He's not a monster, but hey, it's a gobbler. Good 2 year old. It was a classic wham-bam hunt this morning. Heard him gobble yesterday evening a few times. I know the land well, and had a decent fix on his location. Snuck in before daylight and set up facing the ridge I thought him to be on. Nearly had a stroke when the first gobble nearly blew my hat off from straight behind me. Unbeknownst to me, and him as well, I had walked almost directly under his tree coming in; he was roughly 60-70 yards behind me. Guess that means my stealth game is strong
. Anyway, there were a few large pines in between me and him and he couldn't see the tree I was on. I eased around and faced him. He was gobbling hard, and hammered at the first tree yelp. After about ten minutes and three or four soft yelps, he pitched down to my hard left. I swung the gun on him as he was flying down, and he landed about 50 yards from me. Stayed silent and let him hunt for me. He stood in place strutting behind a tree for what seemed like 10 minutes, although it was probably only one or two. Finally he broke and eased toward me a few steps. At about 45 yards he gave me a clear shot, and dropped into a half strut with his head raised. There was no need to wait any longer, and I let the Beretta eat. He and I both learned that those Apex #9s hit like a freight train. Stoned him in his tracks, didn't even flop. He dropped so quickly I almost thought for a second I had missed. It was a very fun and blessed morning for sure. Even though it's just an average two year old, he was a ton of fun to hunt, he gobbled hard and put on a good show, and I had no qualms about dropping him. 9.5 inch beard, spurs just shy of an inch, and weighed 17lbs 6oz. Total score of 53.25. Pictures below for contest entry.
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