I had decided to drive by a friend of a friends house. I had been wanting to ask his permission to hunt for the last couple years. As I drove up, the land owner was outside mowing. We spoke for a few minutes sharing stories about our mutual friend... when he said, "hey Tony treat my place as if it was your own, good luck and have fun. Time for me to get back mowing"
So I was excited to say the least. I parked the truck out of the way. Grabbed my gloves, face mask and the shotgun. I had a mouth call and thought I would scout around and see if I could locate a bird, or at least find some roosting areas to begin at.
I had not been gone from the truck 10 minutes when I thought I caught what I thought was a hen moving. I froze in my tracks. I eased the binos up and sure enough about 100 yards away she was going away from me. Not knowing if I had spooked her, or if she was with other birds, I started scanning and searching for a way to get a better view. She was entering into a thicket! I made it maybe 40 yards in her direction and stopped to scan again. I seen a gobbler being towed behind. I knew I couldnt do anything as far as a set up. So I purred a clucked a little, and seen the tops of two huge strut fans. WOW!! 3 gobblers I thought. I had their attention, and they wasnt going in the direction I seen her going. I was laying flat on the ground, knowing the shot had to happen directly in front of me. I did an aggressive jake yelp, and started a fighting purr. The first gobbler I seen was coming, and coming fast! The strutters were coming behind him, but I seen them stop and strut for a couple seconds, then catch up. When he got into range I shot him.
Here is where it got even more exciting! When I shot him, he fell forward, and his tail feathers came up like a strut. The back two gobblers hit him so hard and were wing flapping, and spurring so fast I couldnt believe it! Now the story isnt over there.... there was a fourth gobbler I didnt even see until this fight began. He ran up and I just lay there watching my gobbler the the devil beat out of him! When the one gobbler was on top, it looked as if he was taking his claws, jumping up and pulling the feathers from the dead gobbler.
I didnt want to spook the gobblers in hopes of coming back after another one, but I had to finally stand up and eject the spent shell and the other shell to scare them away.
I walked over and couldnt believe how torn up the gobbler was. He looked like a night of hard partying!
This ole guy was a blast to hunt. Short hunt, but a blast. This was #3 for me. He weighed 22LBS, 11.75" beard, 1" and 1.25" spurs!
Almost a FOOTLONG Gobbler #3
- backstraps
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Re: Almost a FOOTLONG Gobbler #3
Good job and nice bird.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Almost a FOOTLONG Gobbler #3
Wow! ZZ Top action. Congrats!
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