circa 2012
This story happened on one of my favorite farms and of course I lost permission to hunt it. Had a great turkey season that year and actually tagged out pretty early in Wv with several birds still on the hit list.
I wasn't done hunting, that's what buddies are for. It feels pretty much like a kill only difference is you are not pulling the trigger but videoing the hunt.
Went to one of my honey holes with no luck the first hour. Sat on an edge of a field with a jake and hen calling every 15 minutes. It was about nine o'clock and we were starting to get antsy and were going to make a move. Troy steps out to grab the decoys when he looks to his lefts and puts his hands up in the air. Turned out we had a tom coming our way. He's pissed and I'm laughing. We pack up and head to another farm. And we are about to leave, and Troy catches a glimpse of a bird in in one of the fields. I check the bird out in my bino’s and say we can get him. We end up making a huge circle around the field and end and end up setting up about 150 yards from him. Watching the bird, we realize he was with a hen but that I was slowly headed our way strutting here and there. About half an hour passed and they're still coming them all of the sudden the tom starts bobbing its head and start hobbling closer to us right to a rock break. Turns out there were three bullies make that came into the field and the tom did not want anything to do with them. I realize that I've had an encounter with this bird. I thought it was a beat-up young bird because I saw him in the woods with thick under growth. Turn out to be a tom with a very long beard. So long it was flapping in the air when the wind blew.
I called a couple times, and he looked our way. Next thing you know he slowly started heading out way. It probably to a half n hour to move 75 yards but he did. We couldn't take it anymore and ended up shooting him at around 30 yards. Definitely was a great mid am hunt.
The bird turned out to be a giant and would easily make the top 5 in Wv with a beard that was twice the size of a average bird and 1.5 Spurs.
#ultimatecamon #treebark #treebarkcamo #bethetree
