Good morning in the rain

[Gopherlongbeards]

Well it had been a couple weeks since I've been out this fall so despite the wind and rain this morning I headed out anyways. I went to a property where I'd been seeing a trio of longbeards off and on since early October. I knew they typically fed in the back corner of a picked cornfield, and roosted on the adjoining hilltop. The rain had mostly quit by the time I got out there but the wind was still howling. After cutting across the disked up field I had an extra couple lbs of mud on each boot as well. there is a long wooded point that comes down off the hill and almost divides the field in too. I had usually seen them feeding on the south side of the point, and figured they must be roosting somewhere nearby, so I sat down at a tree overlooking the field corner I had seen them in. After sitting an hour after shooting time I hadn't seen or heard anything, so i decided to slip through the woods and check out the north side of the wood point, since it was protected from the south wind. After slowly moving and calling for a couple hundred yards I heard a single cluck below me on the edge of the field and woods. I eased up to a tree and sat listening for a few minutes. I heard some soft yelping and clucking and could make out the shapes of 3 turkeys moving along the field edge through gaps in the branches. It looked like they were going to work their way completely around the point towards the corner of the cornfield I usually saw them in. I cut back across the top of the point and eased down to the woods edge. I sat up against a tree 15 yards from the edge and waited. After a few minutes they rounded the point into view and began feeding out towards the center of the cornfield. I gave them a few gobbler yelps and some clucks and they turned and began working in my direction. They slowly worked towards me and I would give them a few clucks or yelps whenever they started to veer off course. They responded with some quiet yelping and clucking of their own. They passed in front of me and moved through an opening in the brush about 20 yards away. I clucked at them and all three stopped and looked around. At the shot the lead bird went down flopping, and the other two jumped a few yards and started walking around putting. One of them walked right up to the down bird and stood over him aggressively purring. A second shot and he was down next to his companion. At this point the third bird made a slow circle around the two down birds, clucking and yelping. He passed in front of me at 20 yards, but I only had two tags in my pocket and I probably would have let him walk anyways. 2 birds was plenty. I sat and watched him wander off yelping, clucking and gobbling suddenly all alone in the world. Both birds were almost identical. 11" beards and just over 1" spurs. Carrying 40+ lbs of turkey out over my shoulders made me reconsider if taking both was such a good idea...

[kygobbler]

Congrats on the longbeards.

Carrying 40+ lbs of turkey out over my shoulders made me reconsider if taking both was such a good idea...

Atleast you got your excersise in for the day.

[Steve_In]

That is a lot to carry across a muddy field. Way to go.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Super Congrats on your two longbeards Gopher, glad you had a great morning. Watching those old birds and listening to them taught you some important calling lessens on what calls to use on them in your next years seasons and in late spring seasons as birds start to gather back up.