He gone

[roberthyman14]

Finally got on a bird. This season has been a swift kick in the nuts so far. Haven't been able to get on a workable bird until this morning. Heard 5 or 6 different birds. They started gobbling about 6:15. They only hit 2x max except 1 bird a good bit away and wasn't gonna chase him. I strike a trot to the closets bird, of course he only gobbled once. I got sat down and yelped a few times. Nothing, so I sit tight and pull out the scratch box, nice easy purrs and feeding yelps every few minutes. Finally bout 7:20 or so he hammers. They kept hammering, put my old crow mouth call back in and let it rip. He gobbled a few more times then went silent. 10 minutes or so goes by and I see and hear nothing. I cackled hard loud and long with some yelps in it. He triple gobbled and I then knew where he was. I went silent and so did he. 15 minutes and nothing until I put the binos up and see him strutting at 90 yards, as I watched him I see a few hens and another gobbler. I gently yelped and scratched leaves and purred. The hens decided to feed right towards me dragging him along. Finally got close as I felt confident to kill and figured the hens where gonna catch me. 46 yards from old crow handloads and he started flopping. Ran up to him and scattered another gobbler and about 8 to 10 hens. Some where closer then i had seen.
Went 10 1/2" beard. Spurs 7/8" and weighted 13lbs 9oz. Blackwater birds are tough. Heard a ton of road callers all morning. Love hearing the bird gobble after the truck begins driving off. Old crow calls does it again.  Thanks Val

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[roberthyman14]

2

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[roberthyman14]

3

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[roberthyman14]

4
Hes sleeping

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[Gooserbat]

Looks like he's taking a good nap.

[dzsmith]

gotta love killing a bird when everybody else leaves. well done

[Greg Massey]

Nice bird, congrats ...

[tomstopper]

Nice. Congrats

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[Yoteduster]

Congrats on a nice bird

[JeffC]

Congrats,  great read

[zelmo1]

Nice bird and a great story.