Just found out about the site and thought I'd post a few pics. from my 1st week of the 05 N.C. season.
I hunt in a club in Halifax, N.C. on the Roanoke River.
1st Bird came in perfect, I had been scouting a field 2 weeks and knew they were using it hard especially since the river & swamps were high limiting the places to feed around this particular field. The day before I had seen a nice bird strutting w/ a few hens and jakes. For the morning hunt 4/11 I set up on the edge of the field w/ 2 hen decoys and a jake where the bird had gone in the evening before hoping it was close to the roost. I set one of the hen decoys down on the ground and had the jake standing over it. At light he was gobbling hard & close +- 75 yrds so I didn't even touch the call since there were hens in the same area and I thought they would come to the field. I heard some birds fly down & out 1st came 3 jakes which ran over to my decoys 20 yrds away and started doing circles around them. As they were out in the field I could hear more birds coming and looked over to see him strutting through the woods w/ 2 hens. Just when I saw him, he saw the decoys and ran out into the field. Now he's strutting 20 yrds. away and the jakes are still trying to figure out who are the new guys in the field. I kept looking to see if there was another bird coming. While this was happening one of the jakes came over +- 5 yrds. and made me. The gobbler started walking back in the woods 20 yrds. away which gave me a clean shot from where I was set up. 6:45am & about 30 yrds from where he flew down.
10 1/2" beard
1 1/8" spurs
2nd Bird took some more scouting since I had seen 4 separate groups of hens over 2 days without any gobblers or jakes. Anyone that hunted last weekend knows the wind was horrible so after Fri. mornings hunt & seeing all the hens I scouted another field and found fresh " big " tracks in 1 area and even more hen tracks in another on the same field. Since I had not hunted this are before and its close to other property where the clubs often poach on our land I decided to hunt a different area Sat. morn. That morn. 4/16 I saw more hens and heard 1 gobble but it was too windy to do much of anything. That afternoon I headed out to the field +- 3pm, walked in and set up a pop-up blind and the same decoy spread +- 20 yrds. in front of the blind. I called once and put it down because I didn't think anything could hear in the wind + it felt like my blind was going to get blown away at any moment. Well, after sitting for awhile and 2nd guessing my decision of where to set up I see something on the edge of the woods. It moves ... yep its a turkey and as I'm reaching for my range finder to see if its a hen or gobbler he steps out in the sun and starts strutting. I didn't know exactly how far he was but knew it was 40+ yrds. Even though he was strutting he acted like he wanted to go the other way so when he gave me a clear shot I let him have it. He fell, 55 yrds, Benelli 3 1/2" w/ #5 Rem. high vel. copper platted shot.
10" Beard
1 1/8" spurs
Nice way to end the season, hope the pics. come through ok.
Russ
Va. Bch, VA
