The Baron
45 Cal.
- Joined
- May 10, 2004
- Messages
- 927
- Reaction score
- 15
Got a nice invite from a good friend for this morning. Have no idea how, but I woke up on my own at 2:58am and was able to shut off the 3:00am alarm before it bothered the wife. Felt like the middle of the night (because it was!), but we had an hour drive to the property.
Got to the spot and set-up along the divide between two fields. We put out one hen decoy and a full strut tom decoy. We debated as to whether we should use the full strut deke, but decided we were after a boss tom if possible and to go ahead and deploy the challenger. We were sitting in about a 10ft. wide brush/tree line with an old bean field behind and facing on old corn field. We heard a few gobbles from the wood lot behind us. My buddy knew the spot and knew the birds usually roosted in those woods (off-property). He figured we had a 50/50 shot - if the birds rolled out to the east, we were done. If they came west, they'd most likely pass through our field via one of three spots through our fence row.
There was only one bird gobbling, and when he hit the ground he got a little quiet. We figured he was with his hens. We did some nice soft calls now and then and he honored us with a few gobbles here and there. Eventually, we spotted the flock heading our way across the bean field. I could only see them by turning my head hard to the right and looking behind. It was quite a flock - at least 9 hens, 3 jakes and one strutter. The birds meandered our way. I heard some leaves crunching and 2 hens walked to within 5 feet behind us. We never moved, and they eventually wandered back to the flock which was now about 10 yards directly behind us. We could hear the tom dragging his wings while he strutted - very cool. I might have been able to turn and kill him, but that field is off property and so we stayed still and let the plan work. Then a hen stepped through the tree line about 10 yards to my right. I expected the tom might follow and I was ready, but the main group moved down the bean field and eventually started coming into our field about 100 yards to our left. I carefully repositioned my gun to cover to the left and and hoped for the best (calling a tom away from 9+ hens is usually an impossibility). I saw about 10 birds had walked into the field, and then my partner whispered "here he comes!". I figured that meant the strutter was now in our field, but when I turned my eyes that way I saw he was coming on a dead run - beard swingin'! :thumbsup: He paused at 50 yards and strutted for a second, then slicked down and kept coming. He stopped right at my 20 yard stick. I was ready and I guarantee I was aiming VERY carefully as a bead of sweat formed on my brow (I missed one last Monday). I made the final adjustment of my shoulder to shoot, and he saw that and putted, stuck his head up... and then caught 1 1/8oz. #6's from from the Caywood.:HP: There was a lot of back-slapping and celebration of a successful end to an exciting morning.
Tom was down at about 6:30am. Not a monster, but he was definitely the boss of the flock... 19lbs, 1" spurs and 9 1/2" beard. Always great to share a hunt with a good friend, and it's all the more sweet to be tagged out for the 3rd out of 3 seasons with my flinter. :grin: Now we are planning to slip down to NY for a little bonus gobbler action - and I'll be taking my smoothie. :wink:
Spurs weren't as visible as I'd thought, but a good close-up of the flintlock action for anyone who's interested.
Got to the spot and set-up along the divide between two fields. We put out one hen decoy and a full strut tom decoy. We debated as to whether we should use the full strut deke, but decided we were after a boss tom if possible and to go ahead and deploy the challenger. We were sitting in about a 10ft. wide brush/tree line with an old bean field behind and facing on old corn field. We heard a few gobbles from the wood lot behind us. My buddy knew the spot and knew the birds usually roosted in those woods (off-property). He figured we had a 50/50 shot - if the birds rolled out to the east, we were done. If they came west, they'd most likely pass through our field via one of three spots through our fence row.
There was only one bird gobbling, and when he hit the ground he got a little quiet. We figured he was with his hens. We did some nice soft calls now and then and he honored us with a few gobbles here and there. Eventually, we spotted the flock heading our way across the bean field. I could only see them by turning my head hard to the right and looking behind. It was quite a flock - at least 9 hens, 3 jakes and one strutter. The birds meandered our way. I heard some leaves crunching and 2 hens walked to within 5 feet behind us. We never moved, and they eventually wandered back to the flock which was now about 10 yards directly behind us. We could hear the tom dragging his wings while he strutted - very cool. I might have been able to turn and kill him, but that field is off property and so we stayed still and let the plan work. Then a hen stepped through the tree line about 10 yards to my right. I expected the tom might follow and I was ready, but the main group moved down the bean field and eventually started coming into our field about 100 yards to our left. I carefully repositioned my gun to cover to the left and and hoped for the best (calling a tom away from 9+ hens is usually an impossibility). I saw about 10 birds had walked into the field, and then my partner whispered "here he comes!". I figured that meant the strutter was now in our field, but when I turned my eyes that way I saw he was coming on a dead run - beard swingin'! :thumbsup: He paused at 50 yards and strutted for a second, then slicked down and kept coming. He stopped right at my 20 yard stick. I was ready and I guarantee I was aiming VERY carefully as a bead of sweat formed on my brow (I missed one last Monday). I made the final adjustment of my shoulder to shoot, and he saw that and putted, stuck his head up... and then caught 1 1/8oz. #6's from from the Caywood.:HP: There was a lot of back-slapping and celebration of a successful end to an exciting morning.
Tom was down at about 6:30am. Not a monster, but he was definitely the boss of the flock... 19lbs, 1" spurs and 9 1/2" beard. Always great to share a hunt with a good friend, and it's all the more sweet to be tagged out for the 3rd out of 3 seasons with my flinter. :grin: Now we are planning to slip down to NY for a little bonus gobbler action - and I'll be taking my smoothie. :wink:
Spurs weren't as visible as I'd thought, but a good close-up of the flintlock action for anyone who's interested.
