So, MN's Season A started this past Wednesday (4/15). The temperature in Chatfield hovered around 13 degrees when I headed out on opening day. That's a cold morning in April, even in MN. The morning ended with no bird, but I did have two gobblers enter the far end of the alfalfa field I was hunting. On Thursday, I hunted in the morning and afternoon, but still no luck. So, I head on Friday morning and the birds aren't even gobbling on the roost (or too far away for me to hear them). And then a Barred Owl landed in the cottonwood tree 100 yards from my position, the eagles decided to make their presence known, and a coyote attacked my decoys (he came in so quiet by the time I spotted him, he was making tracks, so no shot). By the time 9:30 rolls around, I'm ready to leave and save some PTO. And then she showed up. A big hen started chattering, and came into my decoy setup (hen and jake). She was cozying up to my "hen", when about 80 yards away, a strutter and a second hen showed up. Well, a few cuts and purrs on my little scratch box was all it took. I wouldn't say he charged in to the decoy spread, but he wasn't wasting much time either. And he really didn't like the posturing jake: He managed to beat on it for at least a minute until I was able to get a clear shot without destroying my decoy (Dave Smith decoys are expensive!). I let him have it with a 2 1/4 oz. of TSS #9 shot at 21 yards. Needless to say, he hit the dirt hard. When I took a close look at him, I immediately determined that he was a 2 year old bird, given his small spurs (3/4"). And then I lifted him up. Immediately I said to myself, my G_D this bird is heavy! When I put him on the scale I did a double take: 25 pounds, 15 ounces! So, I weighed him again. Same result. OK, I have a 26 pound kettle bell, so let's see if the scale is off: 26 pounds, 6 ounces. Assuming the kettle bell is actually 26 pounds on the nose (probably not), this guy weighs at least 25 pounds, 9 ounces. Talk about bagging Baby Huey! He "only" scored 59.94 points, but I don't care. I like long spurs as much as the next guy, but I doubt I'll every shoot a bird bigger than this hog, not matter how old he may be.
My brother lucked out his 1st mourning ever hunting. It was in se MN and shot a huge 29lb bird. He thought that turkey hunting was easy. That was back in the late 80s. I think he maybe bagged 4 since then but he don't get into it like I do.
Oh by the way congratulations. Dang nice bird.
Congrats on "Big Bird". 13 degrees is deer hunting weather, not spring turkeys, guess that extra weight needed to keep warm, at least that's my excuse.
Nice one. Congrats.
Great bird congrats.....
That's a heavyweight for sure. Congrats!
Awesome man!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Congrats on a really nice bird
big boss Tom!!!
Congrats sir
congrats on a nice bird.
Congrats
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Nice. Congrats
Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk
A true boss hog gobbler. Congrats!
Congratulations to you.
Congrats nice bird.
What was the fat boy eating .
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk