the cornfield adjacent to my setup. There were 4 mature longbeards and 4 jakes and 15 hens. To make a long story short... I spent about an hour working the boss hen trying to coax her into a fighting match. She talked her head off for about an hour but would never come closer than around 75 yards... I tried everything... fighting purrs, cackling, aggresive yelping, etc. She was very irritated by my challenges but would not close the distance. Then around 7 a.m. my luck changed..... a couple gobblers came in from behind me and gobbled from approx. 50 yards. I yelped back at them with my trusty box call and then layed in next to me. I could hear them coming from my right... they were spitting and a drumming. I reached out and clicked on my Spott Hogg wrap light knowing it was 'showtime'. They appeared at my right at 15 yards and spotted my decoys. Surprisingly they skirted them and started angling away. I knew it was now or never.... I took quick aim on the second bird since he was the closest... he was angling away. I nailed him just below the wing butt and he went down and quickly regained his feet and hobbled past my blind going into the small timbered draw behind me. The other bird just kept alarm putting and walking around inside of 30 yards for several minutes (I only had one tag /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif ).... to make this long story much shorter. I had to wait for over 2 hours before I could leave my blind to recover my bird due to the flock of previously mentioned turkeys. They strutted around and fed approx. 75 yards from my setup until mid morning. It was a great morning to be out... probably one of the best I have seen in 15+ years of turkey hunting.
