Work is sucking the life out of me, well not being able to sleep during the day may be the root cause of it. But got to make some money to fuel the disease of chasing these wonderful wild birds.
I was able to leave work a little after 9 Friday night and made the brisk 8hr drive to southern Illinois, I arrived at my spot around 5am Saturday morning. This is when things got interesting. It had rained\snowed Thursday and everything was wet. When I pulled into the pull-off my truck slid to a really really soft stop, oh man not good. I locked my truck in 4wheeldrive and I still just sit there spinning all 4 tires. This rocks on for about 5minutes until l finally was able to rock it out of the muddy mess I was in. I was able to move my truck and park in a better place and get a few minutes rest before I started my walk to where I wanted to be at daylight.
As everything started waking up I could hear a group of birds across the line to my south east a few across the line to my south west and one across the line west of me. I was happy to hear some gobbling but wasn't thrilled about none being huntable. The one to the west was somewhat close to the line so I decided to get over in his area. I had to cross a few creeks to get to him and when I crossed the last creek there was a 100yd thicket I had to get through to get to some more open hardwoods. He gobbles as I'm coming up out of the creek and he's in those hardwoods up on a ridge overlooking the thicket. There was no leaves on the trees and it was real open but thick if that makes sense. I set up in the most open spot I could find and made a call, he cuts me off. I make a few more calls and he cuts me off. He sounds like he is walking back and forth up on the ridge but I can't get him to leave the ridge. This goes on for over an hour and a half. I finally quit calling and he would gobble every few minutes just to let me know he was there and he would gobble at anything else that made a noise. If another bird would gobble in the distance he would cut them off and they wouldn't gobble again. He would fad away then come right back, I finally came up with a plan and the next time he faded off I jumped up and cut the distance as best I could before he was back closer. The next time he faded I jumped up and cut the distance again. One more time and I was able to make it to the edge of the hardwoods and about 60yds from the ridge he was on. About a doz deer decide to come mill around the ridge side but thankfully they never spooked or buggered him.
I call a few times in hopes that he will come to the edge to investigate and possible break and come down the ridge now that I'm closer. He would gobble but never would come to the edge to even look. In the distance I could hear two birds gobble and I start calling to them hoping to make the bird on the ridge jealous he would gobble at me and he would gobble at them. They closed the distance and the bird on the ridge got quiet and so did the other two. I figured he had enough of them and went to shut them up. I figured this was my chance, I eased up and started up the ridge. I was soft calling the whole way and easing from tree to tree. I picked out a big tree on the edge of the ridge top and started to ease up to it. I got to the tree and leaned up against it scanning the ridge for a good place to sit and to my surprise he steps out from behind a big tree about 35yds from me. I'm not sure who was more surprised me or him but I didn't care, in one fast motion I raised my gun and pulled the trigger as soon as my red dot hit his head. I wasn't sure if I got him or not because I lost sight of him on the report of the gun. I started easing up to where he was standing and saw him laid out in a small depression in the ground, I couldn't believe it. He was a fine one that put on a heck of a chess match. He ended up being 50yds from the property line, was cutting it pretty close.
The walk out was rough I'm not sure what that covid did to me when I got it but I know I've been jacked up ever since, most days I'm good but some dang near kill me when I get worked up and fatigued. and this day was a rough one. Not sure if it was the lack of sleep over the last 3 days (4hrs total over) I tried to stop and take some pics but between the way I was feeling and things just not working out I wasn't able to get many. To my surprise even though he seemed to have everything in the area shut up he was only a two year old or at least looked to be a two year old. Weighed in at a little over 20lbs had right at an 8" beard and 3/4" spurs.
After I got him cleaned and in the cooler I got to feeling little better so I stopped in town and and had to get me a good ol Chicgao deep dish pizza at a local restaurant for a celebratory meal. Then drove back home in time to take the wife out for dinner.
All in all it was an awesome 22 hours.
