Let it green up

The beginning of the season up north looks like winter in the Woods making it a challenge to chase birds with it wide open. I had some history with a bird and cannot make it happen because the woods Word to wide open to make moves on him.

Finally, the wood started green up and decided to make my move. I’ve already hunted two days are in a row and with late game softball and the kids I started getting run down. Thought I set the alarm but woke up at 5 AM… When I was supposed to be up at three… I didn’t panic just because the place was close by and I had everything ready to go. Got dressed poured some coffee and headed out. For some reason, I wasn’t anxious because I knew I still had a chance. The only thing I was hoping that there was nobody at the parking lot where i wanted to go.

I arrive at the park lot on a Saturday to my surprise there was nobody there. Get my UltimateCamo on and start figuring out where I want to go. The next thing you know I hear a faint gobble pinpoint it. The bird is actually the bird I am after but he’s on the side of the mountain that’s private. Mark him on my onX and did my 2 mile walk around the public piece to where the bird was gobbling. 

I get there about an hour later and of course he shut up, but I knew he was there somewhere close. Get out my wing bone call and throw out a couple cuts and he gobbles unfortunately he was all the way down in the valley on the private side at about 800 feet, I’m at 1300 feet. I messed with him for about a half an hour with him constantly responding to me just wouldn’t move. 

It’s about eight right now and I have a Jake and I hen that start getting into the conversations. The hen starts responding to me and the Tom starts heading her way. I thought I needed to make a move and get onto her level which was about 1000 feet and the far corner of the public piece was about the same.

I get to a nice little flat and see some scratching there and take a seat. Grab my bag of Lucky charms and start munching. It’s about 15 minutes later and I decide to bring two girls into the equation and a drunk Jake. I got the two girls to start bickering and fighting. The Tom Gobbles Right where I started… Lucky for me it was a easy Sneak to cut the distance in half. This time the Tom is gobbling and the hen that he picked up was with him and they were both looking for my group of birds.

At this time, they are at about 1300 feet and I get to about 1250 on a nice bench rate below them. The Tom is under 100 yards and I can hear him spitting and drumming. I make one call with my mouth call and he Gobbles with the hen responding right behind him. I shut up hoping that he heads my way. At this time, I’m facing uphill and the only way I’m going to be able to shoot him is if the tom pops his head over the side of the bench that he’s on. His spitting and drumming is getting more intense and the hen is also getting closer. At this time, he’s under 30 yards and I cannot see him but I know that he’s at my 11 o’clock with my barrel pointing at 12 up the hill. The next thing you know at the corner of My eyes I see a head extend up at about 1 o’clock. He extends over the hill and realizes nothings there and slowly goes back. I slide my gun, over take my time and put my bead on his head and pull the trigger.

Smacked him in the head at about 15 yards!

The Tom turned out to be a true monarch Weighing over 23 pounds 1.25” worn down spurs. This guy probably ran a roost here for several years. Thanks to a hen, he went for a #turkeytoteride with me. 

Fooled me once

Fool me once

This past Thursday I the green light to go chase some turkeys. I started of the morning going after a bird I had some history with. It started off like I was in a perfect scenario and knew I had a chance. The bird was gobbling good on the roost and then all of the sudden he just shut up…  He ended up flying all the way down to the neighboring field and never said a peep the rest of the time I was there. My only guess is that there were other hunters trying cross the hollar and the turkey busted them being that it was still wide open.

I decided to go prospecting and went to a new piece of public (for me) only drive by a tom right on the side of the road with a hen right next to the public piece. Drove up about 150 yards and parked took my time and started looking for a spot to work this bird. I messed with him for about an hour and he didn’t budge. The bird ended up spooking thank to a guy that parked fifty yards closer whaling on a box call and mouth call. The guy ended walking by me, and I gave him my two cents. He was apologetic just couldn’t understand how he did not see my vehicle… The morning was done, and I went home and worked.

With another green light to hunt I went tom the same place with the intentions to have another encounter with the tom that was living on the edge. Went to a high spot to listen only to hear a bird gobble all the way on the other side of the hollar. I had a decision to make go after a bird that is deep on public or try after a bird that had a pretty private field to hang out all morning.

