Saturday was my opener and I had scouted this area a couple of times and knew there were several good birds in it. I get in there early and sit at a tree 1 1/2 hours before gobble time. Its very thick in thee woods and there is a small trail, so thats where I sat. Its still dark out and a whip por will stats out and before it gets to its second series a gobbl cuts it off. About 20 minutes later the whip por will starts again and again it gets cut off. These birds are about 100 yards behind me, so I get up and move back down the trail towards them seting up aout 80 yards away. I listen to them gobble all morning until they fly down and the first time they gobble I cut on top of their gobble and they gobble on top of my cut and I cut on top of their gobble and they again gobble on top of my cut. I shut up and get the gun ready and within 5 minutes I see two big red heads bobbing through the woods. I could tell they were strutting but it was so thick I coudnt see them very well. At the first opening I lay down the hammer. As Im running up to my bird I think, hey, that beard looks a little small...and sure enough it was small, but the bird was not. 5.5 beard, .5 spurs and 19 lbs 8 oz. This bird had me toally fooled, both gobblers that morning sounded like mature birds lol. Nice to be on the board though. Will post pics as soon as photobucket decides to work for me. TOD was exactly 5 minutes into shooting time. Which is amusing because my last bird last year was shot at 11:59 with a 12 oclock quitting time lol.
