Third hunt of the season was on Sunday May 4th- Got in the woods and set up on a main travel road around 530am-Heard nothing on the roost, and knew today was going to be more about sitting in silence, hoping to get where the gobblers wanted to be. I set up 4 times, walked around 3 miles and was on my way to the car. I decided to scout a ridge side for a bed, since I had not deer scouted this property since finding the beast so made the added detour on my way out. Sure enough I bumped a deer (hopefully a buck) and found a bed with some rubs nearby (thought the morning was a success), but had not heard a single bird on the property! It was around 1015 am and I decided to purr and soft cluck as I walked from the buck bed to a field edge to my final sit- the old logging road. My wife sent me a text that her grandfather had shot a jake that morning, as I sat facing East on the road entrance, which was on the top of a ridge (the fact I got my phone out tells you how confident I was in the last sit). I told her to send me a photo and slowly peaked over my right hand shoulder….O MY- directly behind me was an ol white head strutting around like a ballerina at 70 yards from me in the field to my back. I was totally out of position so I slipped on the ground when his tail faced me. He disappeared into a low spot on the field. I belly crawled from my set up (by set up I mean calls, gun, and phone, no dekes) about 20 yards, slowly peaked my head out in the field and saw him enter the woods I was in, with a hen in tow. I quickly crawled back to the road entrance and grabbed my slate call- made a few purrs and laid headfirst in the middle of the road (not sure where he was in the woods I wanted to stay low to the ground). No more than 30 seconds later I see the tip of his fan coming up the road. He had to have been hauling as he was trying to cut me off. I slowly watched him take step by step as more and more of his tail became visible up the road heading right for me! My heart started pounding. His head was behind some leaves, but I was just waiting for the opening. He shot his head up and I dropped him cold! It was a clean harvest and thanked the Lord for an exhausting but exhilarating hunt! I had always been told the early bird gets the worm, but after killing this gobbler at 1030am I may be doing a little more sleeping in next season
24 lbs (my biggest bird)
10 inch beard
7/8 spurs
