Tagged Out On My Birthday!!

[MAKEemQUIVER]

Just so happen I had a couple of dr appointments today and was off from work so I managed to hunt for a couple of hours. I had seen a couple of birds behind my house back in March but didnt think much of them with so few sightings. Last week though I was takeing my little girl to school and saw a gobbler out in a field by himself gobbling and strutting. The next evening I went back and located the bird in a field feeding, by himself again. Didnt get to try him this weekend for takeing a friend but was able to roost him on Sunday evening. The bird was in the same spot he was in a few days before so it was pretty easy to tell that he loved to hang out in that corner of the field.

Watched the bird fly up and knew the exact tree that he was in, with binoculars I found the spot I wanted to setup at and also picked out a plan B. Keep in mind that I am watching this bird from about 500 to 600 yards off and have never actually been over to that side of the property. I had no clue the "jungle" that surrounded the field that this bird lived in, it was awful. It is open hay fields surrounded by fence rows of hedge apple trees, honeysuckle, and briars. Trying to navigate my way through the mess in the dark got me about 20 minutes behind schedule and there was no way to make it to my first setup option, so plan B it was. Did not like the setup at all, I thought the grass would be fairly short but when I put my hen decoy out all I could see was the top of her head lol. The bird starts gobbling and sounds like he is forever away so I thought that he had moved trees on me. So I gather my decoy and go down to get closer and guess what he was right where he was supposed to be and he was watching me, luckily he was about 200 yards and didnt get to boogered. I couldnt hunt much longer so I went ahead and left.

Got back home at about 10:30 and had a couple of more hours to spare so I went back after him, but approached from a different side this time. As soon as I got to where I was going to try and locate the bird from he goobled on his own. I head over the hill toward him and cross one fence but there is still one fence between us, I know where there is an open gate in the fence that he crosses at but I cannot get to that spot. The bird hasnt gobbled in about 15 minutes so I slip in a mouth call and yelp and bam he gobbles back at a little over 100 yards. The fence row is about 40 yards in front of me and my plan is to get in the fence row so I can shoot into the other field, but before I can get there he gobbles on his own and has moved closer. I get setup about 6 yards from the fence with a huge honeysuckle bush in front of me and about a 8 foot section in the fence that I can see through. I cutt at the bird and he double gobbles at prolly 40 yards, so I shut up. Next thing I hear is drumming at about 20 yards but I cant see for this huge honeysuckle bush, he then gobbles 5 or 6 times on his own. Then I see something white moveing in the grass in the fence row and thought it was a butterfly until it raised up and it was a gobblers head at 6 steps, he walks through the gap and i get no shot, he moves back to the left and I yeelp as loud as I can and he hammers but doesnt raise his head, still no shot. He then gets behind the bush and goes to drumming again, i purr a couple of times and i can tell he has moved up the hill again so I click my safety of. Then a big black blob starts to emerge and this time I got his head up and then I laid him down for good. It was a great hunt and an even better birthday present. Had an 11 inch beard and 1 1/8" spurs. My quick thinking wife snapped a pic of me wakin back to the house with my present.

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[WillowRidgeCalls]

Can't get a better B-Day present then that. Congrats on the bird .

[Cut N Run]

Congratulations on tagging out with a nice gobbler. That's the way to do it!

Jim

[kygobbler]

Congrats on tagging out Quiver. I have to admitt this has been a better season than what I thought it would be for around here.

[msbadger]

Congrats! great bird and hunt...

[Wrangler95]

Very nice going,congrats!!

[Fan Club]

Big Fun!

Congrats.