Last Saturday started with me hunting a WMA unit in the morning on a tip of the location of a roosted bird from a friend. These were no gobbles and I saw no sign at all. That afternoon I was going to hunt a different area of the same WMA by parking just outside the property line and entering that way. As I drove to the spot, I saw a landowner cutting his grass in his front yard. I stopped to verify that it was ok to park at the end of the road and we got to talking about turkey hunting. He suggested that I not go into the WMA, but rather go kill the giant turkey with the 12" beard that crossed his cow pasture in the evenings. Well, sure. I headed down the fenceline and set up. The cows were not the least bit spooked and instead gathered right in front of me. As it got dark, a group of crows started raising a ruckus on the far side of the pasture and I heard a gobble in the middle of the racket. He wound up gobbling 8 times as he made his way off to my left into the corner of the adjacent pasture. I listened as several birds flew up to roost then carefully slipped out.
The next day I stopped by the fellow's house and told him that I had heard the bird, but didn't see him. I slipped back to the corner where they had roosted and set up in a small group of trees out in the field. Shortly I started seeing hens and a small gobbler moving into the field along the far northern fence line. I then saw the big bird come into the field from the opposite direction about 250 yards away. The hens made their way past him and came down the fence line towards the corner. where I sat The big bird wasn't with them though, deciding for whatever reason to stay on that side of the field. The group passed behind me at 35 yards and the big guy roosted on the far north treeline.
I studied on this situation for several days. I don't normally hunt field birds and realized that a different tactic was called for. Last Thursday I drove over to the place, moved down to the corner and slipped up the fence line about 150 yards to the north. I found a great natural blind among some trees and brush, paced off 30 yards from the blind and set out a strutter decoy following a hen decoy. I eased back to the blind and waited. 10 minutes later I hear a bird clucking and purring from the roost corner to my right. It eventually moved back into the woods. I just sat tight, softly clucking, purring and whining. About 5 minutes later I hear a hen start yelping to my left up the fenceline. Moments later a gobbler came stomping into the set up, charged right past the hen and headed straight to the strutter. I could tell that this was not the big bird, although he had good beard and I kept looking back where he had come from to see if the big guy was behind him. He circled the decoy twice then walloped him good with his wing. The decoy went flying off of the stake and his feather fan got knocked off into the field. I knew that my set up for the big one was compromised, so I putted real loudly. His head went up and the Federal TSS's hammered him like a sledge hammer on a railroad spike.
He had an 8.25" beard and NO SPURS at all. This gobbler was very similar to the last one I shot in that he had an adult bird with a full fan, good beard but little-to-no spurs. A buddy used to say that any gobbler is a good gobbler. He probably ranks as the lowest scoring adult bird that I have taken, but he put on a great and aggressive show for not having any decent way to defend himself if it came to that.
We will enjoy him again this afternoon as the main attraction at a late lunch.
Cheers
FullChoke
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