Last year I took my daughter’s boyfriend Zak hunting and worked his tail off and was rewarded with a Jake. This year was a little easier hunt. Got set up this morning on some birds. Gobbling started around 5:40 and continued until about 6:15 when they decided to shut it down. We could not get anything to fire up. Pretty hard to hunt them when you don’t know where they are at. I am hunting on a buddies place and have never hunted it before, so it’s really tough because we don’t know where they hang out or where there strut zones were. We did find a lot of sign but no birds. At about 9:00 I decided to pull the plug and try a different location about a 1/2 mile up the road from where we were at. At about 9:20 we finally got one to answer the box call. Wind has picked up by now and I really can’t tell how far he is, but I know we have to make a made dash about 75 yards or so to close the distance on this Tom. We set up make a couple calls and he hits me every time but won’t come in. We are working a oak ridge and the leaves are pretty dry so we really can’t do alot of sneaking. I am not happy with the set up…too thick and need to crawl about another 20 – 25 yards so we can see the ridge top better. Get next to a nice big oak and set up. Waited a few minutes and hit the box call. He fires up again and he’s closing in on us, but it’s slow going. He’s within 50 yards or so, but we can not see him. Made some soft putts and purrs with the mouth call…nothing. Hit the box call softly and bingo! For some reason the box call was music to his ears. He is inside 40 yards and still can not see him. I can hear him drumming and walking and finally after 20 minutes he shows himself. Unfortunately for Zak, he can not see the show as he comes down the path right to us. Zak has a tree in his way. The bird is now within 25 yards and Zak takes aim and drops the hammer on him. Time to celebrate and thank the Lord for a great day and hunt. Bird came in at 20 1/4 lbs, 11 inch beard and 1 1/4 inch spurs. I was very surprised that he only weight just over 20 lbs with the size of his beard and spurs. Congrats Zak!
April 21, 2010 at 6:14 pm
#211117
And nice job Dan setting up on new property and getting it done. Especially on public hunting grounds. 
Congrats Zach on your tom! 
And kudos to you Dan for calling him in and remaining patient! 
I love those long hunts that end in a big way! 
