I had an encredible encounter earlier in the season with this guy but he was 10 steps out of my comfortable range. Watched him go to roost one evening and the following story is what happened the next morning after a sleepless night:
6:00 AM
me and my best friend arrive at the gate.
6:30 AM
we are set up on a knoll over looking the field that the birds have been roosting near.
6:48 AM
I do a fly down call and beat my hat on my chest. BAM! He gobbles from 125 yards away on the roost.
6:50 - 7:05 AM
they start the fly down. One by one pitching into the field.
No gobbler.............
7:06 AM
he appears in the wood line in full strut!
7:06 - 7:48 AM
He puts on a strutting/gobbling show for us!
Every time I yelped or cut he would hammer! I gobbled at him and he got mad. as soon as he saw my jake decoy that was positioned behind my willing hen decoy.
7:52 AM
He strutted into the decoys and gobbled at 15 steps. Then flogged the jake.
7:53 AM
He took a 3.5" #5 to the face at 15 steps.
My 2nd biggest bird of my life. My largest eastern bird of my life.
22# 1.5" spurs 11.5" beard
