Whew it's been a tough but fun season. Between my dad and myself we've hunted this bird for 23 days this season alone. It's was looking like it was going to be one of those birds that you really should just forget and move on to another one but being hardheaded and determined I was either going to make or break my season on him.
Being a public land bird he only gobbled 3-5 times and that's all you'd get, if you made a call to him it was game over. We've fought weather and people and not to mention the 45min hard walk to get to him. Well this morning I decided to try again so I was where I wanted to be an hour before first light. Well of coarse he wasn't anywhere close to where I was hoping he would be(he had 4 different roost spots). When he finally gobbled and I realized where he was I picked up and took off. I got kinda close to where I thought he was roosted and he gobbled again. So once I finally tiptoed to the right finger ridge I eased down to the tree I wanted and he gobbled for the 4th time.
I relaxed looked around and made the slightest softest purr I could on my Madhatter 4track copper pot and then I set it down and used my wing to do a couple fly downs and scratched the leaves. It's got eerily quiet and finally after about 15 min passed and I see a hen coming towards me and I think I can hear drumming every now and then. She mills around and walks past me walking up the hollow to my left going up into so pines. 10 minutes passes and I can still hear drumming and then a crow caws over my head and he gobbles 75yds away and now I can see him strutting and walking my way. He struts up the hollow to my left and I have one good opening to shoot through. When he struts into it I yelp softly and he broke strut like nobodies business and that's all I needed. I let my little 20ga work. After a very gracious prayer to the Man upstairs for his awesome creation I looked at a bird that has had me humbled and kinda depressed the last few weeks.
I couldn't be happier with this year's season. I've called in a few for friends and my dad and now I finally got this old bird.
He's got a 10" beard and 1 1/16" spurs.
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr17/smmsstate/450C9630-DBDC-40F1-9602-4158B74B7977.png) (http://s465.photobucket.com/user/smmsstate/media/450C9630-DBDC-40F1-9602-4158B74B7977.png.html)
Congrats, nice bird , good story. :icon_thumright:
Congrats
Congrats. Glad you stuck with him.
Nice bird, congrats!
Quote from: 3seasons on April 12, 2015, 04:15:40 PM
Whew it's been a tough but fun season. Between my dad and myself we've hunted this bird for 23 days this season alone. It's was looking like it was going to be one of those birds that you really should just forget and move on to another one but being hardheaded and determined I was either going to make or break my season on him.
Being a public land bird he only gobbled 3-5 times and that's all you'd get, if you made a call to him it was game over. We've fought weather and people and not to mention the 45min hard walk to get to him. Well this morning I decided to try again so I was where I wanted to be an hour before first light. Well of coarse he wasn't anywhere close to where I was hoping he would be(he had 4 different roost spots). When he finally gobbled and I realized where he was I picked up and took off. I got kinda close to where I thought he was roosted and he gobbled again. So once I finally tiptoed to the right finger ridge I eased down to the tree I wanted and he gobbled for the 4th time.
I relaxed looked around and made the slightest softest purr I could on my Madhatter 4track copper pot and then I set it down and used my wing to do a couple fly downs and scratched the leaves. It's got eerily quiet and finally after about 15 min passed and I see a hen coming towards me and I think I can hear drumming every now and then. She mills around and walks past me walking up the hollow to my left going up into so pines. 10 minutes passes and I can still hear drumming and then a crow caws over my head and he gobbles 75yds away and now I can see him strutting and walking my way. He struts up the hollow to my left and I have one good opening to shoot through. When he struts into it I yelp softly and he broke strut like nobodies business and that's all I needed. I let my little 20ga work. After a very gracious prayer to the Man upstairs for his awesome creation I looked at a bird that has had me humbled and kinda depressed the last few weeks.
I couldn't be happier with this year's season. I've called in a few for friends and my dad and now I finally got this old bird.
He's got a 10" beard and 1 1/16" spurs.
(http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr17/smmsstate/450C9630-DBDC-40F1-9602-4158B74B7977.png) (http://s465.photobucket.com/user/smmsstate/media/450C9630-DBDC-40F1-9602-4158B74B7977.png.html)
Congrats
Nice!
Congrats!! Great story.
Good job! Way to stick with it!! :icon_thumright:
:smiley-patriotic-flagwaver-an Happy ending to your hard work. Congrats
Thats persistence, great job! I know all to well the ins and outs of Public Land.. In my book public wood birds are the toughest by far.
Well Done!
well done and a great story.
Congrats on an awesome gobbler, persistence kills a lot of turkeys!!
Nice, way to stick with him
Congrats! I really enjoyed the read!
I've been hunting the same bird locally for 11 mornings this year. He sounds very similar to the one you killed except this one will gobble liberally even though he doesn't answer calling much at all. I've debated leaving him and heading to greener pastures but I find my self coming back for more every opportunity I get. Hopefully his luck will run out soon!
congrats
You did a great job and I loved your story.
Awesome story. Good job!!
sweet! that'll be a memorable tom! Congrats!
Great story, great bird. Way to stick and stay.
Nice bird, congrats. Couple questions, what do you mean by he would only gobble 3-5 times being a public land bird ? What do you mean when you say if you call to him it was game over, do you mean this gobbler was call-shy? Does this have something to do with public land?
Thanks.
Quote from: RutnNStrutn on April 12, 2015, 08:42:18 PM
Good job! Way to stick with it!! :icon_thumright:
:agreed: Congrats....
Nice!
Quote from: Ihuntoldschool on April 13, 2015, 09:03:46 PM
Nice bird, congrats. Couple questions, what do you mean by he would only gobble 3-5 times being a public land bird ? What do you mean when you say if you call to him it was game over, do you mean this gobbler was call-shy? Does this have something to do with public land?
Thanks.
Where i hunt at (public land in Mississippi) there is no shortage of hunters. We get pounded by out of state hunters. I don't have a problem with it at all because i too go to other states hunting myself. The problem with the public land hunters here in MS is that they are ,bluntly, rude(not all but I'd say 7\10 on average. It doesn't matter if you are there first or if you're working a bird in more times than not someone is going to come in on top of you or slip in and get in between you and the bird and try to shoot it. They bump them or hose up the hunt and this causes the birds to get lock jaw pretty quick on top of they will hear every call imaginable so they get call shy\savvy in a hurry.
Yes you can find a good gobbling bird at times and some that will work perfect. Not saying all birds on public land are like that but highly pressured ones seem to be.
This particular bird gobbled good the first couple days of season and was actually coming to our setup when my dad killed his first bird of the season. So he got double educated, not only did he hear a lot of calling, he saw his buddy roll. After that his gobbling was minimal and if you made a call to him he would disappear. I ran into a couple different people hunting him while i was hunting, they were some of the more decent guys I've met. I actually got ones phone number so if one of was able to get that bird the other wouldn't be hunting a ghost. I sure was happy to call him.
I've hunted birds that will gobble at every call while running the other direction. Seriously running and gobbling, never did catch up with those. I've watched strutting birds break strut and hide at the sound of a call or a truck on a gravel road 3\4 mile away. After about 10min they will ease back out. When you can see the birds and how they react its such an eye opener.
Hope that answered your questions and makes some sense.
Thanks, Im sure proud of him
Hunting public land can be frustrating at times, but when you succeed it makes it all that much sweeter. congrats!
Way to go........public land kill so much sweeter ! those birds can be tuff........ congrats
Very nice
congrats
Great stuff. Congrats!