Where I hunt in Southern Illinois, in the four days of hunting it took to bag two gobblers, I heard more toms than I recall in any previous year. On the first day of the first season, the boss gobbler had two subordinates with him. Then, there were four subordinates under those two and then several jakes under them plus a dozen or so hens. It was like herding cats for the boss gobbler to finally get everyone on the same page and follow him across the creek into the picked cornfield. Interestingly, as soon as he was out of sight, the four subordinates turned and high tailed it to my Pretty Boy and two hen decoys, some 150 yards away. I took one of these toms after they knocked down my Pretty Boy and began to putt.
