He's not an upgrade, but I'll take him after seven straight mornings of frustrating hunting...
The birds here in NY are extremely henned up right now, they gobble a little on the roost then shut up as soon as their feet touch the ground. I decided to hunt a gobbler that I'd seen for the past couple of mornings strutting out in a cornfield. He's had several hens with him so I decided that my best bet was to set my blind out where the birds have been hanging out and wait for them to show up. It was extremely foggy this morning when I arrived. I got set up and the gobbler I was after gave away his location at 5:15 right where I thought he'd be. He gobbled several more times and a hen started yelping about 50 yds from me. Her calling was driving him nuts. About 5:40 he sounded like he was on the ground...the next gobble was closer...the next was only 70 yds away. The hen flew down and everything went silent for the next 20 minutes until I could finally make out his outline in the fog about 100 yds above me in the field...
Decoys...
Gobbler and hen...
I made a few soft yelps on the Halloran Metal Mouth and he answered. It was a waiting game now...as the longbeard, his little buddy jake and three hens slowly worked my way. After another 20 minutes or so of intense waiting they finally made it in to 45 yds and I took my shot...
19.5 lbs, 8.5" beard and 7/8" spurs
When I got home I learned that my dad had also killed a nice bird, on his birthday to boot!!!
His was 22 lbs. 8.5" beard with both spurs broken...
