This week has brought many fine memories in the turkey woods that I will not soon forget. I was fortunate to harvest a turkey with my buddy Paul on Monday morning. On Tuesday morning, on different property, I had another mature gobbler come to my decoys at 7:00 a.m. and hang around for a solid hour and a half. He was in full strut and presented an easy 35 yard shot and later he was joined by a jake and 3 hens. My decision for allowing him to walk was because he had a total of 4 feathers in his fan, 2 on the right and 2 on the left with the entire middle section apparently having been sued for someone's patterning board. He was still giving his all and he thought he looked great. It was very comical to see him dancing around my dekes with his white head glowing and that strange looking fan. I know he won't regrow that fan but my hope is to stick my tag on one that is a little better representative of the species. This morning (Wednesday) I had the good fortune of doing battle with this big boy and finally punched my second tag at 10:00. It was a classic duel with me changing setups 5 different times and switching from a box to a crystal pot to a glass pot and finally a yellow heart aluminum pot while mixing in a diaphragm for good measure. Following a 45 minute duel the aluminum pot call finally brought him in for a 25 yard shot. He had a 10.25 inch beard and weighed in at 18.73 lbs. and 1 1/8 inch spurs.
