2022 Strut Stopper Story Thread

[dzsmith]

4/21/22 Tennessee. This is the only bird I heard in the 2 days I was there. First morning , he was very far away but.... He was ready. I made it to him. Called , he was coming. Then he went silent ... which I would expect , but he was very close on the last gobble . Well... a few minutes later here comes a coyote . Turned out to be a female, can't tell by the pic , but a pregnant yote at that. Bird is long gone ... i kill the coyote which I typically won't do on an out of state trip. I make my own ammo, and I don't like wasting it . Never got on the bird again that morning , but I took the time to scout where he came from . A very nice long flat top ridge system. I went back later in the day with plans on attempting to roost him or at least hear him if he came back . And it started raining.... It quit raining right before dark and I didn't go quite all the way in there but close enough to hear him gobble .... Never heard a peep. One of those days you owl hoot so many times you have flock of owls trying to find you. It rains all night , and into the morning til right at first light..... I was running a little late , and didn't want to climb up to the ridge top until after fly down time . Well it's 630ish. An hour after first light , I've heard absolutely nothing . It's windy and wet. I climb the ridge , very carefully, and made my way to a pin I had dropped where I wanted to be from scouting the day before. This pin was my best guess as to where the bird may have came from the day before. I decided I was just gonna sit for a while , maybe call once .... Didn't have to ... because he gobbled right then, right from finger where I dropped my pin. So I cut about 1/2 the distance and sat on the flat ridge top ..... i call, he gobbles... multiple times . He's ready. He drops off the ridge and goes into the bottom. I know this from being able to hear him gobble , I can't actually see him. Well.... He stays in the bottom , and continues to gobble . I call one more time ... he gobbles and I can't tell if he's coming or going but I had a feeling if he came up there with me he would skirt me , and possibly be too far to shoot .... So , there was a dead tree about 25 yards in front of me , a good size one layed over , been there for years . The tree was right over the lip of the ridge maybe 5 yards on the down hill side . I knew there was a chance I could get busted , but I also knew if I could make it there and the bird was Going to pay me a visit I would be able to see him before he saw me considering the last place I called was 25 yards behind me . Anyway ... that's what I did . Crawled up there , kept my head around the root area for cover and layed my gun over the log..... he came by 2 minutes later . 23lbs   2 beards 8" and 5" , 1&1/8 spurs . Fine bird , and a cool story considering I killed the coyote that cost me this bird the day before .

[aclawrence]

Nice. That's a great story. I'm behind on posting my stories. Here we go.

April 14. My brother and I head to a public land spot and walk about a mile in down a gravel road and take a seat. We got there really early. It's daylight and we're still waiting around for a gobble and here comes another guy walking down the road. He was nice but he was talking really loud and obnoxiously. We talk and go separate ways. We cover some ground and finally here a bird later in the morning. We have to drop down into a bottom, cross a creek and get set up in a pine thicket. The bird gobbles a couple times less than 75 yds away but will not come in. He goes silent and disappears on us. We start walking again and we're calling as we go. We make a circle and end up back in the bottom but a good bit further up the drainage. We hit an old roadbed and decide to take a breather and shed some layers.  At this point in the day we have kind of checked out a little bit and we're talking and taking off layers and all that. At some point while we were doing this my brother grabbed his box call and went to town on it. Almost just in a goofing around kind of way. It's been about five or ten minutes and we stand back up and strap on our turkey vest. We might have taken one step and a gobbler fired off about 75 or 80 yards up the bottom from us. We sit right back down against a tree that was conveniently a big old tree plenty big for the two of us. About 1-2 minutes later he gobbled again and he is close. Finally he comes into view and I tell my brother to stop him. The gobbler stopped with his head right behind a skinny little tree but he finally stepped out and I shot him. We both couldn't believe what had happened. I knew we had been calling while we were moving and thought he must have heard us but considered it super lucky. It's also lucky he didn't come in while we were standing around talking. Thank goodness for that gobble. It wasn't until we were about halfway out of the woods that I remembered my brother messing around on that box. I realized we had actually called that gobbler in. He was up the drainage and heard that box and came right in to us. I shot him about 11:00. Don't give up guys. Our whole morning changed in a matter of minutes. We went back today and my brother killed a nice gobbler and I had one super close but could never seal the deal. I also missed one a couple days ago. I'll tell that story in another post.
My brothers turkey from today



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[dzsmith]

Great story ac. I'm in bama now . I need one to do that for me. Lots of nesting hens where I am... I hope they aren't done here , but I sure ain't hearing much for the amount of sign I've seen. And the couple I have heard aren't interested .

[aclawrence]

Great story ac. I'm in bama now . I need one to do that for me. Lots of nesting hens where I am... I hope they aren't done here , but I sure ain't hearing much for the amount of sign I've seen. And the couple I have heard aren't interested .

