I've been killing quiet birds the past few years. As a matter of fact I think 6 of the last 7 longbeards I ended up killing may have only gobbled less than 10 times total. I was taking pride in killing those silent birds.
Today was an exception. LOL
I had ZERO time to scout this year so I just put faith in birds being where they historically have been.
I closed the truck door and slid a shell into the chamber in the dark and I heard them gobbling in a few different places.
The most fired up bird I heard was on a property about 600 yards away that I couldn't hunt on, so I went after a group of 3-4 that sounded like it had a throaty one in it.
I crept to within about 75 yards of the roost and listened to the show while waiting for them to fly down. They flew down alright......and headed the opposite way out the ridge. Typical.
They would courtesy gobble for me, but I couldn't move them from wherever they were headed. They ended up about 200 yards out and continued to gobble amongst themselves.
In the meantime, the bird that was 600 yards away was making progress in my direction and began closing the distance enough to get my attention turned towards him. I moved about 50 yards to cover a logging road leading in his direction.
Before I could get settled into a good tree he was getting uncomfortably close and ripping out throaty gobbles like a mad man.
He was just on the other side of a windrow about 50 yards away and moving to my left fast, so I gave him a couple of soft clucks.
He gobbled and drummed so hard in the timber that I could hear the vibration of his feathers.
He broke up over onto that logging road I wanted him on and came strutting right to the barrel at about 30 steps. He followed the scrip to a "T".
There was no time to glass him and study his spurs like I've been doing with field birds lately. He had a big ol' rope, a full fan, and a white noggin so I decided to let the 870 bark once again.
9.75" beard
15/16" spurs
18 pounds
And here's Jackson with "His" second longbeard. This kid is going to be a terror in the turkey woods. He can't stop talking about "Daddy's Gobble!"
Jack's bird from last year.
