Post by nybuckstalker on Apr 20, 2014 13:52:38 GMT -5
My buddy came down from Connecticut to hunt Friday and Saturday. I tried to put him in a good position to kill a longbeard but it just didn’t work out. Friday only heard one bird in close. He gobbled good on the roost but never gobbled once he hit the ground. We didn’t hear one gobble from fly down until noon.
Saturday looked like it might be better with a little warmer weather. Got to the parking area early to beat the crowd. Interestingly enough, not one hunter came into the area…strange for an opening week. We quietly got our gear together and sat on the bumper waiting to hear the first gobbles. One started to gobble but it was at least 500 yards away. As we started to move, this guy roared out a gobble! I could not believe it. I had never heard a bird gobble in that particular area and would never think I would be able to make a setup.
We walked about 50 yards to the edge of this meadow where I set up an Avian-X jake and hen. I sat my buddy down with a wide variety of shot opportunities and I sat about ten yards behind him. Being so close, I didn’t want to make any hen noises until he flew down so I waited until he flew down and gobbled on his own. I cut and yelped aggressively at first and then toned it down with soft clucks and purrs. When he cut me off I knew he would be workable. He continued to gobble on his own as he came in and his gobbles let us know where he was headed, closer, but at an angle to our left. I could see my buddy was not able to shoot beyond his 9 o’clock position so I raised my gun onto my knee in case the bird continued to swing wide. I did a soft, three note yelp, and he must have locked onto me. The next thing I knew, he popped out of the brush at 20yds and was walking right at me. This was the first time I had seen the bird because it was so thick.
I let a 3 ½” HeviShot Magnum Blend fly out of my Indian Creek choke at 16 yards. There wasn’t much flopping…He weighed 19.5 lbs, 10” beard, 1” spurs.
The first words out of my mouth were, “I’m sorry Jack, he was going to run me over”. My buddy was very happy anyhow and insisted he was glad I shot it because he couldn’t. We hunted the rest of the morning and could never strike up another bird.