I went into a new spot yesterday and as it was getting daylight I started hearing drumming. He  gobbled probably 75yds from my tree. That was a nice surprise. He pitched down below me into a bottom and worked across onto another little finger ridge area. As soon as he hit the ground a hen started talking a lot so we started going back and forth. He was gobbling at everything but he walked right past the hen and went on his way and she came over to where I was. He never would break and come to my calls all morning. I tried him from a few different angles. I've seen lots of hens by themselves this year and gobblers by themselves or with other gobblers. I haven't seen a gobbler with hens yet. I don't know what is going on.


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[dzsmith]

Interesting !!!' Well I've seen some busted nests and and several sitting hens here. No hens together.... There's a ton of people hunting this place so I would like to think somebody is hearing birds. I've moved to a new area for now ... we will see how it goes. I did a mid day scout before the 1pm closure ... same thing , tons of sign... there is gobblers there . Will they talk. I guess we will see in a few hours .

[turkey harvester]

Great stories guys. Congrats on the birds.

[wvhoyt19]

It's been a crazy week in the woods. WV gobblers in my area have been pretty tight lipped. Our season came in on the 19th and my youngest son wanted to go on a trout fishing trip. We had a great time and I was itching to get back to WV and chase these gobblers. Sunday was my first day out and I located a string gobble on the roost. I got within a 100 yd but a hen drug him away. Monday was the same deal. Average gobbling from the roost then pretty tight lipped on the ground. Mid morning I hoped to the opposite ridge and struck a gobbler who decided to circle me and come from behind. He sounded off the dreaded alarm putt and it was game over. Tuesday was rain and then more rain. I struck 2 birds late morning but they were too far off property so I backed out. Tuesday evening I was able to roost 4 longbeards with a single hen. I got a game plan together and setup a blind at 10 pm. I got in super early this morning and set out a hen decoy. Day broke and they hammered on the limb. I gave them very little soft talk as I was 80 yd below them. They flew down and you guessed it...she drug them away. After about an hour, a lone gobbler showed up silently looking for love...his search was over!


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[wvhoyt19]

Oh and these are the 4 longbeards and lone hen that I roosted the night before. This was on my drive out of the farm...I know where I might want to setup next time


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[turkey harvester]

Congrats on a great bird. Mo is kicking my butt this year, again lol.

[wvhoyt19]

Congrats on a great bird. Mo is kicking my butt this year, again lol.

These WV birds are sure giving everyone fits. We had a good hatch last year and there are plenty of jakes. I believe that's why these longbeards are silent. They are tired of a bunch of teenage boys ganging up on them.


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[dzsmith]

Another fantastic gobbling bird In Missouri right off the roost. Nice little bit of healing after staying in Alabama for 5 days and never getting to really even work one. This is the end of my trip. Wife is having gallbladder surgery Friday morning.... Spring started out very tough in Mississippi, but I was able to have a pretty decent season overall.... Looks like I'll be repeating Alabama for yet a third time . None of these other birds were upgrades by  the way. The tenn bird would be if you were allowed to score both beards . Good luck with the rest of yals season.

[aclawrence]

Nice turkeys guys. Way to score out of state.


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[RossAnderson]

Congrats to everybody on the birds! I had something happen to me that ain't ever happened before. It's kind of embarrassing but funny at the same time and something I'll never forget. I'm sure y'all are gonna rag me up and down for telling this but that's alright, bring it on haha. Me and buddy hunted around the lake yesterday morning, out of all the spots we checked we only heard one bird gobble so we went after it. We parked the boat and heard him gobble again to our right. We started making our way around to the left side of the ridge to get up above him. We made it half way up the ridge and he gobbled right where we was wanting to be, on top. I didn't want to call being down below him, I've never had that work out for me in the past. We got to the top of the ridge and set up, made a few calls but nothing happened after that, waited around for 2 more hours there and nothin. We backed out, be back after him another day. Ole buddy had to head back home to get some sleep cause We'r both on night shift but it was my off night. So I headed over to another area where I knew there was birds at and set up. This was around 11:00 now. I called every 15-20 minuets real soft and scratched in the leaves. I had been sitting for about 30 minuets and the #2 pains hit me. Must of been all the coffee I've been drinking. Working 6 days a week 12 hours a day on night shift is starting to catch up with me. But just like any of y'all, a man's gotta get his hunting in somehow. But anyways, I couldn't hold it, I had to go. I found me a thick area, made sure to bring my gun just in case. Just had got done and heard what sounded like a herd of turkeys coming. I'm standing up at this point with my pants still at my ankles and the walking sound in the leaves is getting a lot closer. I tuck up closer to the tree and see a big white head coming in, then there's a another and another one. Ended up being 4 long beards and 2 hens at about 35 yards from me. I get the gun up and bead down on the lead bird and shoot. He falls and the rest take off. I set the gun down, pull my pants back up, and go get him. Needless to say, I got caught with my pants down. I throw him over my shoulder headed back to get my gun and vest. Laughing the whole way, for I've never shot one half naked before. What a time. He Isn't a upgrade but I'm blessed to have him.




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[Tom007]

Wow, great story. You really got caught with your pants down! Congrats on a great bird.......

[turkey harvester]

Great job. Cant rag on ya if your carrying a bird out. Awesome job DZ, you've certainly found some birds.