After five solid days of hunting, I finally closed the deal on the icebreaker on the 6th day. It has been very tough hunting to say the least. I'm blessed with a tremendous population of birds where I hunt in Virginia, and I knew how many resident gobblers I had, plus any satellite birds that float in. Birds are gobbling some on the limb, but very little on the ground. Running and gunning has been fruitless. Covering lots of miles with out even striking up a single gobble. I had a running theory that my gobblers were still grouped up from the winter. They will often do that into the first week. They were gobbling in February, but then we got a decent snow that laid on the ground for over a week in mid march. That slowed things down it seemed.
Fast forward to this morning. After having one skirt me just out of range off the roost, I found myself on the move. Finally at 1030 I bumped into 7 longbeards, all together! One of them spotted me but they weren't really spooked. They moved on and I decided to set up and see if I could call them back in. After my first series of calls I was met with two gobbles from the opposite direction. I called again a few minutes later and they gobbled again but had not moved. After about ten minutes I see two full fans coming my way. When the birds got into range, they were standing around some downed trees and briars not allowing me a shot. However, the lead bird did me a favor and jumped up on a fallen tree and started strutting. That's all she wrote.
He's a 2 year old but I'll take him. 21 lbs, 8.5 beard, small spurs. I'll get him entered as soon as I can.
WoooooHooooo! WTG MB :icon_thumright:
Good job Joe. :firefighter:
And here are the pics! Congrats!
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170414/37afeddfde972170a34d824fd7e23bfe.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170414/94d2d3159bde7762668427b5e3ba8a3d.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170414/747c6b320c587892b04550dbb00326b8.jpg)
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(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170414/47efafc84cb39813bb01d8d5251a73dc.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170414/74f087c5cbfec2198fe7420df8f122b4.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170414/ab562fb8dfc16e8a4e8685da69abf755.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170414/07465fccf84122ae9d3c1b0d8730bbd4.jpg)
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Hell yeah! Reading your story got me pumped up for the morning...well a few hours from now. Coming from Osceola country, I think its awesome to see those weights and all that white on the primaries. If somebody every wants to trade a wing, I'm game.
Congrats brother. One for the board!
Congrats brother!!! :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Please enter your pictures and stats on the "Contest Entries" post at the top. Per the Gobblermatic scoring calculator, he scores 51.75.
Good luck on the rest of your season!!
AWESOME, Congrats!!! :jackson:
Well done man, congratulations.
Quote from: RutnNStrutn on April 14, 2017, 01:01:06 PM
Congrats brother!!! :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Please enter your pictures and stats on the "Contest Entries" post at the top. Per the Gobblermatic scoring calculator, he scores 51.75.
Good luck on the rest of your season!!
Thanks Rut. I'm just waiting on Wildspur to post them. For some reason photobucket does not work for me on this site, and I no longer have tapacrap on my phone, so pictures are my nemesis. Sorry about the holdup. Wildspur is a busy busy guy.
Nice work. Stayed after em and closed the deal!
Quote from: Mountainburd on April 15, 2017, 05:29:28 AMThanks Rut. I'm just waiting on Wildspur to post them. For some reason photobucket does not work for me on this site, and I no longer have tapacrap on my phone, so pictures are my nemesis. Sorry about the holdup. Wildspur is a busy busy guy.
No worries, and congrats again!!! :icon_thumright:
Tapacrap. :lol: ;D :TooFunny: