2 Toms in 2 days on public

[JJWI]

Good job and good advise. What do you think happened to Mr. Tom in the road?

I would like to think that he would rather commit suicide than have me after him! But I think he just got caught crossing the road going in to another section of pines.

[JJWI]

The things that I noticed that helps you be successful in these later seasons is getting off the fields. With the green up of the foliage and the bugs coming out, these birds are more in the creek bottoms and woods than the fields. Plus they have had weeks were they have came in to a hen yelping on a field edge and gotten spooked or shot at. I don't use decoys at all, and I need to use terrain features to my benefit. Like setting up on a knoll, were the tom will be in range when he steps up to see the other side. Or setting up on the edge of mature hardwoods and tags brushy areas. The birds have to get closer to see in that brush to locate that hen. These are somethings that have worked for me over the years to tag a tom.

This for sure helped me on my tom, they came through a finger of brush that jutted out into a field and did not want to be out in the open. Congrats on getting it done!

Congrats on your bird, and I am glad some of my tactics could help out. But as in any type of hunting nothing is set in stone. My daughter and I hunting another public section on Sunday that we rabbit hunt a lot. We got on a bunch of toms in that section, but could never seal the deal. There were 2 very large and old toms in this section, one that had a very distinct head. His head was a dark red but he had a ivory white strip area that started from his eyes and went down the sides of his neck on both sides. He was quiet on Sunday when everything else was gobbling, and always looped out around 75 yards in the open and watched for the hens. He wouldn't move any were near an area he couldn't see well. I went out last night and located him. I set up and called to him. He looped out 200 yards in to a hay field and walked that edge 200 yards out watching for those hens. But would never come closer. I don't think decoys would of helped, cause I think the lack of movement would alert him. I told my wife I was done hunting, but not being able to get this bird off my mind is making me thinking another tag would be a good $10 investment