Today, I had an awesome turkey hunt. I reached my hunting spot...a field near home. Flushing a hen from her hiding place as I entered the area. I set up my blind and a jake decoy. I was ready and hunting by 3:30pm. I had given a few hen calls....purrs and some clucks when I heard an owl sound off down in a creek bottom....wow, a gobbler fired right back...and sounded pretty close. I guessed maybe 150 yards.
In a minute or two, I had a hen appear from no where and begin feeding only 20 yards in front of me. In a while, another hen joined the first. In the meantime, every time there was a loud noise in the area the gobbler would hammer back..... even when I heard someone crank a 4 wheeler....the bird gobbled.
I continued watching the hens and doing some easy calling...imitating the sounds they were making between themselves. After about 20 minutes the bird gobbled again...this time he was not in the creek....he was in the field with me!
The tom crossed a narrow part of the field...and the hens began moving towards him. He stood for nearly a minute watching my jake decoy....then he came running across the ground towards Jake. When 20 yards from the decoy, he blew up in full strut...not slowing down he ran into the decoy. Next, he did a couple laps around Jake, in full strut.
I could not stand anymore of this torture....on his second lap I put my red dot on his head and squeezed off. He sported a 9 & 5/8 in beard, 1 inch spurs, and pulled the scales to 20#.
Man, I am one happy hunter this afternoon. This bird was my 3rd and last Georgia bird for the 2010 season...Not getting any video of this hunt was disappointing, but the rest of the hunt was of the finest kind. I am glad I had a beard box ready to go....beard, spurs, and shotshell go right inside.
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