After killing one Monday morning at my lease in West Georgia, http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,81731.0.html , I drove home Tuesday and got home at lunch. On my way home, my Dad called and asked how the hunting went and wanted to know if I wanted to go for a couple of days and said to call him back that afternoon and we would decide. I got home, ate lunch with my wife and daughter and sat to rest for a little bit. I had decided I wanted to leave the next morning. I called my Dad and he wanted to leave that afternoon, I really did not want to fight the Atlanta traffic in the evening, especially after I had just drove thru there, but at 72, he doesn't like to drive much anymore. I consented and we drove down to some property about 40 miles south of ATL in Butts county and got there around 5.
Tuesday evening was miserable, 88 degrees and humid, I half heartedly hunted but saw nothing. Woke up at 4AM the next morning to a huge rain storm, we got up about 530, went and ate breakfast and was back before daybreak. I headed to spot with it still misting rain and the radar showing more in an hour or so. I decided to sit under a 10' tall box blind, thinking if it started pouring rain, I would hop up in the stand and wait it out. Luckily it didn't ever rain.
I heard the first gobble at about 730 and the fun began. Over the next 15 minutes, the bird gobbled every couple of minutes and I finally had him at about 30 yards. Problem was, is that he was behind a row of bushes that I couldn't shoot through, I could see him in full strut and could hear his drumming. Then, I heard an ambulance in the distance and a pack of coyotes went berserk, yipping and howling and a goupd 4-5 came thru the bottom edge of the field right below the gobbler. He spooked and was gone. Not another peep from him yesterday.
Hunted that evening and about 7, I managed to call one up from the other side of a big power right of way. He came to the edge but would not commit out without seeing the hen he was looking for. I ended up shutting up and and let him be hoping my Dad would get a crack at him this morning.
Today, I went back to the spot I was at yesterday morning hoping the
bird would be close to the same roost. It was a cold 37 degrees this morning and I didn't expect much gobbling. I was right. Heard the bird at 7 and then at 705 and all went quiet, but I knew he would probably come up the dame path as yesterday. I made a call about 830 and heard him gobble below me. I made one more soft call on the trumpet and he gobbled again closer, I shut up and within 10 minutes, I saw his head bobbing. He had a choice to go left up a road or right up a road, but neither mattered as I was sitting in the fork where they split. He chose the one to my left and was strutting up the road. When he was about 25 yards out, I cut at him and he broke strut and it was all over.
My Dad didn't get to hunt much, mostly listening from the truck, his health is not the best and has trouble getting around, but he still loves to at least try to hunt. When it's perfect weather, he will still get after them in the mornings.
Sorry so long, just felt like telling the whole story of the last couple of days.
Here are a couple of pics, and the bird is hanging by his spurs and not a tote.
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/802/40362667855_594929ab74_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/24uHdWt)Buttsturk (https://flic.kr/p/24uHdWt) by Tim Hillhouse (https://www.flickr.com/photos/138577851@N03/), on Flickr
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/793/26386774237_ab2687ed13_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/GcH7Fp)Spursbutts (https://flic.kr/p/GcH7Fp) by Tim Hillhouse (https://www.flickr.com/photos/138577851@N03/), on Flickr
Congrats! That's a Nice Bird.
Congrats!
Great hooks bro, that's a nice bird. Congrats
Congrats! On a nice turkey
Quote from: zelmo1 on April 05, 2018, 05:27:49 PM
Great hooks bro, that's a nice bird. Congrats
Yeah, it seems to be my year for longer spurs, the bird I killed earlier in the week has the same length or slightly longer spurs
:happy0064: :happy0064: :happy0064:
:jackson:
Nice bird! :jackson:
Nice one. Congrats
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Congrats
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congrats on a fine bird