It was a good week!

[EdB]

I tagged my bird yesterday after a couple weeks of scouting and hunting hard all this past week. Sure was good to sleep in today but after a cup of coffee, I was wishing I was in the woods. The bird was nice but not a huge one, 9 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs. All week long, the public land gobblers where demonstrating their wisdom. I had close calls every day but the hens showed me up. I love the general tag for turkeys even though I have some great private land to hunt. There a large tracks of public land around here and you can hunt that gobbler you hear off in a distance. Property lines do not become an issue in a lot of places like they can on private land. The birds do get pressured but I put a lot of miles on the truck and my boots to find places that don't get over hunted.

My morning started being set up between two groups of gobblers in the trees. I sat there for a while letting them tree gobble. I was getting ready to reach for a call when I heard some clucks behind me. A hen was on the ground very close. I didn't dare more or turn to look. She got very vocal and the gobblers loved it. I've got a live decoy now. I heard the closest Tom's fly down and in minutes, I see them slowly moving my way. The hen is still talking, this is going to be great. The gobblers start strutting about 70 yards out, both are long beards. They start coming again. About 50 yards out, they drop off a slope next to the trail they are on. I can't see them but a couple gobbles tell me they are still coming but they are just out of sight. Another gobble tells me they are slipping by, darn it! The two gobblers come back up and appear on the trail about 50 yards past me and I see the hen is now with them. I couldn't turn them and they continued on.

I made a quiet move to another spot and set up. I sat there a few minutes thinking about making a call when a gobble booms off just behind a large thicket. He is close but behind the cover. I slide around the tree I'm sitting on to get in a better position for a shot. I grab a call and give out 3 soft clucks. He gobbles. Five minutes later I give a purr, 2 more soft clucks, and he gobbles. He know's I'm there and within 60 yards so I put the call down and ready my gun. Five minutes later, I see a black spot moving behind the brush. He steps around it and I get to see a nice full strut. He keeps coming in to about 15 yards and I pull the trigger. No one was around to take some pics when I got home so I got a few by myself:

It's hard to hold your bird up with one arm and take a pic with the camera in another. This has got to be one of the uglier turkey photo's posted this year:rofl:

[GLF]

WTG Ed! Sounds like you had a GREAT day in the woods. Now its time to get the boat out.

Make sure you add one of your photos to the turkey contest entry thread.

[DIRTY DOG]

Great Story And Nice Bird

[Priority1]

WTG Ed. VN Bird.

[huntingfool43]

Good Job Ed.

[NO MO BEGGEN]

nice job ed