Been a great year. Little bit of a different year. Lot of rain early in the season and not as much time to hunt as I want to. Last week after my hellish 2 finals weeks were over I had some friends in from out of town to hunt with me. Despite being on birds both mornings and walking 11 miles in two days we struck out. We were on this bird Sunday morning for a little while without success. I hunted him another 3 times before I finally sealed the deal. Had to get a little creative on this one...my set up was sitting in a hay ring in the middle of a huge (75 or 80 acre) pasture. I've gotten away from using decoys for the most part this year and have loved not relying on them and carrying them, however I did break out the jake decoy for this hunt. This guy and his 4 hens ( one of which was toting a 8-9" rope herself) came into the field at roughly 630 pm and it took him close to an hour to move 200 yards to me. His hens had exited the field and I even heard 2 of them fly up... once he got within 75 yards his demeanor changed and he popped into half strut and began the mean walk as I call it into 20 yards. I let him beat up on my decoy and strut for a couple minutes before I decided to pull the trigger. He ended up being a good one with an 11" beard and 1.25" and 1.125" sharp spurs! Upon cleaning him I noticed his craw was one of the fullest I had ever seen so I had to investigate. For the lightest bird I've kill this year he was filled out at 17.25 lbs and plum full of clover and seeds. To those who have tags left and spring seasons that run longer. I'm envious. One day I hope to start mine a little sooner and end it a little later. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180509/ffff539113b16baf8c929caca90b905a.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180509/d3d0caf06c7fd45eb8416a5b3044c0b6.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180509/c5c571b876c5217471c7acfecf4fa125.jpg)
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Congrats!
Congratulations.
Congrats!
:icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Pretty cool. Most of the Gobblers I have killed don't have much in their craws. I did kill one on South Carolina that had a handful of tadpoles in his craw..
Nice. Congrats
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Amen brother very blessed!!!
Good Gobbler!!! I have 2 permits left for New Jersey and can hit that State until May 25th. I have 1 tag left in my home State Of New York. I have until the 31st of May--but Memorial Day Weekend has always been good to me as far as taking Gobblers. Took a nice 20lb Tom about a week ago. 1 1/8inch spurs and a 8 inch beard. A nice 3 year old. He gobbled and moved away and I followed. Almost got a Tom today. A hen grabbed him as he was coming in to that old HS Strut Triple Glass Pot. Going to try this guy again tomorrow before Mother's Day Festivities.