Birds have gotten pretty quiet here since most of the hens have started incubating their eggs. I didn't roost a bird last night so I put the decoys out in a likely spot but didn't hear a bird by 7:30 a.m. so I started driving the area and trying to get a bird to gobble. I drove to an area where I'd seen a bird strutting at 5 p.m. yesterday. I cut with a box call and the Turkey gobbled about 300 yards into a swampy hardwood. I geared up and headed in after him. He was still gobbling on the roost at 8:00 a.m. I was 100 yds. from him when he flew down. Took me 45 minutes to get him to 20 yds where I could see him in the heavy undergrowth. He came in slow and sneaky. I was shooting the Remington 11-87 3" Turkey Gun. At 20 yards the white hull Hevi-13 #6s put him DRT. The bird weighed 20 lb. 11 oz., had a 11 1/4" beard and 1 5/16" spurs. When I cleaned him he'd been shot maybe two weeks ago. Looked like #5 lead eat his breast up pretty good but nothing made it into the vitals. Looks like a long shot that dropped to low. I'm guessing that's why he was still in the tree at 8 o'clock. But it didn't seem to have hurt his gobble. One more bird to go and 8 days to get it done. Wish me luck. These Management Area bird are tough.
[attachment deleted by admin]