Monday, the second day, l Hunted early in same area where I had killed the first day gobbler. Had a bird gobbling on the ground from daylight till 10 am but he would not get anywhere close and stayed anywhere from 75 to 150 yards out. He had hens ( or the hens had him) and never would commit to my set up. About the time I thought maybe the hens would leave that bird a logging worker drove a four wheeler nearby and spooked the whole crowd.
So after a quick sandwich I moved to a property greenfield where I had killed several birds over the years. Set up a pop up blind, full strut b mobile decoy and two Avian X hens, got in a nap, and waited for late afternoon when birds typically are in or around this field. The area is so open I wanted to get in there early and so waited /slept three hours for the magic time. Never heard any gobbles and tried hen calls and locators through out the period(except for thirty minute nap) but no responses. At 545 Im thinking maybe the birds won't show. Then I heard that distinct vibration of a gobbler drumming. It was not real close but it was clearly a drumming bird. I peeked around the three window sides of the blind where I had visibility but could not see the bird. Finally I spotted the strutting and drumming bird 80 yards out and marching ever so slowly through the woods adjacent to the field. I ran a few low hen purr and clucks on the Cody but the bird never gobbled but he did keep marching straight in to the edge of the field on a path that was going to be right in perfect shooting line. He kept on drumming and strutting and at 25 yards I dropped him , no flop, and with plain old lead shot at that!
Really nice bird, beard just short of 11 inches longest strand, spurs 1.25 and one seriously hooked. I did not weigh it but he was super heavy for this area of Florida, maybe 23 pounds I would guess. He also had one of those big ol snapping turtle -type-heads that tells me he was the boss of the area. Just a pure heavyweight .
Interestingly between two birds I killed there was one gobble only and both came in a long way just drumming. Not unusual for mid day or afternoon when Henned up birds are the targets.
Pictures of the hanging bird, and a poor shot of me and the bird, and the spurs and beards of day 1 and day 2 bird, after cleaning.
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