Well, I went to go see if grass was greener on the other side. After crossing 3 creeks, two finger ridges, two thick mountain laurel thickets, and finish walking straight up the last 500 yards. Only to get to where I had the bird marked and not hear a peep…  I sat there for 30 minutes and didn’t hear a think... I decided to go mess with the other bird and headed back only this time I tracked my way back an easier route.

I got back to my vehicle and struck the bird on my first owl hoot. He was on a food plot on the neighboring property. I messed with him for an hour, and he knew where he was safe and didn’t budge. I decided to go prospecting and found out where the bird went that I heard in the am. I drove around to the other side and walked in about 2 miles looking for any turkey sign. I found potential spots and things started to look more turkey the closer I got to where I had pinned the bird on the roost. I get to a high point and throw out a couple cuts with my slate call only to have a chicken on the neighboring property respond and then another and then I heard what I was looking for. It was a gobble!! And he was under 200 yards!!

He was less then 200 yards from where I had him marked from him gobbling on the roost. He couldn’t hear me because he was on the other side of the mountain slope. I sneak down to a big, wooded bottom and set up on the backside of little finger ridge. A called with my slate again and he ate it up called with my wing bone and he ate it up. It sounded like more than 1 tom, and they were right on the border on private. Messed with them for about 10 minutes and they didn’t budge with them slowly drifting away from me.

I knew I had to make a move and the boundary lines were working for my side. I circled around to get Infront of them and ended up getting in their bubble under 60 yards, about 40 yards on private. This time I call and scratch in the leave and they eat it up again and finally I see bits and pieces of them. I have my back to the boundaries line facing my gun barrel at 2 if my back is 6. To my left is a steep bluff and I knew my only chance is to call them back to my right. At this point I’m 20 yards off the line and the birds are in shooting range but are on private. I do some light purrs and some leave scratching and here they come. I envisioned me getting a double with my single shot for a second until reality kicked in…

My back is to the tree facing public with my gun pointed at 2 with the birds to my right on the other side of the tree at my six.. they wouldn’t budge.. they were less then 20 yards spitting and drumming looking for the hen that they can’t see. I slowly look to my left and see the boundary mark and knew that they were on public and got into F-it mode. Its either I make a move or they were headed back to the private piece. I move my gun to my left and got away with it. I slowly spin around and I hear a put. Whip the gun around the tree and pull the trigger and the middle of three birds white heads that’s at 8 yards. He drops and I scramble to get another shell only to notice that the other two birds had 6-inch beards… yep… I got fooled… These guys sounded better then some of the toms I’ve shot. Either or, it was a fun hunt and don’t regret pulling the trigger. I have two aggressive toms to mess with next year.

A Monarch in "the Turkey woods"

It was a beautiful morning out in the "turkey woods" today. There was a lot of bird activity early, but not where I was sitting. At about 10:00 I watched two big birds walk away across a small swampy area about 500 yards away. They ended up on a narrow grass strip between the swamp and some large spruce trees. After they were out of sight I picked up and went over to the swamp edge. I found a big tree about 30 yards into a woods that borders the swamp and a trail that followed a fence line.

Shortly after I set up the two toms started gobbling quite often. They were working their strut zone along the narrow grass strip. They were totally out of sight because of some thick willow brush. A hen came by me at about 15 yards and it sounded like the gobbling was getting closer. At one point I caught sight of one of the toms sneaking through the willow brush. He disappeared behind a small rise, but never showed up again.

The gobbling stopped for a while and when I heard it again they had moved off several hundred yards. About 20 minutes passed and I heard two gobbles coming closer. It then went quiet again. 20 minutes more passed and I caught movement to my right. Those toms had come across the swamp without me seeing them. I wasn't sure if they would pass close enough for a shot. When the bird got behind a larger tree between us I quickly scooted over to the tree cutting the distance by 10 yards. I got up as I heard an alert put and got my red dot on his head when he stopped. He went down on the shot and his twin brother scampered across the grassy swamp.

