Well, my wife and I hit the turkey woods once again this morning looking for a lonely gobbler. Our last hunt together was back on the 12th and we were fortunate enough to bring a fine longbeard home with us that morning. The first farm that we checked out was a dud so we decided to head back to the house and crawl back in to bed for a few hours. On the way, I wanted to check out a spot that I though might be holding a bird. I got out of the truck and tooted on the crow call and sure enough...a gobble thundered back from the lower corner of the woodlot. We got back in the truck and circled to the bottom of the field to make a move on him. On the way we saw spotted him with three hens picking along the powerline running through the field. Game on!!! We quickly grabbed our gear and snuck up into the hedgerow that runs through the alfalfa. It wasn't a great setup but there wasn't much that we could do about it. I made a few soft calls on the crystal and he answered back. I started cutting and he hammered back but the two hens that were with him hauled tail back towards the woods leaving Mr. Longbeard and his little buddy jake out in the field waiting on the new girl to come up to them. He was very interested but wouldn't come down to investigate. Eventually, they got bored and headed back up over the knoll and we backed out to make a move on them. The crows were going crazy which kept the gobbler fired up. We managed to get around them and I told Erin to crawl out to the field edge while I stayed back and called. Meanwhile, the two hens that were out there earlier started clucking in the woods to our right. I started clucking on my crystal and a gobble erupted back within shooting range but just out of sight over the hill. Suddenly, a red head popped up over the knoll and I saw her get into position to shoot. I knew what was about to happen...she was too far away for me to whisper to to tell her that was the jake and not the tom so I was just going to have to let it play out. A few seconds later the shotgun barked...the jake hit the ground and the longbeard flew off into the woods to live another day. She thought she had killed the tom until I went running up to her. Oh well, it was a fun hunt, especially for late season.
