What a difference a week makes, down in MO. A week ago, the birds were closing in on the calls so fast, we hardly had time to setup before they showed up. This weekend, I couldn’t get the birds to budge an inch and we never heard a gobble after 8 am. Saturday morning, I was on our new lease and got lost in the dark so I was late getting to were I needed to be. So I crepped in on an already gobbling bird in the roost. I’m guessing around 200 yards. I couldn’t see him in the tree but could tell within 2 trees which one he was in. After getting settled in and letting him gobble for a bit, I gave some soft tree yelps just to let him know I was there. He then turned in the tree and gobbled right at me. I shut up for a while as it continued to get lighter and I immediated new my setup wasn’t going to work, I was dealling with a drainage ditch and a fence that I didn’t know was there. As the bird continued to gobble, I was pretty sure he had spent the night alone and started to think maybe this would work. Some more soft yelps and I see the bird pitch down in my direction. Hoping he dumps down the ditch and pops up right in front of me but that was wishful thinking and I can tell he turned the other way and started to gobble off. I let him walk off and he started gobbling hard in one spot for a period of time, so I went down into the ditch and cut the distance. Setup again and threw some calls at him. Once again, he wasn’t budging. So I calmed it down as if I were walking off. He continued to gobble in his “happy place”. I slid back down into the ditch and cut the distance again. That ended up being the right move as I must of gotten inside his comfort zone and he came right in, done deal. 20 lbs. 10 inch beard and 7/8 spurs.
I always look back after a successful harvest and question what I did right/wrong in the situation. Kept thinking, this was a 2 year old bird that spent the night alone, why didn’t he pitch down and run right into the end of my gun barrel? Gotta think it was my initial setup, but then I look back at the previous week when a buddy and I were hunting together, we had a bird gobble, we crossed a ditch(thinking no way he’d cross it) and barely made it to the edge of the timber on the other side and the bird showed up 30 yards away, coming so hard you’d think he would’ve crossed a lake if it were in the way. That bird is still alive because for some reason my buddy’s shot didn’t reach its target??? lol. These birds do some crazy things, I guess that’s why they are so fun to hunt.
Sunday I was back at it, 2 bird tag in MO. I found another gobbling bird in the same area as the previous day. I made it just beyond where I had killed the previous day. This bird was gobbling his head off in a green pasture, but once again. I had a small wooded ditch/finger that seperated me and the bird. He’d strut up and down the hill side never getting any closer or further away from me and when I’d stop making any calls, he’d come out of strut and continue feeding in the pasture, like he had no care in the world. Once again, this was a bird by itself(which I normally salivate over). I was at my land limit to where I couldn’t make another move on him. So I watched him walk away. Nice weekend though. Mushrooms are just starting to pop down there.
Great job setting up on him again and again until he committed! 
BTW you are one ugly mother 
I think he’s got Mange 