This tom had some of the biggest spurs I have ever taken. 1 1/2 and 1 3/8 inches. He was 22 lbs. and had a 10 1/4-inch beard. The property owner said this is one of the birds they have been trying to get for the past 4 years. I feel very blessed to have taken such a beautiful trophy bird.

-David Zielke-

Go with your gut!!!

Go with your gut

This year I’ve wanted to focus on new northern states and decided to hold back going to southern states this year. Started my season this past Monday and flirted with a bird around 7 that somehow acted like he was hunted already. He gobbled his tail of for 15 minutes about 30 yards away from me on another side of a little hill. He would move off and I’d sneak to where I heard him last, and he just would not commit. This happened 3 times, the last two times I only scratched leaves…

Nasty weather set in for the rest of the week and I decided to get my work done and play Friday and Saturday. Friday was a bust with wind blowing like crazy.

My goal was to hunt the bird that I worked on Monday and hopefully he’s still around. I arrived at the spot at 4:30 and got beat to the gate. lesson learned get you tail end up early on the weekends. Went to another spot and went for a 2 mile walk only to not hear a thing on a dead quiet morning. Wasn’t finding any sign and got little frustrated. Hit two more spots with no luck.

I was running low on fuel, and I told myself that I was going hunt near the closest gas station with the cheapest gas. Turned out to be $4.09 with state land less then 10 minutes away. Picked two spots and headed to the location.

I was almost at the beginning of the state land when out of the corner of my eye I catch two turkeys about 80 yards of the road. I Didn’t stop and headed to where I wanted to park only to have a truck parked there… it was state land on both sides of the road, the birds were on the left side which was a small piece of public while the truck was on the right, which was about 5 times the size. Took a gamble and turned around and parked about 100 yards away from the truck on the side where I saw the turkeys.

Looking at my onX I’m right on the borderline with the turkeys about 200 yards off of the state land border line. I go about 100 yards in the wood and line myself up with where I saw the turkeys last. I gave a couple cuts with my mouth call and get cut off with gobble. I run into the state land about 60 yards and cut again and the gobble is closer. I cross a dried-out creek bottom and get set up. Catch my breath and get settled and call one more time and have what sounds like to birds cut me off, I cut them off and they gobble again under 100 yards at my two o’clock. I need them to be at my 12 to be on public so I made some light yelps to my 9 and they cut me off again at about the same distance as before. Cut back at them and shut up.

Sat there and shut up pointing my gun at 12. About 1 minute later I see a headed bobbing between my 11 and 12 at about 60 yards. Then I see another behind that one. First bird was a jake and the back bird was a tom. The jake was moving around looking for me while the tom with a white head ended up spitting and drumming all puffed up about 50 yards from me right on the other side of the dried-up creek bed. Looking beautiful all puffed up. He ended up being there for a couple minutes and I was thinking to myself that he wasn’t going to cross the dried creek. Luckily, the curious jake changed that. They both moved slowly to my left and while they were behind a tree I called, and both cut me off with a gobble. The jake is at my 11 and figures out a spot to cross while the tom is strutting at about 45 yards right on the edge of the dried creek.

The jake pops up at my 1 at about 20 yards and here comes the tom fallowing suit. Jake is standing at the edge of the creek looking for me and the next things the tom pops up right behind him. At this time my gun is pointing at the jack and the tom is at about 1230 has his neck straight up looking for me. Put the red dot on his head and pull the trigger. The tom gets walloped and flips backwards into the creek bottom. The Jake stands there with no clue on what happened. Then I hear the tom flopping in the dried-up creek bed and know it was a successful shot.

Turned out to 21.5 bird with decent warn down spurs and beard

What a great way to start my turkey season!!!

Record Books!!

