My season has been at pretty good one all things considered working 6 12.5hr midnights for the last month isn't fun but it does allow me to hunt a couple hours each morning so it's not all bad but man it will wear you out.
Last week I called in 3 birds and let them walk, not wanting to end my season quiet yet with a bird that just didn't finish the way I hoped for. After this past week I was thinking I was nuts for letting a bird walk. Haven't heard a bird all week until today.
A friend invited me to hunt with him this morning so we get set up in some freshly thinned pines real early because once the sun comes up, you may as well be in a field. It's so open you can't move without everything on the property seeing you.
We make a couple makeshift blinds on the best trees we can find and actually see into the bunching ground that we were set up on. The birds have been using the old logging road as a travel path and there are 4 dust bowls in the opening. Only issue is the only flat spot has us looking east.
As the sky starts to lighten up we start to hear some birds gobble in the distance. 3 together and one off to the left of that group. I was just happy to hear a bird. We're sitting about 4yds apart. We quietly whispered that if two birds came in he would take the one on the right and I would take the one on the left. Then about 10min later he tells me that if a single gobbler comes in he wanted me to shoot it. I told him I didn't care and he could and he insisted I take the shot if it presented its self. Who am I to argue.
The birds hit the ground some 300yds away and split up gobbling across a ridge on the neighboring property. My buddy throws some calls their way with his homemade tube call he turned out of some alunium stock. They would answer every so often. He gobbled at them and that lit them up. They would answer that so they exchanged gobbles for a few minutes. It's a long logging road that went towards where they were at and at the end we see a bird step out and head our way. It was a Jake and he came to within 10yrs of us looking for the other gobbling bird. His beard was maybe 4" long and stuck straight up and was as blonde as blonde could be. Never seen one like that. Hoping it stays that way. About 10min past and 2 more birds hit the road and come our way, 2 big hens and the mill around and go off into the open pines around us. All that action and the cool morning had be shaking uncontrollably.
About 10min pass and we can hear a bird and some hens working to our right about 200yds away. Now the sun has gotten up about the middle of the trees and it's beating down on us and is so bright you can barely see down the old logging road. My buddy's says bird down the road, and I make him out through the rays of light and he goes into full strut. My heart takes a gear and I say have to start telling myself to keep calm and don't rush anything and squeeze the trigger. He turns and comes on a line to us and as he goes into a small dip and behind the only sizable tree around I raise my gun and put my left hand over my red dot in hopes that he doesn't see any reflection off of the glass or my gun. He struts and drums up to 25yds and makes a small loop in front of us. I'm shaking so bad it's pitiful and trying to hold my breath because it was cold enough that you could see every breath. He drummed one good time and raised his head just a little (in the process of all this I move my had off of the red dot) and I hear "shoot him" and then all I see is a blast out of my barrel and buffer that looked like glitter all in the air. It was like I touched off a black powder shotgun and had to wait for the smoke to clear to see if I hit anything. When everything cleared I see my bird thought bright beams of light laying motionless at 25yds. It was just how I had envisioned my last hunt to be, it was perfect. I said a prayer and thanked God for all he has done for me and thanked my buddy for letting me pull the trigger. Truly appreciative of that. He said well I wasn't ready for my season to be over with yet. I ease out and grab him and said ohh dang he's a nice one. He then said dang maybe I should shot that one lol.
19lbs
10.5" beard
1 1/4 and 1 1/8" spurs
I brought my bird back and set him beside me and we hunted for a couple more hours only calling in 2 more hens. Hopefully he'll get one of the others tomorrow.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
