Tagged out in Tennessee

[cannonball]

Today was the third day of turkey season here in Tennessee and my second hunt. I had harvested a new personal best on opening day which left me one tag to fill. The forecast today was sunny with 18 mph winds with gusts up to 30 mph. I decided the best strategy would be to hunt a field since I knew they would go there to help them spot predators, much easier than in the woods with everything moving from the wind. I was also knocked silly a few years ago while deer hunting when it was windy and had a large branch fall and hit me in the head. That gave me a new perspective on being in the woods in high winds and I felt the field was an overall better option. I set up in a blind at the top of the field and put a couple  decoys out. I waited until what I felt was about fly down time and made a few calls with my Crystal Mistress since it was the loudest call I brought and the wind was making some noise. I did this a few times every 10 minutes or so with no response. I then decided to try my Brian Mero trumpet and after a few clucks got a gobble immediately. A few minutes later he gobbled again this time much closer. I cut him off with some excited clucks and yelps and he responded back with three gobbles in a row. About a minute later he gobbled again and seemed to be almost on top of me. I wanted to make sure would see the decoys so I hit him again with some excited cutting. He responded back and then behind him I hear more gobbles and it sounded like 2 or more birds. Just then I see him strutting out of the woods and into the field I'm in. I size him up, full fan with red white and blue head and appears to be at least a 2 year old bird. I start looking for his beard and didn't see it. I assumed it was because he was in full strut and about 50 yards off. He gets closer and I'm still looking for his beard. He gets to about 20 yards away and finally breaks strut. I'm trying to see his beard but there's nothing there. Tennessee legal harvest is one bearded turkey a day and this joker must have shaved before season started. So I proceeded to watch him beat the snot out of my Avian X jake and then breed my lay down hen about 4 times. About that time I noticed a couple more strutters coming out of the woods and I can clearly see beards hanging down on both. The two run in start beating on the decoy and the lone gobbler backs away. It took me a couple minutes to get a clear shot at one of them since I didn't want to injure the other bird. They finally got about 5 yards apart and my 20 gauge roared for a second time in three days. The one gobbler dropped and his buddy proceeded to flog and roll him quite a way down the field. He then jumped back on my jake and didn't seem bothered by the sound of the shotgun. I had to come out of my blind to run him off and collect my turkey. I couldn't really see how far down my bird had went but it had to be a good 20 yards. All the commotion had caught the attention of my Uncle's cattle and there were about 8 of them standing around my gobbler when I went to retrieve it. All of them but one backed away as I got closer to my turkey. I could see it was a rather large steer and we was literally 2 feet behind my bird. I spoke to him as I got closer hoping to run him off or make friends. He didn't budge but I wasn't going to let him intimidate me and kept moving forward. I got up to my bird and picked it up and the steer inched a little closer. He was within arms reach so I rubbed him on the head and told him he was a good boy, turned around and went back to my blind to get my other stuff. I walked back down to my vehicle and my Uncle had heard me shoot and was waiting outside on me. I told him about the cows circling my turkey and that I picked him up and petted his steer that didn't run off like the others. My Uncle looked at me and said I don't have a steer. I told him it was definitely a male and he asked me to point him out. I pointed at the one I had rubbed on the head, he stood out since he was the largest one. My Uncle said that's my 3 year old bull you just petted and I can't believe he let you do that. He doesn't like anyone including me. His exact words were you were lucky he didn't come after you. His bull is a Black Angus and somehow I didn't notice he was intact and definitely not a steer. Maybe it was better that I didn't notice and he sensed I wasn't afraid of him. He probably thought I was crazy, stupid, or one bad dude he didn't want to mess with or possibly all three. Well he was wrong, I'm just lucky.

[zelmo1]

Nice job bro. You don't fool around ?. Z

[FullChoke]

Nice bird and a great story. Are you gonna be a guide for the rest of your season, or are you going fishing?

Cheers 

FC

[BBR12]

Congrats on a great TN season.

[cannonball]

Nice bird and a great story. Are you gonna be a guide for the rest of your season, or are you going fishing?

Cheers 

FC

Looks like I will be guiding. My Uncle's grandson just turned 16 and wants me to take him. He's a good kid and I want to put him on a bird. He will be using my Tristar Viper G2 Turkey 20 gauge. 

[afhunter1]

Congratulations that's a nice bird.


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