Been a tough start to the Missouri season. Hunted public near home 5 of the first 9 days before I had to work at 11am with no success. Birds have been showing little interest to calls, and not gobbling much after fly down.
Left last night for my 5 day vacation to my favorite southern MO reservoir to hunt public corps land around the lake with a buddy. Didn't even check in to the resort or dock the boat last night, but instead parked and slept near the spot we wanted to hunt in the a.m.
Didn't hear a thing at dawn, so I decided to make a move around 9am.
Drove a few ridges over, hopped out, quietly sneaked inside the woods and hit the Crystal Mistress. Boom! Bird fired off down the ridge below me.
Moved in another 40 yrds and set up. A little soft talk and leaf rustling and he appeared a few minutes later to my left at 30 yrds. He saw me turn my head as he stepped into my peripheral and turned to leave. Made some quick cuts on the mouth call to stop him, a quick swing of the gun to the left followed by a snap shot and the TSS #9 dropped him. Really nice heavy bird. 10"beard. 1 3/8ths spurs.
First bird with my new 870 20ga, and I managed to find some morels on the way out. Not a bad start to the vacation!
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