FINALLY!

[Bamastrutter]

The monkey is gone Man this has been a tough season of close calls. HE was not the bird Ive been hunting but he will do for now. The morning started out slow late goblin on the roost but 2 birds sounded off about 150 yards from me. They each gobbled twice on the roost hit the ground and
gobbled a few more times and went quiet. after a few minutes I heard a hen so I knew at that point it was her game to lose. I tried to agitate her with some aggressive calling the toms gobbled a few more times as they moved away. well everything went quiet for about 45 minutes when all of sudden i catch some movement out the corner of my eye, I have a bird in full strut at about 30 yards to my left. Well I make a couple clucks he sticks his head up and boom he goes down. I jump up and run to the bird and the first thing I notice is he has a rope excited to grab his legs I then notice short spurs yep a 2 year old with a nice beard. It all made since in the end alot of times if you have two birds goblin the less dominate will sometimes double back to check things out so be patient and keep your eyes peeled. The pressure is off now I can go back for that big upgrade.

[lowcountry]

Nice!  Congrats! 

[BigHooks]

Congrats, Way to go Bama I knew u could do it nice BIRD... Johnny!!!!!!!!

[xarcher]

Atta boy.  Sounds like you have worked real hard this year. 

Just want to compare notes.  I was in Coosa County for 2 days last week on 750 acres of private property that has only been hunted twice.  Sounds like a perfect situation but it was far from it.  I only heard 2 birds gobble the whole time and they were far away and not hot.  I actually called up a total of 16 jakes to within 10 yards all on Tuesday morning (3 different sets) but no long beards.  The first set I had 10 jakes withing gun range for over 1/2 hour.  If there was a long beard in the area, he wasn't playing.  The property owner was saying the month of February was real warm and maybe that triggered early breeding.  Just wondering how much gobbling you have heard this year compared to others. 

Congrats again. 

[Bamastrutter]

Thanks guys, it really has been a tough season with birds just not being very vocal I usually run into this every few years. The problem compared to years past is that my largest tracts of land held hot birds not this season. xarcher to answer your question the goblin has been very minimal. I have a 800 acre tract of land 30 minutes south of coosa co. that has about 10 people hunting it nobody has even heard a bird. I think the birds did get an early start with the warm weather, and then we had a couple cold fronts after that. My brother works for game and fish and travels all over the state and he is telling me alot of people
are really having a tough season.

[Ontgunner]

Excellent job. Sounds like the hunting has been tough down there this year. Stay at it. Congrat's on your bird and good luck on your next.