Well I finally killed the icebreaker today. After a week of some close calls it was nice to finally connect. Yesterday, I managed to break away a bird from a hen he was roosted with and had him coming in on a string. When out of nowhere, two hens came from behind me, walked straight to him and obviously intercepted him, at which time he proceeds to mount her 75 yards in front of me. There went that hunt.
Fast forward to today, I had the chance to hunt with a good buddy of mine which is rare as I'm always solo when I hunt. We bumped into two mature birds at 11 am, and my buddy set up about 20 yards behind me and started working his slate. They covered 200 yards in no time and came in gobbling strutting. When the closest bird hit the 40 yard mark to me, I gave a quick call with my mouth call and when he stuck his neck out, I dropped him in his tracks with hand load TSS out of my 20 gauge.
Lots more hunting ahead so I'll be looking to upgrade yet. Oh yea, he was a double beard which makes my 3rd in 4 years, Must be a genetic thing in the area I'm hunting.
