Heavy rain and strong winds greeted me at 5 o'clock this morning. Not a peep was heard all morning.
Fast forward to my next setup around 10:30 this morning. I set two hens and a jake dummy 13 yards in front of me in a cattle pasture (more specifically, in a bottleneck of sorts in a long and narrow pasture). It was my first time hunting this area and I was less than delighted to find that the owner had moved his cattle to this very pasture.....oh well, no big deal. A half hour into this hunt, I was less than delighted to watch someone :hmm: drive all along the edges of the pasture in a "bad boy buggy". Still have no idea who (whom?) this sight-see-er was! :shake:
Well, by this time (after being doused all morning in 30 degree temperatures, buffeted by the strong winds, surrounded by cattle I had not expected to see, and witnessing a stranger aboard an ATV rubber-necking his way around the pasture), my enthusiasm could have waned. But no! I had the next 3 days off to pursue my favorite blackpowder quarry and I was going to enjoy the hunt, no matter the results!
After calling every 20 minutes or so for 3 hours, my luck would change. I did not expect any gobbling, and, heard none. Leaned against a sassafrass tree, I just kept scanning slowly to the left and right, searching for black dots in the long pasture that I sat in the middle of. It felt a lot like deer hunting.
Anybody ever see a pale bluish-white light bulb sprout from a cattle pasture before? I did at 1:30 this afternoon. Forty yards out and too far below a slight knoll for viewing my setup, the gobbler scratched for a water-logged nightcrawler, I presume. This gave me the opportunity to throw a diaphragm in my mouth and raise 'ye olde blunderbuss' in one frantic moment.
A few soft yelps made his head jerk straight up and saunter my way. He spied my jake and sprinted right in and really had a time with it. I thought the foam would surely fly!
With the hammer swept back, I tightened the trigger tension on the bird, 13 yards away (right in my bailiwick).
He weighed 24 pounds and sported a 10 1/2"beard and 3/4" spurs.
I could only be happier if I had heard some gobbles today, but, I aint complainin'!
So ends the tale of my Soggy-Day Gobbler.
Good luck guys, Skychief.
I would love to show him off if any of you are willing to give me an email address as in the past. Thanks!
