I've been on a dry spell the last few seasons, but I broke the slump on Saturday morning. The morning started off breezy and drizzly so I decided to hit an overgrown hay field in the river bottom. Got in well before light, but couldn't get any responses from the birds right away so I set up in a fairly safe spot as to not bust any birds that might be roosted near the field. As the sun started to come up, the gobblers began to make themselves known. They were roosted on the other side of the river, which is fine because they always have a tendency to fly across the river. The hens also made their presence known, and they were roosted on my side of the river. They were very talkative and one particular hen was very rude so I picked a fight with her. She would yelp and I would cut her off with a yelp which really had the gobblers fired up and made her yelp even more. At about 6:00, they decided to flydown and land in my field. I had 14 hens and jakes messing around in the field, but no longbeards were coming out for some reason. After about 10 minutes of picking at the grass, the flock exited the field to my left at about 70 yards. 5 minutes later, I catch movement from that direction and here comes the tom with a pack of jakes on his rear. The jakes stopped for a moment, but he kept coming toward my decoys. As he passed a tree, I pulled the gun up and got ready for the shot. He cleared the tree, so I let him have it at about 30 yards with the heavy shot magnum blends which put him down like a rock. As I got up to retrieve my prize, I saw about 30 more turkeys in the corner of the field that I couldn't see. It was a short morning, but a great one and I got to put Birds turkey tote to good use, which worked awesome.
Stats on the bird:17.5 lbs, 10 3/4 inch beard and spurs were 1 1/4 and 1 1/8. Call used was my african blackwood with ceramic pot call and using my CNH boat paddle striker which really makes this call sing.
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/Bonjour_photo/DSC_0011-8.jpg)
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s121/Bonjour_photo/DSC_0012-4.jpg)
Way to go, Ryan.. He is definitely worth the wait. A very nice gobbler. Well done, my friend..Mike :you_rock:
Congrats on breaking the slump!
Nice gobbler, congrats!
Good Deal Ryan.... Glad to see you bust a head buddy and I'm glad that the Turkey Tote brought you some VooDoo Charm. :icon_thumright: :smiley-char092:
Congrats Ryan! Very nice turkey! :you_rock: :you_rock: :you_rock: :you_rock: :you_rock:
Nice bird and way to get outta that slump!!! :z-guntootsmiley:
Nice bird and nice call! Congrats!
:icon_thumright: Congrats!!
Breaking the slump sure feels good don't it . Congrats.
Congrats!!!
Quote from: bird on May 01, 2011, 10:02:23 PM
Good Deal Ryan.... Glad to see you bust a head buddy and I'm glad that the Turkey Tote brought you some VooDoo Charm. :icon_thumright: :smiley-char092:
Thanks. That tote worked awesome. I only had about 1/4 mile walk out, but I couldn't even tell that I was carrying him. Usually I have to switch hands a time or 2, but not with that tote. The best part is that it didn't even dig in. The boy did great on these totes. :you_rock:
congrats on ending that drought. nice bird to end it with too! maybe it'll mean a new start. good job
Congrats on an awesome gobbler Ryan. :z-guntootsmiley:
No tag soup this year..........
way to go brother!!!! glad you got the monkey off your back. Congrats
congrats! :you_rock:
Nice bird, congrats!
May I ask, what kind of helmet are you wearing? :o
HC
Quote from: Hardcore on May 02, 2011, 09:47:17 PM
Nice bird, congrats!
May I ask, what kind of helmet are you wearing? :o
HC
That is my carhart camo stocking hat. It was 36 degrees out that morning. We don't have the Bama heat yet.