I've been busy trying to fix up a new house and with a new little one so I haven't been able to comment on very many of the great stories and birds taken on here. Belated Congrats to everyone that has posted!
I haven't been so busy that I didn't get to turkey hunt though! I have a couple stories here to share.
The first story starts with me hunting a spot before work a few times the first couple weeks of the season and hearing some birds off the property that I couldn't seem to get over to the property I can hunt. They eventually started roosting more consistently down the river and were moving downriver and away from me when they hit the ground. This was a good distance from my property but I had a buddy that could hunt a property up that way. So I called him up and we made a plan.
That Saturday we slipped in early and set up some decoys. We heard the group of gobblers that I had been hearing across the river and we also heard a bird gobbling good close by. The close bird eventually flew down in the field and he was a big boss gobbler. He seemed like he was about to come in but angled past us at about 60 yards. Because of the angle and some brush in the way we were not sure if he saw the decoys or not. We expected him to circle around us and sat tight. Calling occasionally to keep the gobblers across the river interested.
The gobblers across the river at one time were going away from us, but then turned and started coming back. As they got closer we called more and got them fired up. They went past us, still on the other side of the river, then turned again and came back in line with us. Finally one of them flew across. He landed in the field and was gobbling good but although he was the dominant bird of the group he was scared of that big boss gobbler from earlier. He walked back towards the river gobbling to his buddies as if to say, I need some help over here. I was a little worried he might fly back but after 15 minutes his buddies joined him. I had thought that there were three gobblers together but it turned out there were five. It was awesome seeing them gobble in unison, break into strut and half strut, and peck at each other. They all gobbled in front of us at 25 yards and it sounded like a train was nearby. When we were sure that both of us had a shot we knocked two down.
Here is a picture of my bird:
I will try to make the second story short and sweet. This was in the mountains on a Friday. I listened from my listening spot and had one bird gobbling good on the mountain to my left and another bird across a ravine to my right. I moved a short distance to an opening in between the two gobblers, set up a decoy quick, and jumped into a little brush blind that I had set up before the season.
I hit my box call and they responded. Knowing I didn't have long before I needed to get to work I tried something different. I used my gobble tube twice trying to get the gobblers jealous. Before I could even put my call down a gobbler flew into the opening. Luckily he landed out of my site because of the way I had set up the brush blind. I was able to put my call down and ease up my gun. I hear the two gobblers from earlier and realize this was a different bird. Eventually the longbeard walks into my lane drumming the entire way. He went down at about 20 yards.
