huntrz
04-11-2009, 10:39
I managed to roost a bird Thursday night between the storms and even though he was across the creek that was full to the brim from all the rain, I could get very close to him, my plan; get in SUPER early, set up my Pretty boy decoy right next to the creek where he could see it from the roost when it got light, hopefully that might get him to fly onto my side of the creek. I was setting up decoys at 5:15 and some coons started fighting right on the other side of where he was roosted making all kinds of commotion, that woke him up and he gobbled, scared the tar outta me. I backed off to my tree and waited. As it started getting light he started gobbling about every 30 seconds.
this is a little sound clip I made with my phone of him gobbling . . .
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/?action=view¤t=gobblersoundz.flv
after he flew down, on THE OTHER SIDE, he strutted around and finally worked up to the edge of the creek, in my haste to find a tree in the dark I didn't really check the distance, he was standing what looked like it was just over 40 yards and I didn't want to chance a shot past my comfortable effective range, 35-40 yards, at least not this early in the game. I thought I might still get a shot if kept following the creek behind me, but of course he turned and walked straight away.
3 other birds flew down, one hen that came right up to the edge of the creek also, I was hoping she might pull him back to me, she did pull in two jakes that stood right on the edge of the creek 25 yards away, when the gobbler finally came down the hill he circled way around me, once he jumped up on a log and it looked like he had a short beard like a jake, I was almost sure it was a mature gobbler from the sound of his gobbles. he circled around and pulled the hen straight away from me, and the jakes kept hanging around tempting me by standing in my shooting lanes, every time I would think "go ahead and take one" I would hear the big bird gobble, and it sounded like they were on my side of the creek now, so I packed up and took off, sneaking up to the edge of the field I saw the gobbler and hen way out there, but the gobbler was angling back towards the woods so I dropped back down below the hill and circled out in front of him, as I snuck up to the edge of the field, still 20 yards or so away, the big gobbler stepped out from behind the brush at 25 yards, we both froze, but after a few minutes he took 2 more steps and I let the swarm of Federal #6'z fly, rolled him.
he was a big bird, ending up weighing 26 lbs. my biggest so far, he had one spur that was 1 3/8" and the other was broke off at about 1", the beard was mostly rotted off at about 4" but had a few strands that stretched to 10".
sorry for the long drawn out story, there's just always more to it...
a pic from my phone . . .
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/turkey1.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/spurs2lo.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/beard1lo.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/DSC_0553cutlo.jpg
.
this is a little sound clip I made with my phone of him gobbling . . .
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/?action=view¤t=gobblersoundz.flv
after he flew down, on THE OTHER SIDE, he strutted around and finally worked up to the edge of the creek, in my haste to find a tree in the dark I didn't really check the distance, he was standing what looked like it was just over 40 yards and I didn't want to chance a shot past my comfortable effective range, 35-40 yards, at least not this early in the game. I thought I might still get a shot if kept following the creek behind me, but of course he turned and walked straight away.
3 other birds flew down, one hen that came right up to the edge of the creek also, I was hoping she might pull him back to me, she did pull in two jakes that stood right on the edge of the creek 25 yards away, when the gobbler finally came down the hill he circled way around me, once he jumped up on a log and it looked like he had a short beard like a jake, I was almost sure it was a mature gobbler from the sound of his gobbles. he circled around and pulled the hen straight away from me, and the jakes kept hanging around tempting me by standing in my shooting lanes, every time I would think "go ahead and take one" I would hear the big bird gobble, and it sounded like they were on my side of the creek now, so I packed up and took off, sneaking up to the edge of the field I saw the gobbler and hen way out there, but the gobbler was angling back towards the woods so I dropped back down below the hill and circled out in front of him, as I snuck up to the edge of the field, still 20 yards or so away, the big gobbler stepped out from behind the brush at 25 yards, we both froze, but after a few minutes he took 2 more steps and I let the swarm of Federal #6'z fly, rolled him.
he was a big bird, ending up weighing 26 lbs. my biggest so far, he had one spur that was 1 3/8" and the other was broke off at about 1", the beard was mostly rotted off at about 4" but had a few strands that stretched to 10".
sorry for the long drawn out story, there's just always more to it...
a pic from my phone . . .
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/turkey1.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/spurs2lo.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/beard1lo.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g125/huntrz_2006/DSC_0553cutlo.jpg
.