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

Learning Curve

Circa 1999

My 2nd turkey season

Having one under the belt I thought I knew what I was doing. Turns out I still was getting my tail handed to me. Especially the mountain birds.
One day at work I was talking to a coworker, and she got me connected with one of her friends that owned a farm her way.
I ended up getting permission to hunt and couldn't wait to hunt the farm. I had a day to hunt but I still haven't scouted the property, but I knew there were birds in the area, so I just went in blind.
At this point in my turkey hunting career, I finally was getting the drift that patience was the key to killing birds. I would start staying longer at spots rather than giving up on them to fast. At this point I of the season I was getting close but still was getting burned by the faithful hen pulling my strutter away.
Back to the hunt, I ended up getting to the property about an hour before sunrise and decided to listen before making a blind move. It's about 630 and I hear a Tom blowing it up in a little patch of woods next to some train tracks. I set up and wait it out until the Tom hits the ground. Did some light calling for a half an hour with no luck. The Tom would gobble on his own but he didn't budge..... So I knew he was henned up and since I had nowhere to go I was planning to wait him out.
3 hours pass and I'm still calling every 15 minutes when I catch movement to my right. Turned out to be a hen and about 8 more fallowing her with a strutter straggling behind. I remember thinking to myself here we go again.... Got a little aggressive with the calling hoping that one of the hens would get curious to check out the stranger. It worked, kind of. The hens started slowly feeding my way on a angle that would have them walk by me at 30 to 50 yards. It's about 11 now and the hens are headed my way feeding with the Tom behind them. My heart is racing now thinking that this was going to work out. At his point the hens are in shooting range but the Tom was still at about 60 yards. I call one more time and the lead hen looks my way then starts slowly walking away from me pulling the other hens with her. Fortunately there were two stragglers that were a little curious and were following the flock but were still in shooting range. The Tom heads towards the two hens and is at about 40 yards and was parallel to me but fallowing the flock of hens. Made a couple cuts with my slate call and it pulled the Tom towards me at about 35 yards. Told myself I better shoot, cut one more time with no reaction from the Tom strutting headed towards the flock, I then decided to shoot settling the bead on his head and pulling the trigger. I ended up shooting him while strutting and dropped him in his tracks.
Talk about being a happy camper. Walk up to the Tom and he was a good one. 1.25" Spurs with a paint brush of a beard. That hunt was my first and last hunt because I supposedly killed the giant that everybody was after and the workers that hunted the spot didn't like that. Oh well, I moved on

Down Goes Bubba!!

Circa 2017

Went to the same farm where I took a friend of mine the other morning with the intentions off chasing a big ole raspy gobbling bird, I called Bubba.( Click link to see video) Doug Wigfield's hunt. Got there at 5 with my buddy Jason 10 minutes behind. With the tweedy birds already tweeting I took a Chance hoping with the foliage getting thick I could sneak to the same area I hunted the previous day. "Bubba" was hanging in the same area as Doug’s bird and if he wasn't there I knew there were couple more in the area.
Get settled in a spot with a set up two hens, one feeding and the other upright with a 1/2 strut Jake in tow.
We Sit down and wait. Look at my phone and it's 5:48 and almost on key a bird gobbles and it's Bubba!! He would keep gobbling for the next half an hour with another bird to our right a couple 100 yards away. Unfortunately, Bubba attracted a guy from the neighboring farm that loved to use his box call and locator calls..... This guys called nonstop to the point that it shut up Bubba and made me think that it was over.... The guy even Jake gobbled a handful of times and ended up with a crow call in his mouth trying to get this tight lipped bird to gobble again.
While this was happening we just sat and didn't say a peep. He shut up for a bit and I decided to do a fly down with a wing I have in my vest followed with some very light calling on a pot call and then a couple cuts and Bubba responds with a gobble. He's still in the tree and it's almost 730. In the meantime there was a front coming in and it started to get breezy and the temp was dropping. The next thing a hen fly’s into the far end of the field and then a jake lands about 20 yards from the decoys Walking away. About a minute later I hear a jake yelping to the left of Jason and then I pick up movement. There was a jake 10 yards from Jason with his with a multi floral bush in between both of them and Jason could not see him. I see Jason looking to his 8 o'clock in the woods when I catch movement in the field to my left. It's Bubba headed to the decoys with the ”I'm going to whoop some jake” look. Jason is still looking to his left when I whisper "look in front of you!!" Jason slowly turns and see the tom almost about to do a beat down. I say "shoot him!!" And that he did. Big ole tom down!!!
That to date is the latest I've ever had a bird stay on the roost. That goes to show you when they shut up doesn't mean that they are gone.
Bird turned out to be Bubba. He was a Big bird that was a warrior he had one broken spur with one big spur that was Over 1.5" and a 12.5" beard that was dragging.
A great ending to the last day of Jason's vacation.
Of course after the shot it started to rain.... and that means a wet old gobbler....

