Opening morning in jersey, had a spot in mind thats been pretty productive the first few weeks in the past but its rather prone to getting screwed up by other hunters. I laid an orange vest on the trail hoping other hunters would see it and not go in where I was, which seemed to have worked for me. First light I have 3 groups of gobbling birds, but nothing close. Theres one loud mouth hen near me, getting really aggressive and sounding phenomenal. She kept me from moving on the gobbling birds, but got her really worked up but she moved off. Before long had 2 birds answer me closer than any others had been. They gobbled decent, got them cranked and went quiet for a bit. Next time a yelped they hammered back right around the corner, 40 yards max from me. Few minutes later here come two birds in half strut, with little beards sticking out.. damn. I let them get to about 15 yards and they seemed intimated by the jake decoy i had out and slide off.
I decided it was time to head after one of those gobbling birds that had slowed down a bit. In my attempt to do so, I strike another pair on an aggressive cutting sequence. Got them fired up and before long I see a red head 40 yards away from me in the woods. I suspected these too were jakes, if not the same 2. A little scratching in the leaves brought them to about 25 yards, but I could never get a clear view of a beard. They slid off and I slipped out and kept looking for a gobbling tom.
Soon I strike up 2 more birds in a field. I'm in the woods with a thick tangle of autumn olive and multiflora between us, and coulding convince them to join me. I start to slip up to the edge, call from about 25 yards out to get a bearing on where they were and they hammer back right on the edge of the field. I drop down and can't see a thing, wait for 20 minutes watching 2 clearings I had and never saw a thing. They wernt quiet in that time and I suspected they were in the woods with me just watching me. Eventurally tI get them to gobble and their about a hundred yards out down the field a ways. I back out and I'm going to circle around to get in front of them. I call from deep in the woods in a nice pine clearing and they don't answer. I start to slip up to the edge to take a peak and I'm about 30 yards off of it when I catch movement through a deer trail as two gobblers cross the path just on the edge. I stop in my tracks and see as the lead bird perks up as if he heard my footsteps. I stayed standing up during this time and had rasied my gun up. The lead bird turns 90 degrees and takes the deer trail leading right to me with the 2nd bird right behind him. He breaks into a quick strut and I notice a full fan. I had to let them seperate a bit and at 17 yards he stopped to check things out... I shoot and he goes down.
So here is my monster double beard!
Not quite what you had in mind was it? He sure fooled me. That fan had 2 short feathers on each side and I missed it in his half strut. I really wasn't planning on shooting a jake and had passed up 2 pair already, but the double beard was a nice touch. Oops, but I'm not complaining. Still have plenty of tags.
Sorry no upgrade quite yet.
