Well just got back from TX and hunting with Ronny (Reloader) and his dad (Big Ronny). This is always a fun trip and always one with lots of laughs and some dragging butts by the end of the hunt.
This year was very different from the one last year, in the fact that the birds just did not want to play at all. Last year the birds attacked the decoys and would come to the call pretty easy. This year, they would not come to the decoys or paid them any mind at all, and just acted like they could care less (for the most part) about the calling.
My first day started out really cool with Ronny dropping me off where I was going to hunt and the first thing we notice is an lunar eclipse. I am there well before day light as I am hunting about 25 minutes from where Ronny and his dad will be hunting.
The morning starts off with lots of predawn gobbling and hen talk. I had two hens pitch down to my jake and hen decoys, and they stayed around for about 10 min's just talking up a storms and pecking around. When the gobblers flew down, they just turned and left out the other direction onto the neighbor's ranch. The rest of the day was filled with a few birds cutting across the ranch I was hunting on as well as deer just milling around. At about 5 o'clock I see 4 long beards coming back toward "my" ranch off of the neighbors. They enter the field about 300 yards away and stay on that side of the field for about an hour and a half, even with my best come on over here calling. It was about that time a hen came out about 150 yards to my right and she got all 4 coming over in nothing flat. I kept cutting her off and calling louder than her and you could tell she was getting pissed. Once the 4 long beards were with her, here she comes to see if she can kick my decoys butt. I could see the 4 red heads coming from my right and they were looking over the little bank I was hiding behind. I had to switch to shoot left handed as I could not get turned. When one got a little too close I knew the jig was up and so I had to take him. He dropped like a rock and the rest took off running to my left. I switched back to shooting right handed and dropped another one. I was happy to say the least, after an all day sit, I was on the board with 2 birds in about 5 seconds.
Ronny had been texting me off and on all day and I knew he was on the board right off the bat that first morning. He and his dad both connected later that day to end day one with a combined total for the three of us with 5 birds (last year at the same time we were at 8 birds).
Day 2
Replay day one all the way up to 6:45, at that time I had hens and deer just start coming in the field quickly. In steps a gobbler and I can not get a shot because of the deer playing body guard. Every time I had a shot either a deer would step between the gobbler and me or he would have hens all around him. I had to sit and watch this for over 10 min, and to be honest, I was beginning to wonder if it was going to happen. At last the sea's parted and there was my shot. I dropped him like a pin in a balloon without a wiggle. I had been so focused on him that I had not seen two other gobblers standing in the brush at the edge of the field and did not know they were there until they shock goggled at the sound of the shot. That cleared the field in nothing flat.
Ronny smoked one with his cross bow that morning and he and his dad were hunting together that afternoon when Big Ronny doubled on two nice birds.
We ended day 3 with all of us on the board with 3 birds each. (the year before at the same time we all had 4 birds each)
The good Lord blessed us with a trip to and from the hunt and a great hunt. I kill one bird that was a true trophy in my book, it had 2 spurs on one leg. Both legs had 1 3/16" spurs and then one leg had an extra 5/16" spur.
Great hunt, great friends, and a double spur bird on top of that, it was hard to beat. I have to thank Ronny for letting me borrow a pair of insulated bib's, the temps were cool on the first morning but the wind blew about 20-25 mph the whole time we were there which turns a 30 degree morning into a real cold morning.
