I got up super early today to be sure I walked into a large open field in pitch black. Set up in a small clump of trees I had scouted as being the only conceivable cover in a completely open thirty acre pasture. Birds had been pitching to the middle of it off the limb. And only way to be in the game was to get out there where they wanted to be based on past few weeks of scouting it..

So I walked maybe 3/8 of a mile in black dark without a flashlight with a bmobile full fan and one old foam hen, a stake blind and a low chair and my pack.. Found the clump of four inch diameter trees in the dark. And put up a small stake blind. I would have sun rise at my back and the birds would be roosting 150 yards to my front but looking right down on me. I was set up hour before any first light. About the time I sat down in my low ground chair a pack of coyotes erupted in song not fifty yards away. I want to tell you they yipped, howled and yoddled so close I thought maybe they were aiming on an attack. They likely smelled me. Anyway that coyote serenade lit up the whole tree line with thundering gobbles. It is still an hour to first hint of light.

Meanwhile while waiting for fly down , I spent the hour wrapping a tight bandana to keep pressure on a nasty deep thumb cut I stupidly got off one of the stake blind legs. ( later required eight stitches ). Knew it was bleeding profusely but do t want to turn on a light to look at it. So I kept presure With a twisted tight Bandana.

Anyway daylight finally finally fell over the field and the gobbling started and hens and gobblers flew down under the trees, but landed below my line of sight due to some rolls in the pasture. Out there 125 yards or more. Once on the ground they went stone silent. Not a peep. And it’s been that dead silent on the ground routine all through first five days of the season. I made several calls that were ignored, or so it seemed. I thought maybe they saw me, or were trying to sneak away from the now unseen coyotes. Neither hens nor gobblers made a peep. Thirty five minutes pass. I am considering the options for a move or relocation. Then it is light enough to see the cut thumb. I was ugly, a deep flap cut. I ponder getting up to go to the emergency room as I knew I needed stitches. So I have been so focused on my lap and thumb for a couple minutes that i completely ignored the area in front of to me. I decide i need to go get the thumb sewn up. . As I start to pack my calls I look up and see a gobbler fan and then a head at forty yards. Walking straight to me. I manage your get the gun up without being seen.

The longbeard takes a few steps , I clearly see the beard and the full fan, and it raises his head..... and I took the cash.

I was lucky that I didn’t spook him. Or any of the other 15 birds in the gang behind him that flew and ran when l shot.

I knew the bird was dead so put my calls away and strolled out to look at the bird. I knew he was a big bird. That much was already known. What I didn’t know was what I found when I rolled him over.

He was wearing a TWRA leg band. I have never seen a banded bird anywhere, either mine or somebody else’s. And I’ve seen a few turkeys. It’s not like I earned this band , I was just lucky to be where there was a banded bird. And to top that off it had a double beard.

I knew TWRA had banded birds around the state to follow flock dynamics, bird dispersals to new territories and other information. When I called in the band number it turns out this bird had been banded in the county I was hunting but not specifically revealing how far it had travelled. Anyway his journey is over. Exciting first for me to get a banded turkey. I have many waterfowl bands but the turkey bands are far far less common. Some picture below

Also the bird had a double beard.

Anyway Tn has reduced the season limit to three birds from four that was the limit for the last decade or more. Now down to one tag in TN.

Some photos below. Note the missing breast feathers on the bird. Heavy breeding I think. Bird weighed close to 25 pounds and beard was ten inches and largest spur was right at 1.25 inch.

Some more pictures

Lucky duck! B I g congrats on that one. You definitely earned him. Hope the thumb heals well.
Vic

Awesome Story GN, hope that cut heals up soon. Glad you were able to get on him before the ER trip. Awesome on the Banded bird. The one I killed in OK a few years back was banded also. They sent me all the info on the bird when I called and that was pretty cool.

Glad you didn't bleed to death man.. priorities right ?? Hard to leave Gobbling Turkeys

Congrats on the double beard Banded tom.. I was on that trip with Hody.. so got to see a dead one.. killed him out of the same public land field I killed mine out of the day prior ..

The masked man strikes again!

Next time, take the band off the leg and wrap tightly around your own wound, i can see the headline in the paper now Congratulations!

Congratulations on a rare prize. Hope the thumb is healing well.


Earl

Update to say the band return showed the turkey was banded as a jake in spring of last year. It was sevral miles from the band site when I got it. About three hundred banded birds were captured in various counties through out the state. A few in various separated geographically counties. Trying to see how far birds move , and various other factors TWRA is studying about the health of the flock and population dynamics.