Punched my turkey tag last night on a big ol gobbler. Got setup on the edge of a bean field about 4 in the afternoon, Had a hen come in a little after 5, I was not calling, just had the decoys out as it was pretty windy, she ended up coming to within 6ft of me, she putzed around for about an hour, I was just waiting for tommy boy to show his mug but that didnt happen. She left a little after 6 heading south, shortly after a hear a gobble to the north up on the ridge. There was atleast 2 gobblers up there the way they would answer me back. We talked back and forth for 30 minutes, I hee hawed around trying to decide if I should stay or head up the ridge to get a better location on them to hopefully setup for the next nights hunt. I got to the top of the ridge and the cornfield up on top, I could see them about 150 yds away and about 40 yds out from the edge of the woods. Once again I would call but they never would answer, just stand out there and strut, walk my way a little and then turn around. Same deal stood there and thought what should I do??? I decided to drop back down in the woods and put the sneak on them, I popped out a little far from where I would have liked to of. It ended up being 2 toms and about 8-10 hens out there, so no way on God’s green earth was I gonna get them gobblers away from that many ladies. Ended up taking a shot pushing the limit, I hit him and they all took off running including him, I followed in pursuit keeping my eyes on the tom as he’s running through the corn stubble, they all heading for the wood edge, he chose to try to go in where the bulldozer had pushed a bunch of box elders over and into the woods, he came running back out into the field heading away from me aiming slightly above his head and shot and dropped him about 25yds out. He weighed in at 25 3/4 lbs. 10″ beard, one spur at 1 1/4″ and the other at 5/8″. To date this is my biggest bird. It turned out to be a good idea to head up the ridge to see where the birds were versus sitting on the beanfield edge, as I was climbing up the ridge the farm hand came down with the tractor applying anhydrous, so that sit would have been shot anyway. All in all I am glad how it turned out. Good luck to all the other hunters out there during these up coming seasons.
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