I shared with everyone the story of Isaac's missed Merriam's on the Colorado opener. I was a little concerned that he may have issues with the removal of the red dot to use the two beads God give us............well......actually Remington gave them to us, but I'm quite sure God wouldn't need the assistance of a red dot.....may not even need a shotgun.
Anyway.........enough of my babbling.
Isaac has redeemed himself and proved he can get it done with two beads. He pounded a strutting Eastern on Monday last week that had several hens that had got the better of us early Sunday morning. The ole boy flew down in a private field off of National Forest land to strut with his hens. What he didn't know is I have permission to hunt the field. We climbed the fence and I crawled out to take a peek over the hill where he had last gobbled. I almost boogered him at about 80 yards over the hill, but he was too busy strutting to spot me on all fours. We backed up and sat down with our backs to a tree near the fence and started a little soft calling. The tom never made a sound but after 20 minutes I spotted the top of his fan over the rise at no more than 40 yards. The bird strutted back and forth for 5 minutes or so and finally started easing up the hill. I could see his white and blue head before Isaac, but the tom couldn't resist trying to gather one more hen and strutted right to the top and stretched that big head out. Picture perfect shot at 33 yards, I barely got the words out.........."kill him", and Isaac ended the ole boy's morning. Between 4 and 6 hens took flight that were just over the hill, but the tom wasn't going anywhere.
To say I had an exited boy on my hands wouldn't do the event justice. The tom had double beards each at 9", 3/4" spurs, and weighed 22 lbs.
I usually pick birds up to prevent damage while flopping. This bird went wild while I held on a splattered blood all over Isaac's face. You couldn't have asked for a better sight than an 11 yr old smiling from ear to ear with fresh turkey blood splattered on him. A buddy of mine was sitting 10 feet from us and could have killed the bird before Isaac could even see it, but would not take it from him. He said it was the best hunt he'd been on. It ranks right up there with my all time favorite if not the all time favorite.
The bird looked as big as Isaac when he hefted him over his shoulder. He wanted to carry him, but that only lasted to the bottom of the hill.
Double beards for Isaac's second multi bearded Eastern. Last years bird had 3 beards. The smaller beard had two strands that went 9".
On our trip home we stopped for a short hunt in the Eastern Plains of CO with hopes of filling Isaac's limited tag with a nice Rio. We almost got it done in the rain 15 minutes after we started mid morning on the 25th, but it just didn't come together. Isaac was upset with the outcome, but we found more birds and made a plan to hunt them the next morning when the weather would be nicer. After setting up on a big flock of birds that had multiple long beards and more hens than I've ever heard yelping at one time, we had a tom break off and come through a thick mass of cat tails and Isaac pounded him at about 30 yards after swinging to his right when the tom started the I don't like what I see high step back the way he had came.
Again...........a rather exited boy.
And a dad that wasn't far behind.
This bird had a 7 1/4" beard, weighed 20 lbs, and had no spurs other than two tiny nubs that were barely visible. I question the weight because it was with my cheap scale that weighed another bird 2 lbs too heavy earlier in the week, so I'd guess closer to 18, but thats a guess.
The bird looks as big as Isaac again.
I've got additional photos of four more Easterns split between myself, a buddy, and my brother, but I'll save those photos and stories for a day that I have more time. To say it was a good week of hunting wouldn't do the week justice even with the horrible weather we had for the most part. I also had the pleasure of meeting Hookspur on our trip. I believe he'll have his usual round of photos and stories to share when he's done hunting.
