My season started with a short trip to Kansas which was FILLED with Jake encounters. I would venture to say my friend and I passed on 20+ shot opportunities on jakes, but both harvested one. I believe the trip was short of longbeard encounters due to the amount of grouped up jakes that seemed to keep the toms at bay- always a fun trip regardless. Back to my home state of Illinois. One of my permits was filled on a 22 pound gobbler with an 11 1/4" beard, 7/8" spurs on a late morning setup. I was able to set up on him at 10:20 and shot him at 10:40. Another permit was filled with a sharp-spurred limbhanger, later season 19 pound tom with an 11 1/4" beard, 1 1/4" and a broken 1 1/8" spur. This was also a short hunt which took place after I got off night shift. I got a gobble out of him and he was dead within 5 minutes. Successful hunts are fun, but this year's funnest hunts were my unsuccessful ones on a gobbler I could NOT catch up to. I think this is at least the second year this turkey has outwitted me. I took countless different approaches on one-upping this gobbler over a 3 week period; I called to him, I set up on him early, I set up on him late, I set up without calling, I hunted with and without decoys, and he managed to give me the slip every single time. I had him within 50 yards..TWICE!..and he used the terrain to his advantage. There were also times he would taunt me with 1 or 2 gobbles as if to only let me know he was there, then go silent. These are the ones that keep us coming back for more. I'm a spur guy, and I can only hope I get to see how big his are next year. On to deer season prep, and the long wait until the always anticipated, next turkey season.
