My buddy and I travelled to northern MO for a 3 day hunt two weeks ago. Just wanted to share the story of the afternoon I connected on my big tom.
My buddy and I had chased multiple birds gobbling the day prior but just were able to catch up to any of them but were able to learn the lay of the land a bit more because it was much different than what us flat land MS boys were used to.
The morning was rainy and nasty and we ended up napping in the truck until nearly 8am waiting on the front to pass. After the rain passed we got out and the woods were quiet as a mouse. About 10:30 the sun started to poke out a little from the clouds and it definitely helped boost our morale a little bit because it had just been a nasty morning.
About 11 a.m. we finally spotted a lone hen milling around in a big ag field and we stopped to watch her for a little while to see if any toms may be nearby but just weren't in sight. After 10 min. or so we decided to just yelp and do a few cuts just to see if we could get her stirred up and respond back to us. After my second sequence of yelps to her we had a gobbler absolutely hammer about 150 yard behind us in a small block of timber between the ag fields. My buddy and I dove into the nearest briar thicket out of pure shock! lol We sat there for 5 min. and called once or twice and the gobbler cut us off everytime but seemed like he was in the same place every time. At this time we were unsure if it was one or two toms because we couldn't tell if we had heard a double gobble or two seperate gobbles one time while sitting there.
I started to belly crawl towards the gobblers since it didn't seem like they were moving at all and the 1 p.m. cut off was only and hour away. I finally got as close as I could at the end of the ag field where the timber met. I sat and tried every calling sequence I could to get them to budge. Tried calling soft, calling aggressive then shutting up, etc. etc. but they wouldn't budge.
Finally I looked at my phone and it was 12:30, it was crunch time. Only 30 min. left of hunting time. I started to slooooowly belly craw across the end of the field towards the timber hoping I could hide behind some brush and get a visual on the gobblers. I got about 20 yards into the field and saw the gobblers in the timber 80 yards away. They spotted me as well and started walking away but didn't seem extremely spooked, they just knew what they saw laying in the field didn't look normal. So after they walked away I got up and noticed a small creek they was hanging them up. Bummer. They were so fired up and cutting me off at every call I just knew I had em in the bag!
I walked back to my hunting buddy and told him what happened and I decided we had 20 min. left so we should walk around 100 yards where there was a road in the direction they had walked. I took out a different call just to throw a few yelps out to see if they would respond or if they were gone for good. I hit a yelp and they immediately gobbled 100 yards away at the top of the hill. We were both shocked because we thought the hunt was over. We decided to call once more to check their location and they gobbled again but had cut the distance in half! They were coming fast! We both dove in the closest bush and here they came. They stopped just short of the brush clearing where we could both shoot but I had a visual through some small briars just 20 yards away. The leading gobbler stopped, started tucking his wings and started turning around. I drew and dropped him in his tracks after two shots! After working these birds for two hours we finally won the chess match!! One of the most memorable hunts I've ever had!
1 1/4" spurs, 10 1/2" beard and 25 lbs!
Just goes to show if you spook a bird the hunt isn't necessarily over if he's fired up enough!
Also wanted to share a pic of this awesome fan mount that was in our cabin at the outfitter!!
