I had another great hunt this morning. I had hunted this bird twice already but hadn't seen him. Plenty of gobbles on the roost and recent sightings from the road by other folks (not turkey hunters) indicated he was a good bird. I set up in a corner of a field close to where I had heard him gobble before and where he's been seen strutting. I had made a hole for me to sit earlier this week in the edge of a pine thicket in back of the field facing the mature woods he was roosting in. Made sure my line of sight to my jake decoy was clear and settled in at 5:45 AM. I did my limited soft calling and waited. It was more windy than I like it with 10 mph winds, but I figured he was pumped up as he was seen strutting all day yesterday in this same spot until after 5:00 PM. Six o'clock came and went and I was starting to get disappointed. Things changed when he started gobbling at around 6:15, just about 100 yards west of where I had heard him last time I'd been there. I tried to start a conversation with him but I could tell his gobbles weren't in response to my calling so I quit. I was successful chatting with a hen close to his location but she never showed up. About 8:30 I heard a faint gobble coming from the direction I had last heard him. I tried the CM (Crystal Mistress but he didn't seem to respond. Next I tried my trumpet from Jeremy Simpson and he seemed to respond better to that. He's not double gobbling or cutting me off, but his gobbling following my calls was pretty consistent. He went silent and so did I. He gobbled a little closer about 10 minutes later but I didn't answer him. I told myself to let him gobble again before I answered. He did so I answered and he immediately answered me that time. He was closer so I decided to wait and see what happens. A few minutes pass and he comes out of the woods I'm facing and he spots the jake decoy. He struts and starts coming in sideways until he gets closer, then he decides to charge. Knocked the jake off the stake. I watch him circle the decoy and I have my green circle dot kingslayer on his head until he gives me the shot I want. He did and the Stevens 301 .410 did its job again for the 4th time this year. The shells it likes are Verdict. When I got him home he weighed 20 lbs even and had a 10.25" beard. His spurs, each less than 1" kept him from being an upgrade to the one I put in the harvest thread. He scored just over 57. He was such a beautiful bird and so much fun to hunt and watch I had to share his story. His breast feathers had a striped chevron pattern with a green iridescence that I hadn't seen before. I compared them to yesterday's breast feathers and they are vastly different. I skinned out those breast feathers and saved them to put in a pot call. Anyway, here's me and the bird.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250503/e4e3da36652555d924e28b95be66f296.jpg)
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Great lookin' bird !!! Nice whisker on him.
Congrats !!!
Beautiful! Congrats!!!
Nice one! Congrats!
Great hunt! Well done!
Well done brother! Congrats!
Well done! Very Well done.