SEIowaDeerslayer
Well-Known Member
I took down my 2nd bird of the season this morning. I went back to the "gobbler ridge" where I took my first bird of the season last Tuesday. This marks 5 out of my last 6 toms have come from this spot. Pretty unbelievable spot. Like last week, the alarm went off early, 3:00am to be exact. I had a hour drive and long walk back to the ridge but I was all set up by 5am. I was a little concerned that I was hunting a ridge top since it was pretty windy this morning but as it became light out the wind died down so I knew the hunt could be promising.
First gobble of the morning came from a tree about 80 yards from my setup, and then the woods just lit up. I figured I had 20-25 gobblers within 500 yards of me all ways so I knew I was sitting pretty. The gobbler roosted by me flew down with a hen and she started to drag him to my setup but he didn't want anything to do with my jake and ran off. The hen stuck around though for about a half hour purring and clucking around my decoys. I had gobblers all around responding to her calls so I didn't have to do anything. Finally a gobbler to my east sounded off about 80 yards away and closing but the hen decided to intercept him and they left together.
By this time all of the other birds had made their way to some bottom ground and were just going crazy with their gobbling. I figured it was all over after that hen drug the gobbler off but I figured I could probably coax one up the ridge from the bottoms. About 10 minutes after the hen and gobbler left, I heard crunching leaves coming up the trail behind me, then I heard the unmistakable sound of a gobbler spitting and drumming. I grabbed my bow and by this time he was already in front of the blind and started absolutely destroying my jake decoy 7 yards from the blind. He was moving around so much I couldn't get a clean shot so I actually had to let down once. Finally he stopped beating up my decoy and decided to mount it, so as he attempted to breed my jake decoy I drew my bow, settled the pin and sent the grim reaper through the boiler room. The bird did a huge air flop and landed just outside my blind, flopped around a bit and then expired.
Just an amazing hunt, it would have been amazing even if I hadn't bagged one. Spring mornings where the birds are just going nuts are pretty insane.
23 lbs 7 oz
3/4" spurs
10" beard
First gobble of the morning came from a tree about 80 yards from my setup, and then the woods just lit up. I figured I had 20-25 gobblers within 500 yards of me all ways so I knew I was sitting pretty. The gobbler roosted by me flew down with a hen and she started to drag him to my setup but he didn't want anything to do with my jake and ran off. The hen stuck around though for about a half hour purring and clucking around my decoys. I had gobblers all around responding to her calls so I didn't have to do anything. Finally a gobbler to my east sounded off about 80 yards away and closing but the hen decided to intercept him and they left together.
By this time all of the other birds had made their way to some bottom ground and were just going crazy with their gobbling. I figured it was all over after that hen drug the gobbler off but I figured I could probably coax one up the ridge from the bottoms. About 10 minutes after the hen and gobbler left, I heard crunching leaves coming up the trail behind me, then I heard the unmistakable sound of a gobbler spitting and drumming. I grabbed my bow and by this time he was already in front of the blind and started absolutely destroying my jake decoy 7 yards from the blind. He was moving around so much I couldn't get a clean shot so I actually had to let down once. Finally he stopped beating up my decoy and decided to mount it, so as he attempted to breed my jake decoy I drew my bow, settled the pin and sent the grim reaper through the boiler room. The bird did a huge air flop and landed just outside my blind, flopped around a bit and then expired.
Just an amazing hunt, it would have been amazing even if I hadn't bagged one. Spring mornings where the birds are just going nuts are pretty insane.
23 lbs 7 oz
3/4" spurs
10" beard
