Wednesday morning I drug myself out of bed to hit the woods. I have hunted around 4 times a week since the season came in, but I hadn't worked a bird since the second day of the season. There were a couple days where one gobbled a time or 2 within a couple hundred yards of me, but for the most part I haven't been on birds for a month.
I arrived at the property and made the quarter mile hike up hill to my usual listening spot. Daylight came and no gobbles. Just the same as it had been the past 7 or 8 times I hunted this property. Still, I hoped there might be a long beard somewhere in the vicinity. I headed over to a field adjacent to a usual roost area and sat my decoys out about 20 yards away. I went to the edge of the field and sat up against a cedar tree. I could see toward the area I expected a gobbler to come from with a cedar thicket to my back. I couldn't see very far to my left because of a couple other cedars blocking my view, but the pasture extends in that direction 500-600 yards, as well. I sat down and began blind calling every 15 minutes or so. A group of cows came in curiously to my decoys about 20 minutes after sitting down and hung around about 15 minutes before heading off. I continued to call sporadically. Around 7:30 I caught a glimpse of movement over my right shoulder and I slowly turned my head. It was a hen and she was only about 15 yards away. She was uneasy, but not completely spooked. I began clucking and purring a bit, and she hung around for about 20 or 30 seconds behind me before heading back into the cedars. I continued looking back over my shoulder in her direction and soft calling for another 30 seconds. When I turned back around facing forward I noticed a gobbler strutting in about 5 yards from the decoys coming from my left. I couldn't believe it. I let him strut around the jake decoy for about 30 seconds and I could hear him spitting and drumming. When he came out of strut I put the red dot on his neck and squeezed the trigger of the little 20 gauge I got for my son before the season came in.
He had 7/8" spurs 9.5" beard and 20 lbs.
