On Saturday I was able to get out in the woods for the first time all spring. I was the guide/chauffeur on this hunt. One of my dad’s longtime friends from baseball came out to get after some birds and I was able to go with him and help show him around to different spots. That Friday night we were able to drive around for an hour and check out the different spots and see what was around for birds in the area. Each spot we checked had enough birds to be able to hunt the next day and one spot in particular we knew would be dynamite. For the last week there had been the same six toms frequenting the same field and that afternoon was no different. The plan was to hunt a couple different spots in the morning and then if we didn’t have a bird by then slip into the field that the toms have been hitting for the last week.
Saturday morning we were set up around 5:20 and had a few different gobblers sounding off about 200 yards away. These birds quit gobbling as soon as they hit the ground, we never did see them. We were off to make another set in no time. On this set we were able to cut off a tom on the opposite side of the field from where we originally saw him on the road. We were able to get within 40 yards of the bird but there was no opening for a shot.
Fast forward to the afternoon hunt. We were able to get out in the field very early, about 2:30, just to make sure we were ready when the birds hit the field. Knowing these birds were hitting this field we only set up a Dave Smith hen decoy just to draw them into our part of the field. At about 3:45 the 6 birds came walking into the field and it looked like an army walking across there in a perfect line. They were taking there time eating some oats as they moseyed there way in our direction, but once they saw the decoy all 6 birds knew exactly where they wanted to go. It only took about a minute for the birds to close the 150 yard gap between us. All 6 birds eventually got within range and he was able to take down one of the toms at about 25 yards. The bird ended up around 22 pounds with a 7 inch beard, much of the beard had broken off from the tough winter I’m assuming. The best part of the hunt was that I was able to get it all on video, all of it except the actual kill shot. I didn’t have a tripod so when he shot I was caught a little off guard.
All in all it was an amazing hunt and I don’t think the script could have been written any better.
