Set my portable blind up Monday afternoon for Michigan's late season (May 5 thru 31). Finally went out this morning (Saturday) to sit in it. On the way out I could hear a Tom gobbling, and he was hot to trot... gobbled a couple of times per minute. I got my dekes set out and back in my blind by about 6:15 a.m.
I waited only a couple minutes to call with my wing-bone call I made from a previous kill. He was interested and he was moving closer coming down along side a pond in front of me. I was getting excited as he got a couple of hundred yards from me and closing. Suddenly on the pond behind me, some geese started making a terrible ruckus. Not sure what was going on, I couldn't see them, anyway, that Tom must have crossed paths with some real hens because all of a sudden he was headed the other way, still gobbling every few minutes.
I was disappointed to say the least, but it was still early.
About 45 minutes later I saw some movement on the opposite side of the pond from where the tom had been earlier. What I saw was the sun gleaming on a smokey gray, almost white hen. She was accompanied by another hen, and headed right for my set up. I was hoping they were bringing a tom with them. They got about 60 yards from me and I heard the Tom gobble. He was following them! The hens worked their way up into my set up and then I could see the tom. He was about 60 yards behind them and in full strut all the way.
The hens walked by my blind about 15 feet away. My dekes were spread around me about 20 yards out. The Tom decided to court one of my dekes. He started strutting back and forth and gobbled several times about 20 yards from the deke. I was afraid that with the brush etc. that this was just a bit outside my range. After showing off for the ladies for about 20 minutes, my heart beating very hard the whole time, he decided that the closest deke was not interested in him, so he headed towards the next one. He came in closer to this one and started strutting. I pulled the trigger and .....klatch.... couldn't believe it. I pulled the gun in, wiped the frizzen (guess I got some oil on it), stuck it back out the window and pulled the trigger again.
He went down. This was about 8:30 a.m. My season was over in about 2 1/2 hours.
He had a 10 inch beard, 1 inch spurs, and weighed 22 pounds. His tail feathers had really taken a beating, only got 6 good feathers from it, and his wing tips were really worn down from dragging while strutting.
I waited only a couple minutes to call with my wing-bone call I made from a previous kill. He was interested and he was moving closer coming down along side a pond in front of me. I was getting excited as he got a couple of hundred yards from me and closing. Suddenly on the pond behind me, some geese started making a terrible ruckus. Not sure what was going on, I couldn't see them, anyway, that Tom must have crossed paths with some real hens because all of a sudden he was headed the other way, still gobbling every few minutes.
I was disappointed to say the least, but it was still early.
About 45 minutes later I saw some movement on the opposite side of the pond from where the tom had been earlier. What I saw was the sun gleaming on a smokey gray, almost white hen. She was accompanied by another hen, and headed right for my set up. I was hoping they were bringing a tom with them. They got about 60 yards from me and I heard the Tom gobble. He was following them! The hens worked their way up into my set up and then I could see the tom. He was about 60 yards behind them and in full strut all the way.
The hens walked by my blind about 15 feet away. My dekes were spread around me about 20 yards out. The Tom decided to court one of my dekes. He started strutting back and forth and gobbled several times about 20 yards from the deke. I was afraid that with the brush etc. that this was just a bit outside my range. After showing off for the ladies for about 20 minutes, my heart beating very hard the whole time, he decided that the closest deke was not interested in him, so he headed towards the next one. He came in closer to this one and started strutting. I pulled the trigger and .....klatch.... couldn't believe it. I pulled the gun in, wiped the frizzen (guess I got some oil on it), stuck it back out the window and pulled the trigger again.
He went down. This was about 8:30 a.m. My season was over in about 2 1/2 hours.
He had a 10 inch beard, 1 inch spurs, and weighed 22 pounds. His tail feathers had really taken a beating, only got 6 good feathers from it, and his wing tips were really worn down from dragging while strutting.
didn't think to just pull other trigger :haha:
