Due to a complete computer overhaul, I am just now getting around to posting about this season. Had a great year. I shot two in Kansas and had one tag filled in MO so I decided to head up to Morthern MO to hunt with my buddy Tony the last weekend of Missouri. We hunted hard Saturday and went to three different spots with ZERO activity. On Sunday we went to three different spots, again with ZERO activity. So we figured the birds were done mating. I called my wife telling her I would be heading home soon and that the season was over. I was really sad. Not that it wasn't a great year and I was very happy with the three birds I had killed, I just hated that it was all over and it ended on a wimper.
Rgeardless, Tony decided he was getting a new TV to watch our great videos we had captured earlier in the season. So we went to the store, bought a TV and went to work sawing on his entertainment center so the widescreen would fit. Tony went outside to get a screwdriver and said he heard a bird gobbling in the plowed field behind his house. I ran out and got a slate and this bird gobbled his head off, but he was about 300 yards away. Tony was already tagged out but I all but begged him to let me go after this bird. It was 11:00 and there wasn't much of a chance to call a gobbler across a plowed field to a row of cedars behind a house, but it was worth a try.
We geared up quickly and snuck down the cedar row. We spotted him out in the middle of the field strutting. He had already closed to within 100 yards of where we were sitting. I started calling and he was gobbling hard but a bit leary to come to a bush. There was a point when he seemed to be heading towards us and dipped down into a large waterway. I asked Tony to try to stick a decoy into the field while he was in the hollow. You guessed it,...the next thing I saw was this bird trotting away to our left. We got too aggressive, but it was worth a try.
So we were ready to leave when we heard another bird gobbling. He was angling across the field. When he got to the waterway he dipped down and got hung up. Tony tried walking back behind me and calling as though the hen was walking away. I heard no gobbles and Tony faded away into the distance. The mosquitos were drilling in my head and figured our "hail Mary" had failed. As I stood up I heard Tony yelling at me to sit down. That bird was strutting at the top of the hill, but I couldn't see him. Blown opportunity number TWO! He ran away.
SO just as I was getting up for the third time I called one last time to make sure there weren't any more "sneakers" out there. We heard a huge gobble down the cedar line to our left. Was this the first bird we scared off? That was exactly the direction he ran, but if it was him, there is no way he would come in after I bumped him. Regardless, I quit calling and Tony called from behind me. This bird spent 30 minutes walking a little closer each time we called but I couldn't see him because I was buried in brush. Finally I could hear him drumming. I was getting what I call "whacky eye" from trying to look to my extreme left without moving my head. My vision starts getting all fuzzy. So I closed my eyes and tried to get my vision cleared up as he gobbled and drummed within 40 yards of me. Finally I looked back and saw him waliking up the edge of the field. He stopped at 35 yards and I didn't want to give him any chance to change his mind. BOOM!
This was a nice bird. 24 pounds, 11 inch beard and 1 3/8 " spurs. I looked at my watch. It was 12:00 noon. We still argue whether that was the original bird that I had spooked. I say it had to be the same bird. Tony said there is no way a bird is going to run away and then still come in. We all know who is right, don't we!
Regardless it was perhaps the most unlikely and bizzare hunt I had been in for as long as I can remember. I guess it ain't over till it's over!
