It’s always nice when a plan comes together!

[Tom007]

This thread might have some longer posts, but I think we will hear some great stories. I have had a few plans that have come together, but one sticks out in my memory forever. I chased a real nice gobbler with a paint-brush beard for 3 years. Every time I had him coming, he would avoid getting shot at. He had a sixth sense. One time I really thought he was toast, he came in with 4 hens to my decoys. The hens walked right on by them feeding, but he stopped 60 or so yards away, looked seemingly counting the birds, turned and gobbled away. The hens eventually joined him. Finally, I got a break. I saw him fighting a younger Tom, who eventually ran him out across the street, where he roosted by himself. This happened a few times, so I narrowed where he roosted. On a Sunday, I scouted him, watched him fly down to a strut area, strut for a while, then attempted to join the harem he once ruled over. I decided on that Sunday afternoon to "rake"a path to a spot about 40 yards from his strut ridge. I planned on getting in there well before light on Monday Morning. There's no Turkey hunting on Sunday in NJ. It was a cool, crisp clear morning, I got to my tree undetected. At daybreak, "Yes", he was there gobbling. I actually could see him on the limb Strutting, he was about 125 yards away. I made a soft tree Yelp, scratched the leaves and shut-up. He triple gobbled. I watched him glide down in my direction, landing about 75 yards away. He fanned out, and proceeded towards is strut area. I shot him at 35 yards. He has 3 beards, 1 1/4 inch hooks. I got him mounted Strutting, the last image I remember. I'll never forget how that "plan finally came together"....

[Turkeybutt]

Great Story Tom. Sometimes a plan does come together if you work at it enough.
Patience and persistence kills birds!

[Tom007]

Great Story Tom. Sometimes a plan does come together if you work at it enough.
Patience and persistence kills birds!

Thx my friend....

[Greg Massey]

Everything you used has a story behind it now with great memories. Gun, calls and just plan out smarting him. Nice mounts ... Tom as you and i know it takes calls to kill gobblers ...

[Tom007]

Everything you used has a story behind it now with great memories. Gun, calls and just plan out smarting him. Nice mounts ...

Thanks Greg......

[sswv]

great story and beautiful birds

[richard black]

Great story, great plan, great bird. Let's throw woodsmanship and knowledge in there too. Nice.

[Old Timer]

Great plan and patience on your part. These are the hunts you remember. Reading what you wrote I felt I was there watching! Congrats!

[Tom007]

Great story, great plan, great bird. Let's throw woodsmanship and knowledge in there too. Nice.

Great plan and patience on your part. These are the hunts you remember. Reading what you wrote I felt I was there watching! Congrats!

great story and beautiful birds

I appreciate the kind comments, it really was a great memory that sticks in my mind....

[3bailey3]

Great story and mount.

[Brillo]

Your story and mounts are both instructive and inspiring. I have actually seen a couple birds as big as those up fairly close but unfortunately I was in my truck both times.  What impressed me then is how tall a mature turkey can get.

[Tom007]

Thanks for the kind feedback... My wife really thought I was crazy when I told her I raked the leaves on a path into my set-up spot. She started to doubt my sanity till I brought him home. She now realizes there is nothing wrong with me, it's just an obsessed passion, no different than collecting shoes....

[ScottTaulbee]

Not my biggest bird by any form of measurement, but right up there with the most I'm proud of. 2020, Covid year, they let us off work in the middle of march, with our full salary pay and we didn't return back until the first of June. To a turkey hunter, it was like being handed the keys to the pearly gates. I had every intention on hitting it big, and hunting every day regardless of if I was tagged out or not. When my tags came to an end my plan was to call them up and photograph them just to still be able to beat them in their game. Opening weekend rolled around with an explosion of folks in the woods, I mean from daylight til dark, 5 to 6 trucks in any parking lot on any piece of public land within an hour and a half of my house, and it never slacked up. I was fortunate enough to get my first bird of the year on the second day of season after the trucks that were at a parking lot had left for the morning and I rolled in at 9:45 am and had him flopping by 10:15. After that I hunted every day, leaving my house at 3:30 am and hunting until the last minute of shooting light at about 8:30pm. People galore and couldn't make anything happen, every time I'd work a bird guys would move in on me, or hens would. I hunted the next 10 days and never worked or heard a bird. With my now usual routine, I got up early, and got to where I wanted to go about 2 hours before daylight. About the time I went to get out of the truck to start my walk, the wind starting whipping and it started spitting rain. I knew that it blew my hunt where I was planning to be as it was all woods and I knew the birds would be in more open areas. I sat in the truck until it was getting gray light and was contemplating going home. I decided to go to another piece of public up the road about 10 miles that I knew had a bunch of fields but up to that point I had also counted 10 to 15 trucks at every day. I made my self a deal that if I got there and no one else was there, I'd hunt. If someone was, I was going home to make a plan for the afternoon. To my surprise, no one was there, so I loaded up and started the hike back in there. About the time I pulled in to the parking area the rain stopped just as fast as it had started. When I was about 150 yards from where I wanted to be, I saw a hen crossing this plowed dirt field going from the woods on the right of it to the woods on the left of it. Intuition told me to run at her, so I did and she took flight and went back where she came from. The wind was still whipping, probably 30 to 40 mph. I got to where I flushed the heb and cut on my mouth call. A gobbler in the woods that she was headed to cut me off, I snuck my way down in to the woods about 20 yards and started working him, it took me about 20 minutes to realize that he was on the other side of this horseshoe shaped ridge and was not coming down in that holler and up my side. So I back tracked to the start of the ridge and got on his side. I was easing along towards him and stopped at what I'd guess to be 100 yards from him and couldn't see him. He was in the woods and there was a thick, probably 20 yards wide, patch of briars that ran the outside of the woods. I fought my way through them as quietly as possible and when I reached the woods, they weren't much more open. This whole time the gobbler is gobbling his head off at everything. I kept coursing him and making my way, I knew I had to be getting close. It got to where I was crawling on all fours and came up to a small, probably 3" deep drainage off the side of the hill and had to crawl through it full of water, I could see a downed tree up ahead and right on the other side of it was a small knob and mature oak trees and I figured that's where he had to be. I crawled up to the tree and the way it was laying I couldn't go under it, and I couldn't go over it for fear of spooking the gobbler. It had a Y shape so I went though the open part of the Y and crawled on up to that knob. When I eased my head over, there he was, 30 yards away strutting. I knew it was now or never so I eased the gun to my shoulder, came up to my knees, and gave a cutt. His head darted up and I shot him. The time was now 8:45. I had first struck him at 6:45 and in that time he must have gobbled 300 times, at birds, himself, me, the wind. It was unbelievable.



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[Tom007]

Wow, great story. Your determination in those conditions was unreal. That sure was "A plan that came together". Thanks for sharing, great photo's sharing with family. Well done Scott.....

[ScottTaulbee]

Wow, great story. Your determination in those conditions was unreal. That sure was "A plan that came together". Thanks for sharing, great photo's sharing with family. Well done Scott.....

Thank you Tom. I've only had 2 turkeys mounted, the first was my biggest back when I was 16, the second was this one. Every time I look at him, the memories hit like it was yesterday.


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