#ultimatecamo #EZoutdoors #springturkeyhunting #treebarkcamo

One for the story book!!

Well, my persistence this year paid off by shooting a Turkey with a bow without a blind. Ended up going to one of my favorite public spots this morning that's in the mountains. I was going to check it out and see if I could hear anything while on the roost. NO LUCK. Decided to go to a farm I can hunt close to the spot and do some mid to late morning hunt there. I started my hunt by getting out of my truck and seeing a big, bodied deer about 200 yards away. Put the binos on the deer and it turned to be a nice-looking buck with about 2-inch nubs on his head. I was looking at him for a second when I caught movement in the binos that was closer to me. Turns out to be two hens headed my way about 80 yards away. I had nothing ready for this situation and decided to just keep on getting my stuff together. The hens ended up taking off and I decided to go hunt one of the fields that they just plowed. Found a good spot with a big tree in the shade about 20 yards inside the tree line of the plowed field. after getting settled in I Looked at my phone to see the time and it was 7:45. For the next hour and a half I would do some light yelps with a purr and a little calling every 12 to 15 minutes, alternating calls (mouth call, slate, Box call) and during the waiting time I would nod off here and there( hey you're the most still when your sleeping , just have to have ears like a dog).
9:30 came around and no action, so I decided to move spots. The next spot that I went to be an old fence line that was in the woods. Sat in the shade next to a huge hickory tree with several trees in front of me to mask me when I pull back to shoot. Did the same thing I did at the last location with the calling, but this time I increased the calling because of the wind picking up. After about 6 little cat naps (10:15) I was about to call it quits.
This is when the fun starts. While I was sitting down and about to get up and leave, I decided to see if I could actually pull back my bow the way I was sitting. I was getting into the position to pull back my bow when I caught movement in the woods about 80 yards away. Looked like it could have been a turkey-neck or a squirrel tail. I concentrated on the area that I saw the movement, and about two minutes later I see this turkey head bobbing around in the woods heading my way. This time the head was about 70 yards away and slowly coming my way. I did some light purring and a little yelping, and the turkey kept on coming.

At about 50 yards, I realized that it was a hen that was feeding in my direction. Knowing that this was a hen and at this time it was almost 10:00, I decided to play with her and see how close I can get her to me. Zig zagging her way to me to about 35 yards I started hearing this spitting sound behind me... I'm saying to myself that there is no way that there is a Tom behind me. I just stayed put and I could hear the spitting getting closer and closer. The next thing I hear are feather dragging on the ground behind me (I'm thinking to myself holy %$$@ this can't be happening). The hen is now about 28 yards away from me and the next thing you know it I'm have a strutting tom walking by me at about 8 paces from me. During this whole time, I have my bow uprate standing between my legs with my hand on my Just-B-cuz. The tom sees the hen and starts walking her way at this time he is about 12 yards away and about to walk into my shooting lane. The Tom steps behind the tree, I pull back and he catches movement... I start cutting with my diaphragm in my mouth and he stops and about 22 yards. I let my rhomboid do the work and thwack. My G5 MONTEC hits the sweet spot right above fan. The turkey is flapping and trying to take off and all of the sudden I get this burst of energy and bolt as fast as I could towards the Tom dodging things in my path. I'm running so fast I actually see the hen about 10 feet from me at one point. Zig zagging trying to catch up with this powerful bird, graze him several time but just can't get a good grip. After about 30 yards I think the G5 Montec started taking its toll on the tom because he started slowing down.

Finally caught up with the tom and went for a grab and ended up pulling half of his tail feathers out (oh well) the next grab went for his neck, and he ended up going buck wild in my hand with feathers going everywhere. I ended up stepping on his head to put him out of his misery. After all was said and done, I had a bird on the ground with me jumping up and down with excitement.
I can say that this was a hunt that I will never forget.

Hooks is down!!

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

Turkey season is around the corner!!!

