circa 2014
Today I had to work from 4 to 10 and decided to drive by my farms I can hunt and see if I could spot birds in the fields. Birds were out everywhere just not where I could hunt them. Went to my final spot and right when I turned in I saw a flock of birds about 600 yards away. I knew I could cut the distance drastically and I did. The birds were in a hay field and from the looks of it I knew who the big boy was. I cut the distance to about 200 yards and had to belly crawl the next 60 to get to the edge of the field. At this point I'm soaked but was determined to get to the edge without spooking the birds. I managed to do so and now I'm about 150 yards away. look at my phone to check the time and it was 11:46. I had hr 15 to convince these birds two head my way.
Fifteen minutes have passed, and the birds have not moved. At that time, I see movement to my right and it's a hen leaving the field. I decided to start doing some light purrs and clucks and I got the hens in the field attention. The birds are now slowly moving my way. I put the binos to study the Toms and I noticed one is a Jake and the other is twice the size of the jake. The only bird that hangs out with the hens and for some reason a jake is Hooks.
Hooks has easily used up 4 lives so far. 3 years ago, I took a buddy out and we had him at 60 yards and didn't get a shot b/c there was 3 hens 10 feet from us. 3 hours later we had a 45-yard shot and Hooks got spooked by a train that flew by. The next day I hunted the other side of the farm and ended up shooting a nice bird, while taking in the moment hooks walks in front of me at about 40 yards and starts gobbling his head off and strutting with my bird laying 30 yards away from him... Fast forward to last season my buddy had a 50 50 chance on shooting him and he managed to shoot his buddy. The rest of the season he was on his own and eluded me. This year I've been seeing him on camera with 4 hens and a jake and now he is headed my way.
It is now 1245 and the birds are slowly cutting the distance. The Jake is at around 60 yards and the rest of the flock is at 80. I call a lil more and the jake starts heading my way and so do the hens with Hooks in tow. Its 1255 and now the jake is at 30 yards and the hens are getting closer. The clock is ticking, and they are not moving... I guessed the yardage to be around 50 yards and I decided to take the shot with my #6 heavy shot with a barrel that I just polished. Its 1259 and I do a couple clucks and Hooks extends his neck and Boom....... Hooks is flopping around in front of me!!!!
I paced it off and it turned out to be 68 steps...For me 22 steps are 20 Yards you do the math... good shot or luck, either or I have a dream bird on the ground.
21.5 lbs
11 3/4" beard
1 5/8" 1 3/4" spurs
"Mr Hooks"
Fyi I’m drenched in this pick
