To my wife and all of the rest out there who it applies to!
Zone 4, 4th period report.
Due to having no way to get the kids off to school, the first 3 days of the season we were unable to hunt. Saturday morning we were only able to hunt 8:00, as my wife and kids were doing a 2 mile walk in the park to benefit Epilepsy, and I was doing a 5K race to benefit the Lutheran Social Serivces, both of which started at 10:00
I hadn’t had the chance to do any scouting since first season, and we were hunting public land, like always. I decided to head to an area that seems to hold birds more and more, as the season progresses. It is a good hike frmom the road, and the birds seem to get pushed in there, by those who hunt the road edges.
We had 3 birds gobbling off the roost, so we started to go towards the nearest, about 3/8 mile away. We had only covered about 200 yards, when a 4th gobbled, about 250 yards away. Change of plans! We headed back up the hill and towards him. One really nice thing, later in the season, the cover. I like to get close. Next time he gobbled he was about 75 yards. We instantly stopped, and I took a chance and set up the blind. My wife is very proficient with a bow, but the gun is not as familiar to her, so I thought the blind would allow her a little movement, etc. Within 5 minutes of getting the blind up, the Tom was gobbling, spitting, drumming, all only 15 yards away. I whispered multiple times to shoot, but she whispered back she was to shaky, and she couldn’t see him real well. There were a few black berry briars between us. He finally got a little nervous, and headed off. We headed towards where the other birds had been gobbling, just to get a look at the area for future reference. Then we were off to the races. End of day 1 for our two morning turkey hunt.
We headed back this morning to the same area, hoping that the Tom would again be in that general area. With it being mothers day, we would hunt until 10:00 at latest. Blind was set up before daylight, and then we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally about 20 minutes later than normal the first gobbles rang out. 2 down in the swamp again. Then “our” Tom from the day before, about 300 yards away. This was to far for these big woods birds, so I elected to move, and cut the distance in half, he was still in the tree, although it was broad daylight. We got to where I wanted to go, and stopped, after standing about 10 seconds, a bird busted out of the trees from right overhead. Couldn’t tell if it was a Tom or hen. There was no vocal noise, it just up and flew out. Only being about 100-150 yards from the Tom, I figured that would be trouble. We waited about 15 minutes and he never gobbled again. 2 birds down in the swamp were still gobbling. Then we heard him fly down. Being that he hadn’t gobbled in over 20 minutes, I knew if he came it would be silently. We waited and watched close for 20 minutes, nothing. The birds in the swamp were now getting farther away, and only one was gobbling. With circumstances the way they were, it was time to take a chance. I knew the close tom, could be working us silently, but we had to go after the vocal one. We close up the blind, threw the seats beside it, and took off. Runnin’ and Gunnin’, my kind of hunting. We beat feet about 250 yards, and tried to get a gobble, nothing. We went about 200 more yards, and got an answer, about 350 yards away. I decided to set there and play it our for a few minutes, as it was fairly open hardwoods. After about 5 minutes, I knew he was not moving towards us, so up and closer we went. When we were within about 250 yards he gobbled again. We had a ridge between us, so we went towards him, at a run. He was no over the ridge, about 125 yards from us. My wife sat in front of a huge Elm, I put the dekes behind her about 10 yards, and offset about 5 yards. I went behind the dekes about 15 yards. So the calls would be coming from about 25 yards behind the Benelli SBE. At the first call he lit up. Then he gobbled about twice a minute for the next 6-8 minutes. I could also hear him spit and drumming, no visual yet. He was just moving back and forth paralleling the ridge, strutting, just out of sight. He was hot, but holding his ground. It was time to play dirty 
. Out come the gobble shaker, and I gave it the wimpiest, baby sounding gobble I could muster, almost laughing to myself. Boy, did that light a fire. He was now gobbling, and moving towards the front of us at a slight angle. In about another 20 seconds, I could see a big light bulb coming through the woods. He was spitting, drumming, in strut doing his pretty little posture walk. He could see the hen and Jake decoys, and was about 40 yards from the gun. Inside of 60 yards he did everything but gobble. He spit, he drum, he full fanned, he fanned and walked in 1/2 circles. Now he is at 30 yards just putting on a show! Big rope beard hanging down, this time of year, there isn’t a better show on earth! Still fanning he closed the distance, now inside of 20 yards. 
BOOM, he hit the ground, and not a bit of movement. Winchester Supreme High Velocity #6’s, out of a Undertaker choked Benelli Super Black Eagle. Lights out at 15 yards. All this as the rain was coming down. What trip.
Stats are 21# 6 oz, 10.5″ beard, and 1 1/8″ spurs. What a great hunt.
