Best hunt in years

[Southernson13]

This morning was one of those days that you learn more than you can even retain. The morning started off with confusion trying to pin down a gobbler that would sound off at a rate of about every 8 minutes on his own with no provocation. As light came in more and more so did efforts to try to pin down this Houdini bird. Finally after a couple times of me and my client pointing in opposite directions and pacing back and forth around a couple intersections I had him figured. Setup within 100 yards of his roost positioned in an s curve. Gobbling has increased to about every two minutes with drumming now to match. Tried to sit my guy down with a vantage that he could shoot either direction of a right angle. He chose his own tree instead that would prove to limit the ability to swing to the strong side and prevent killing this now nard gobbling bird at 25 yards or the looker that was following in his path. The old saying still rings true... (DON'T GUIDE THE GUIDE.) Bird pitched down around 6:45 and is now drumming so loud enough to mimic a tympani crescendo and roughly every 5 seconds. I'm apparently the only one that will continue to hear this tell tale sound that acted as a Marco to my silent polo all morning. Passes us by in the road and as the looker steps in the road he puts a few times as a result of not seeing the false hen that I had played with the shyest of content tree yelps and meek fly down. They moved into a creek bottom where he would continue to drum for the next hour while I made a loop around to try to pull him up the other side. After repositioning on an old road on the other side of said drain with a gradual rise between us and the still over enthusiastic drumming I'm thinking I got you now son.*facepalm* this stubborn joker struts and drums from roughly 70-100 yards at the 12:30 to about 60 yards just over the lip at my now 5 o'clock. I crawled out into the road and repositioned my clumsy morning companion who couldn't walk softly if the floor was made of cotton balls to the other side of the gradual rise out of the bottom I thought he should have come up the first time but now with the ability to shoot down the hill should he decide to work around the topography instead of up it again. I bailed off roughly 80 yards across the road into the next block of pine plantation and went to work on him. I hear the drumming make it's way all the way back to in line with us but after 20 minutes of not hearing the shot ring out I slowly eased back out to communicating distance where I'm told the coast is clear. The stubborn long beard had strutted back to where he was well out of range before then crossing the hardwood finger and back over the original road he crossed at daylight. Yelped a few times and he is now back standing under the tree he was originally roosted in. I have at this point come to the conclusion  that "this ain't no two year old. " In hindsight I might should have stayed in the bottom and worked him around the slight finger but I didn't trust this guy to not get picked off as I've seen a pattern of suffering from cantbestillforshit. I figure that there's a good chance he's going to follow another drain that points towards a cattle pasture that seems to be a daily destination at some point for most of the birds that live in this particular property and also happens to not be something I can hunt. I decided to cut him off and use my main access road to be the next battle ground. After arriving at the new location I decide to hit him with the crystal to get an accurate location of him and he is still at his point of origin for the morning. Now, I'm the guy that usually struggles to hear drumming. It's more often than not an "I think I heard one" or "did you hear that? " I've heard it theorized that gobblers can regulate the volume of drumming vocalizations and after today I'm certain of it. I got called a liar and a wickerbill when I reported that I could hear him from a mapped distance of  450 yards steadily drumming. He hasn't missed a beat on that old bass all morning. I broke him from his comfort zone across another block of plantation pines that have a basal area of roughly 120 with moderate mid/understory. They are bedded though which allows for convenient travel corridors. He continued beating on it like the energizer bunny to what I estimate was probably 100 yards or so then started to fade back off where he came from. I dropped back 100-150 and got aggressive with the call again and waited to hear what might as well have been the bell around his neck expecting a shot any minute. After a 30 minute stalemate I eased back to a couple trees behind my partner to ask what happened and he told me he came probably 50 yards from the road out of sight then turned around again. I have now decided not only is he not a two year old but he's a bad old man. The morning wrapped up with me getting a little too aggressive on the final play to try to get into his bubble after missjudging his last location when he gobbled  away from me. I was disappointed and felt bad but we both agreed that it was a hell of a morning and I noted that aside from not being able to lay hands on him that I would take that kind of hunt over a morning that's over in ten minutes every dadgum time. Great days chasing the finest adversary the good Lord provided. "We don't do it because we want to. We do it because we have to".

[Turkeybutt]

Great story thanks for sharing.

[fishr64]

Sounds like an awesome hunt that will stick with you both. Thanks for the fun read!!

[Tom007]

Thank you for sharing....

[JeffC]

Now you have a real challenge to kill this ghost bird! Look forward to more updates, good read. And how many times do you give clients opportunity's before going after him yourself? 

[Southernson13]

Now you have a real challenge to kill this ghost bird! Look forward to more updates, good read. And how many times do you give clients opportunity's before going after him yourself?

As of right now I don't have any more hunters coming after next Thursday. I will probably try him one day next week then after that all bets are off.

[mountainhunter1]

That sounds like a bonafide official "bad turkey." Those type hunts are more beneficial to us than we can even imagine. I have come to the point that I in some ways enjoy those more than one where he walks right up to the gun barrel and dies. Probably a four to five year old bird you were playing with - which are the very best kind. They almost always give you your money's worth. Thanks for sharing.

[Spitten and drummen]

I will say this. I have ran across a few 2 year olds that I would swear was 3 or 4 until I killed them. Not saying this is the case at all but sometimes it doesn't matter what you do that particular day , you just ain't gonna kill him. Go back the next and have a flopping bird in a few minutes and it's a 2 year old. Those birds are nuts. I have also shot birds that I would bet the farm that they were 2 year olds by the way they gave me a text book hunt and low and behold they turned out being older birds. A old man told me many years ago that every bird is killable on a couple of days during season , you just have to be there to do it. I remember one bird I killed that I spent 8 days trying to kill. There were not many gobblers to choose from that year so if you found one you stuck with him. That bird gave me premature grey hair. I was obsessed with him and every day he was one step ahead of me. I tried every trick in the book that I knew and I always ended up with the short end of the stick. That joker gave me a nice education over those 8 days. The day I killed him , my confidence was shot. I half heartedly went into battle with him expecting to be his whipping bag again. This time he flew down and walked straight in on a line , gobbling and drumming to 25 yards. I rolled him and the hunt lasted a total of 30 minutes. It was crazy but I remembered what that old man told me. By the way , the bird only had a 10 inch beard and a little over a inch spurs. I guess all this just to say that a 2 year old can act 5 and a 5 year old can act 2. Just depends on the day and timing. That's why I have been chasing them for 43 years. Each one and each hunt is always different. Stick with him and kill him. I hope he is a 5 year old with a rope and inch and a half spurs. Good luck.

[Timmer]

Sounds super exciting!  I would much rather have a morning like this than a kill 10 minutes after sun up!

[runngun]

That is exactly the kind of bird I love to hunt. Don't get me wrong sometimes I will take a easy one, I prefer one like you described!!! 

Have a good one and May God bless y'all, Bo

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[zelmo1]

You will gat him, I can feel it brother. I did that dance 8 or 9 times with a bird I was trying to get for my wife. 7 Times I had him at 35 yards or less and didnt shoot because I promised to get her a Tom before I shot. I got her a nice one in the fourth week of the season. I went back solo and exactly 1:30 hours after I left my truck he was mine. Not a particularly great bird. But it was very satisfying to get him. Go get that one bro, good luck. Z