This morning we got up extra early(3:30am) so we could get in under some roosted birds. I knew we were safe when later that morning,as the sun started to come up, the gobblers started sounding off hard. At flydown time 3 gobblers and a jake flew in with 5 hens. The hens were feeding and one gobbler strutted for the whole bunch about 300 yds away. This henned up old boy wouldn't even answer a single call, but I had an ace up my sleeve. For the past few seasons I have been setting a full strut jake decoy with a couple hens. For the record, until this year I have been very tempted to shoot my decoy, because it has caused a lot of gobblers to not come in. However, I have found that when there are multiple hened up gobblers nothing seems to work better. Well, about thirty minuites went by and the hens and 1 gobbler and the jake fed way off into the cornfield, but the strutter and his sidekick seemed to stay near the edge of the grass feeding and strutting towards our setup. Finally the bigboy had had enough of the strutting jake and let out a booming gobble directly at us. I told my wife that he was mad now. A few yelps and 1 or 2 cuts with the mouthcall was all that he needed to hear. Here they came right at us in a real mean walk. My wife already had her gun up and on the rest(primos trigger stick is worth every penny),but we still could not move an inch. By the time she could move to get down on the gun the strutter had already flogged my jake decoy and knocked it off the stake. There they were at 20 yds and BOOM. First shot was a miss, but they stayed around. After some short-stroke ejection issues the chamber was hot again and BOOM. Poor girl missed again. She was sick and teared up a little. Ok you got me, she full-on cried. This is her first year of ever hunting anything and the nerves are killing her. First day 3 strutters come right in wing to wing and that really got to her at 15 yds. Then today the decoy gets mauled at 20 yds(it was loud as heck when that gobbler hit it) I think that shook her up good. All in all, what a great first week we have had. When she seals the deal this year will go down as probably the best ever.
