Ok. So I will start with South Dakota. The boy and I took off and made it there fairly early the afternoon before we were to check in. We cruised quite a bit a real estate, getting the lay of the land and trying to find turkeys. Several hours and miles later not a single gobbler was heard or seen but we did have a hen located and figured that there was a good possibility there would be a gobbler nearby in the morning. We slept in the truck several hundred yards away and at daylight we were greeted with....nothing.
We quickly went right back to covering ground and trying to find gobblers. Not a lot of real sign and nothing was vocal however I did find a gobbler and hen track later that morning that wasn't there when we went through that section earlier. Made it back to our cabins and met Jim and his hunting partner, got our things situated and headed out again.
This was pretty much the routine until I finally got an a gobbler 2 days before our departure. We struck him and moved in with my boy being the shooter. We had him pulled pretty close before he started acting weird and headed the other way still gobbling. I assumed a hen but further investigation revealed a rock ledge that I assumed was the issue. (I don't believe that to be the case anymore either). We tried circling around him with no success. This totally wooped my boy and he kinda lost all interest in running up and down mountains after that.
The next morning I was ready and waiting on the same ridge we had worked this gobbler. He started off his morning gobbling well so moved into a very good position and hit him with a few tree yelps to get him oriented my way and waited. I suspected I was in trouble when he just kept right on with his gobbling routine. He never actually responded to me. But it was just me and him now and when he bailed off the backside of the ridge I was ready and I went with him, starting off a cat and mouse game that was to continue for the morning.
I tailed him for several miles before he finally slowed down and got with a hen. Moving in and circling a bit I was getting within striking range but had a major area of concern. We were near a residential area and the gobbler and I were only about 100-150 yards off of the property line. I finally though I had the angle I wanted and started calling to him. He cut me off and the next thing I knew he was drumming and boy was it something. I have never heard an Eastern drum like this one did. I could even feel it. The gobbler is further to the right than I wanted and I caught the tail fan and got my gun trained and his head popped into view right in the dot. Probably about 35-40 yards. Problem was that there was a house directly behind him and slightly above about 200 yards from us. There was just no way in good conscience I could pull the trigger. So I let him go. He and the hen then moved onto the private where he would answer everything but not budge. I even circled the private hoping to catch them on the backside with no luck. Made it back to the truck. Total distance traveled was around 11.2 miles
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