Well today was the last day of my season and a tag was reserved just for the occasion. Hunted a new area, hadn't stepped foot in before this morning. I did do a drive by after killing my bird tuesday, and saw 3 hens and 2 jakes. I woke up late, ran out the door by 4am and was surprisingly to the spot by 5. I was hunting a small rectangle of woods on public land, with public field on 3 sides and private to the other. First thing, all I hear is silence. I owled to no avail, so I sat down in the front as it would be easy to run through this tract quickly and spook everything out of it. When I heard nothing and it was nearing flydown, I decided to ease down the public field edge to the back corner of the property to listen to what was going on in the private side. In route to this, I hear a bird gobble in the private woods bordering the public field. I yelp, he hammers it. I decide I'm going to the back corner and set up on the field. A hen starts yelping in between us in the private woods.. just great. I inflate my hen decoy and as I'm about to set her out I hear a cackle and see the hen flying down into the field. Stake the deke out and try to slip to the woods unseen. The gobbler moves out into the public field and is gobbling to me pretty well. Yelps, cutts, clucks. I can't see him yet as there is a hedgerow between us. Then he shuts up. I assume that hen caught up with him and soon I find myself stretching to see through the hedge. Before I knew it I see a white head moving through the hedgerow and out pops a bird strutting with a nice full fan. He struts for 3 steps, then walks 6, struts and marches closer. I had just enough breeze to give the deke a natural looking movement and he was really focused on her. I noticed that I could not see a beard what so ever, but I was convinved he was a big bird and decided he was getting shot. At 33 yards I decided he was close enough and ended my season at 6:06 am this morning. They don't get much easier than that! 14lbs 5oz, a whopping 2" rotted off beard and my best spurs of the season at 1 3/16".
3 states and 8 birds. Awesome awesome year and my best to date. Thank you guys for letting me share. Glad to be a part of a great team!!!
