New Hampshire
5/9/2021
After a couple slow day in Maryland we make the long haul to New Hampshire. We ride to our first listening spot and hear 2 birds right close to us, so close that they prob saw our trucks and shut up not long after first light. We made our ways around driving and looking at fields in the area with no luck. Finally after a few hours of that I spot a hen walking in the edge of a field where there is a truck parked and behind her was a gobbler hiding in the tall grass. We make a loop and come back by and the truck is gone so we pull into the spot he was parked at and I'm studying my map trying to figure out where we needed to go to find those birds. Well Bradley comes up to my window and were discussing things when he says I swear I see a bird strutting right there. He wasn't kidding there was a bird strutting 25yds from us in some thick bushes. Mind you we can't hunt within 100yds of the road or houses and were in a triangle of all 3. We decide to hit the woods across from where they are and try to get them to work to us. He goes back to his truck and the hen cross in front of me then another hen then a jake and then 3 longbeards. Strutting across the black top 40yds in front of me. As soon as they hit the woods\field edge we bail out and run down the road and down into the woods trying to get in front of them. We almost made it but was one ridge to slow. We could see them working the far ridge back and forth. The birds ease back down to the field edge and I ask Bradley to ease down to the edge to see if he could see them and he eased off and disappeared. It had been a while and I text him asking if he had seen them when he text me back saying yes they are in the field so I text back asking if I could make it to him and never heard anything. About 20min later boooommmm then booommmmm that may or may not be good. I ease towards the shots when I see Bradley come walking back through the woods with no birds, he was disgusted. He said he just missed the first then the second just came running by at 25yds and he hit a dead tree. He asked where I was and I said I was waiting to hear back from him.. he pics up his phone and his message to come to where he was and how to get there never sent, ugh freaking phones.
5/10/2021
It was raining and the gobbler in the area where the miss happened was hammering so we took off after him. We slip up on the ridge with him and he goes quiet before we ever got to him. After about an hour we hear him off in the distance we get to the top of the ridge and set up he seems to be on the other ridge. I call and he gobbles, and I call again, and he gobbles a little closer, now it's a waiting game. After about 10min I see him emerge from the ridge edge and all I can see is his tailfeathers as he stands looking and then he's gone just that fast. I just put my head back against the tree then turned to see if Bradley had seen him, he never saw him from his angle. Another missed opportunity. We decided to change our luck and head to Maine.
5/11/2021
After a great morning in Maine we decide to make a move from our original spot in New Hampshire to the far west side of the state. We rode around the afternoon trying to find and roost some birds. I never found any birds but was given a local cops number to call from my buddy Cameron, I talked to him and he was more than helpful on giving us some options of places to hunt and what he had been seeing or hearing. Bradley was able to find a couple birds in a field just before dark, only seeing some jakes and hens he hoped there was a longbeard close. So we had a plan for the morning.
5/12/2021
We got our game plan together and eased down the hill to get just above where we thought the birds may be roosted. As day starts to break, we can hear hens and then we hear a bird gobble on down the hill. They end up flying down in the bottom in a big ag field, looks to be 5 hens and a longbeard and a couple jakes. We make a couple moves and end up on a steep ridge above them, we decide that a stalk is necessary and as open as it is I told Bradley to go down in this drainage and I decided to backtrack and go down a far drainage in case they work that way. These hills are steep like real steep, so we have to inch our way down them to not be seen. I can see the birds working to where Bradley should be when I hear the shot ring out. I see the hens and jakes jump and leave the field I ease out to see Bradley emerge out of the thick field edge and walk to his New Hampshire gobbler. It was a really cool hunt that our strategy payed off.
I took out after we took picks trying to find a bird and Bradley went another direction looking a bird for me also. No luck finding one that day.
5/13/2021
We decide to go a property that I had been told about by our new local cop buddy. I had tried to roost a bird the evening before but didn't hear or see anything. But the place looked really good. We got there early and while starting our walk to our listening spot I stop and tell Bradley I swear I just heard a bird gobble. We stand for a couple minutes and just as we start to step away we hear him again and Bradley says yeah I just heard him too. He was on the bottom edge of the field opposite of where we parked. So we took off his way the field was pretty big and had a woodline that jutted out into it. We used this woodline to close the distance and then ducked into the woods to get to within about 100yds of him on the roost. I set up in the middle of this old rock wall where I could shoot on either the field side or the wood side if needed. Bradley set up about 20yds behind me. As day break finally started happening this gobbler was gobbling great. After a few minutes I decided I need to at least let him know I was in the area so I ever so slightly tree yelped and he gobbles at it, so I just sit quiet and listen to the woods come alive and him gobble and gobble. After what felt like hours(only 21 minutes) I catch a glimpse of a bird sailing out into the field around 300yds away and over a water bar. I wondered if that was the gobbler and then I hear a faint gobble in the distance, not gonna lie my heart kinda sunk a little, but that was short lived because the next thing I see is a white head just on the other side of the water bar about 250yds away and it is working the edge of it headed straight for that set of trees we used to move across he field. I was thinking dang I wish we were sitting there because he was b-lining it across that field like he had somewhere to go on his mind. I make a soft call and he stops, gobbles and goes into half strut. I start soft calling and purring, and I hear Bradley start scratching in the leaves. The bird would gobble and look and gobble and look, finally after a few minutes of this you could see his whole demeanor change, he got plum mad that the hen he was gobbling at was not coming to him. His gobbles changed tone and he started marching and gobbling towards us, I tried my best to keep my nerves as calm as I could. I head my sight on him as he closed the distance until I couldn't take it anymore, I took a breath and squeezed the trigger. I see the bird drop and then I just lost it. What an unreal hunt. Bradley got to the bird as I was regaining my composure and yelled to me, he's a giant. As I walked up, I see his spurs and I was taken away. He's got pearl 1.5" spurs on both legs, I'm still in awe of the whole hunt. After some pics in the field we walk back to the truck and 2 other groups of hunters drive up and ask us if we got the bird that was gobbling. Both groups 6 people total were trying to get to him when I quietened the woods.
The Good Lord really blessed me on this hunt, this was an old pressured bird that had played the game a many a time and we just happened to be in the right spot on the right morning. We loaded up and headed east to Vermont.
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