Early Morning, Last Chance, Late Season Gobbler In WI

[longbeard95]

Well I have been chasing this bird for almost 2 weeks now. I have been hunting this bird religously every morning before school and he was alway either henned up, hung up, or just not interested...well not this morning.

Today was the last day of the WI turkey season and having to work after school was making this morning my last chance at this bird. Well I had a general idea where he was roosted this morning so I got out there at 4 to give me enough time to get setup in the dark and let things calm down a little before it go light out.

I had watched a tom go up to roost behind my house the night before and was debating which bird to go after...I chose to go after this one because he has basicaly been my season goal. I set up my full strut decoy along with a hen in the breeding position and settled in.Well 5 o'clock rolled around and every tom that I knew of within hearing range  had sounded off atleast once but not this one...I was pretty mad about my discission of going after this bird when all of a sudden a crow lets loose behind me and the tom hammered back. Some how I manged to get within 30 yards of this birds roost! When he gobbled I jumped so bad I thought it was over forsure. Well to my surprise he triple gobbled then flew down into the field and immediately sprinted to my full strut decoy. I had my gun rested on my knees so I quickly threw the gun up once his head went behind the tail fan of my srtuter. He hit my decoy then jumped back quickly. I have never had this happen to me and I took the shot and droped him at 10 yards. I guess I probobly missed out on a great show that he would have put on for me while beating up my decoy but I thought it was over when he jumped back so I took the shot.

This was only my 4th bird in the 2 years that I have been hunting turkeys and I owe a lot of thanks to all of you on this forum who are willing to give tips and advice on here about this sport...Thank You!!! Turkey hunting is truly an addicting sport and I just can not wait for next year!


He had a 10 and 3/4 inch beard and a 1 inch spur on one side and a 3/4 inch on the other.

[TRKYHTR]

Mighty fine gobbler right there. Congratulations young man.

TRKYHTR

[DeWayne Knight]

Congratulations to you!

[Hognutz]

Way to go, Longbeard.. Nice gobbler. Where do you hunt in Wi.?

[Rio Fan]

Nice bird, congrats! 

[Publicland]

Nice gobbler

[captin_hook]

Congrats

[Jacobson]

Congrats on a fine looking Bird.

[woodwzrd]

Nice bird congrats  

[tomstopper]

Very nice. Congrats..

[neal]

Awsome job! Pretty good having a struter decoy work out this late in the season! It was meant to be.

Congrats!!!

[Gut_Pile]

Congrats on a great bird

[Spring_Woods]

Congrats bet it felt good watching this one flop!

[wisconsinteacher]

Congrats.  Great season young man.

[ceejay]

Congrats ......  your dedication paid off nicely