Not sure about y’all but I’m looking forward to breathing some of that spring air while chasing turkeys. not sure about you guys but I like me a good hunting story. The saying “a picture tells a thousand words” but a good story with that picture just stirs up the imagination. To get you guys into the turkey mood I’m going to post up once a week some old turkey stories from the past. I always feel like any taken animal needs a good story to go with it. when it comes to turkey, I like to take the camera with me and try to make a visual story, but I also like to right about it and tell you how I portrayed the events that happened.

To start things off I’m going to grab a story from the archives from 2017, this hunt was pretty awesome, and it could have ended a lot sooner than it did… enjoy

2017
Great day for redemption

This morning I had about an hour to play before I had to head to my first client. Wanted to go after the bird i missed and this morning my main goal was to pinpoint him.
Set up on a rock break next to where I choked and hoped for the best.

It's about 550 and the first bird sounds off behind me a good distance and the another in calling range. It ends up being two toms in front of me, but I was pretty sure it wasn't the bird I was after. A couple more birds give there selves away but not the bird I'm looking for. He usually roosts in a cow pasture, and he wasn't gobbling.
These hens are getting vocal and I'm telling them who's boss when my boy Gobbles. He's in the same rock break that 50% of the time he's in. Being there are Tom's closer to me I knew there was a slim chance that he was going to show himself by 7. It's 6:05 and I'm getting pretty aggressive with these hens when I see to hens pop up to my left. Staring at them for a bit I caught movement to my right and it's 2 Tom's b lining it to me. Got settled and watched the show. Hoping for a beat down I got ready. Birds came in and one approached the Jake decoy and gave it a kick with its foot and the Jake spun around into him and the tom didn't want anything to do with it. With the ground being dirt, I was able to see if he was carrying hooks or not. They both were packing a bunch of mud but not the spurs I was looking for. They walked off and I had to head work.
Driving out I catch a fan out on the property where lucky hangs out and I knew where I was going at 10. After lucky on an overgrown corn stumble field that was just planted last week.

Done with my client and head to the farm and of course it was raining... get dressed, out my lucky pants on with a hole in the crouch and went on a mission. The farm had rolling hills, so it helps sneak around the farm without being seen and that's what I did. I creeped over a hill, and I see three hens and I know I'm in business.
Get set up in a big rock break and I see him to my left about 300 yards.
I grab the decoys and sneaks around to set the decoys up and I hear a gun shot in the field over and all the birds in the field look up that away... set the decoys and get back to where I was going to sit look out into the field and the birds are gone......
Hoping they just got spooked by the shot I stay put and hope for the best. About 15 minutes later a jake pops out about 200 yards to my right and I know I still had a chance. From where they were at, I decided to loop around and set up on the hedge row with the decoys behind me about 30 yards and I was able to see more ground. 15 minutes past and I haven't called yet and I catch a Hen on my right heading to her nesting area and then another one to my left. But no tom.... then I see the jakes and then me longbeard!!!
They are about 200 yards away and the highest part in the field where I know they can see me. I put the camera on him and throw some purrs and clicks at his way to see his reaction and he liked it. He looked my way did the head bob and slowly headed to the decoys.
Every time he stopped I have him a couple light purrs, and he was liking it.
He's taking his good old time and from the looks of my camera I'm running out of space on my camera... hoping for the best I keep recording until it stopped of course he's at 70 yards and it's raining....
I told myself if it's meant to be it's meant to be. So, with him at 70 I decided to delete old footage and managed to get about 30 minutes of space open while he didn't even budge. Now I know it's on and I'm ready. He's started to look Harder and walk faster my way and now I'm getting the adrenaline pumping. For some reason the camera gets stuck on something and keeps moving to my right...
Now this camera is getting on my nerves... he's at 40 walking throw a clump of weeds and told myself I'm shooting when he gets out. Set the camera and of course it’s moving and he's walking out of the screen... This time he's cutting the distance quick and is at about 30 yards settle the camera on him and throw a couple clucks at him he straightens his neck I I pull the trigger. Big birdie down!!!!
Not sure if is the one I missed but I could not pass him up.
Other than the rain I enjoyed every bit of it.