Game over in PA

[Borden811]

Went back to the same farm today as last Saturday. Again, we were trying to get a bird for my brother's girlfriend. When we got there, we were suprised that there was noone else hunting there. So, we headed off for the far woodline. We didn't hear anything at first light, or for awhile after, so we decided to walk the perimeter of the farm, and see if we could get one fired up. We had almost exhausted our piece of property, but when we came upon the last field, we found 4 hens, a jake, and a longbeard in full strut. We snuck down along the field edge to within 100 yards of the birds, and got set up. I called, and he gobbled. After that, a hen or two started to call softly, so I called back to her. She stepped down into the woods about 5 yards from the field, and then went back up with the rest of the flock. He gobbled once more 20 minutes later, about 300 yards away from us. I assumed the hens took him away from the "competition". So, I had them move up against the field, and I was going to cirlce it and call aggressively once I got to the other side, hopefully pushing the birds back across the field to them. Once I got to where I wanted to be, I set up, and began calling. After 20 minutes of no turkeys showing, and no responses, we were ready to head elsewhere. When I got up to leave, I figured I'd walk up to the field edge, and see if I could tell where they had headed. I got to the edge, poked my head out, and there they were, about 100 yards away, heading away from me. The gobbler was in full strut, and the hens were feeding. I was trying to decide what to do, when one of the hens must have spotted me. She started clucking up a storm, and slowly walking my way. As slowly as I could, I knelt down, and then laid down flat on my stomach. I still had my diaphragm in my mouth, so I gave her a few clucks, and she went nuts. The whole flock was headed my way, and there I was, no facemask, no gloves, laying face down in the dirt. I slid the gun into as much of a ready position as I could get it(resting on the ground, and my collar bone) and waited to see what happened. The hens came straight for me, with the gobbler in tow, strutting the whole way. The hens got to what I though was in range(I could only see past the brim of my cap with my right eye) and started milling around. The gobbler strutted right up to them, and stuck his head up too see what all the fuss was about. At that point, I shifted the gun about 3 inches off the ground, lined up the bead, and slammed the trigger. I turns out he was only 25 yards away(it's hard to judge distance with only one eye, especially when your face is in the dirt) and he hit the ground like a ton of bricks. So, my season is over, as far as carrying a gun, and my brother's girlfriend swears she's never hunting turkeys with me again! He's got a beard just short of 10 inches, spurs just over an inch, and weighed in at 20 lbs even.

[M,Yingling]

Congrats on the bird ,,   

[trkycaller]

Congrats!!

[Hognutz]

Congrats on a nice gobbler. He is a beauty..Mike

[TRKYHTR]

Great looking turkey. Congrats,

TRKYHTR

[archery1]

 
congrats

[WiLL B]

Congrats! He is a pretty one!

[Snoody Bastid]

Nice bird. Great job.
Your a sniper school candidate for sure..

[njdevilsb]

Congrats on a good bird.

[JVA54]

     Congrats!!

[turkey slayer]

Great bird congrats!

[RutnNStrutn]

Congrats on your bird. Kill several birds that way myself. I love stalking them!!

[tjh24]

Awesome  PA bird!!

[cannonball]

Congrats!

[PANYHunter]

Congrats!!!  Too late to get the second tag.