Found some more pictures from that day going thru old files. I'll never forget it and having experienced if you almost half way expect a response to your box call during the middle of the day when running and gunning. The 1st sit that morning was epic. There were 3 large roost on the Brazos river that morning. I remember dropping off the hill into the river bottom into the fog formed from a crisp cool TX morning. We sat up on the middle roost. I'd be lying if I even guessed how many birds were gobbling that morning. I do know they were answering every call we made, and I could tell by the sounds of the birds on the ground that all 3 roosts were about to converge on us at once, or so it sounded like. I was sitting front and center with my decoy on a fence that lined the edge of the road that paralleled the river. There were 3 senderos cut from the fence to the river. One running straight out to the river and 2 running at 45s from the fence to the river. I could see a strutter thru the fog in the sendero running straight out in front of me. The birds keep getting closer and closer until 4 longbeards popped up on a mound of dirt about 30 yards to my right. As soon as they saw the decoy, it was full strut and straight to it. I remember cutting to get them out of strut and thinking if I pull the trigger all 4 are going to die and my buddy behind me is going to be pissed. I found the bird on the far left and held my red dot to the left of him so hopefully my pattern didn't get the other birds. I don't think he even flopped. Birds went every where and my buddy behind me smoked one that made the mistake of stopping to take another look. I went to jump up and high 5 my friend and the guy that had access to the property, but the guy we were hunting with made the motion to set down and try to get another bird. It took maybe 5 to 10 minutes with both of us cutting and cackling on our mouth calls and box calls at the same time to get another stutter in. The picture of the birds on the wooden crate are of the 3 birds that morning.
I should mention here that this land was owned by a guy in Houston that started a valve company in the oil business. He was worth millions and could care less about the turkeys. In fact, he wanted them all killed since they ate all the protein and corn for the deer. I don't know how many years the birds had never been hunted on this place, but we got access because I knew the ranch managers son. The ranch manager told his son to bring some friends and go to killing as the owner wanted the turkeys gone. I didn't know this at the time we were hunting. I thought were were just going out to kill a bird or two. We were back at the truck taking pictures and cleans birds at the ranch house while my hunting buddy was jacking around with his calls and calls up another long beard to dang near 40 yards. He's foaming at the mouth trying to get me to let's go kill this bird. I'm trying to play it cool telling him I don't want us to wear out our welcome. Again, before I knew the land owner wanted us to fill all our tags. We decided to go into town to grab some breakfast. The entire way into town as we are following the guy that got us on the ranch my buddy is berating me about not setting up on that other bird and how he can't believe we are leaving this property. I tell him to chill out that again I don't want to wear our welcome out. Well, during breakfast is when the guy breaks it to us that the owner wants as many turkeys as we can kill shot and asks us if we think we would do any good if we went back out hunting. I thought my buddy was going to choke on his eggs he was so excited. Since we had the bird gobbling at the camp, we park about 100 yards from the area the bird was in, get out gear on, walk maybe 40 yards from the truck, hit the box call, and get an immediate answer. We killed the bird in less than 10 minutes. It went like that for the next hour or two until all 3 of us had filled all but 1 tag. We had birds hung up all over the property in mesquite trees or fences as we'd shoot one or two then go to another area. It was truely unreal and one of those days I'll never forget.
