Went to the woods this morning snd got set up under a big pine, set the decoys out about thirty yards in the field and waited on daylight. at 7:15 I had not heard a bird, probably because of the rain. I did a fly down cackle and flaped my wing. I got a instance response about 75 yards up the ridge. in just a few min three birds glided off the roost and into the field probably a hundred yards off, they were joined by five more birds soon after. i was giving a few soft yelps to get thier attention and they kept moving slowly away. it was a pretty sight watching the old boss tom strut around and then he would chase off the less dominate gooblers. finally at 8:30 i got out the old raspy mouth call and gave a few loud yelps and some serious cutting. they went crazy and goobled thier heads off. i seen the two lesser birds break off and head my way, they came across the top of a little hump in the field spotted the decoys and came in on a string. I shoot the biggest one of the two at seven yards. it weighed 20.4 lbs and had a 9 1/2 inch beard and inch spurs. not bad for a scrub the funny thing was that the shoot didnt effect the other birds at all. they continued to feed along the field and goobled to my calls. i guess me and wv boy might have to pay them another visit monday.

Congratulations B2H!! Sounds like an exciting hunt

Well today is in the past now. Got to my hunting area around 5:30, NO RAIN. As I slipped up the ridge to where I thought the birds were it started to rain. This lasted for about 20min. Now the woods were comming alive and a bird sounded off about 75 yards from my setup. Another bird gobbled about 200yards (long ways off). I decided to set facing the closer bird. Well he gobbled about 5 times and went quite. I waited and called very softly, nothing again I called very softly. He went silent, but the other bird father away was gobbling good and moving my way. He gobbles once more and he was close. I shifted my self to his direction and waited. I started to hear the puffffff Vroooom of his strut and he was on the move to me. He way with 4 jakes no hens. I moved very slowly a little more spooking one of the jakes. I thought gig up, but he just stood there stutting at about 25 yards. He was a good two year old 9 1/2 inch beard 7/8 in spurs and weighed 19.2 oz a good bird. This was my first opening day bird ever and I have been out there for about 15-16 years. What a day, hope all stayed dry and had good luck. I will post pictures late, BTW how do I do that.

Jon

Congrtulatins to BTH and 721...sounds like the best kind of opening day...just you and the birds and a little adverse weather o make it even more memorable...

Way to go guys!! Love to hear success stories.

way to go fellers!!!

That is a good way to get the season started guys!!

Doug

Congrats Jon on the opener. The boys and I heard no gobbles this morning but we had fun with 6 hens who came to within 15 yards of our setup. No gobbler with them. I saw several hens today but no gobblers. Maybe next week.

Jason Guilliams

I havnt read what you other fellas wrote yet but i had a day like i will never have before. I bet you i heard over one hundred diffrent gobbles from who knows how many diffrent birds. There was not a ten second frame without a bird gobbling. I ended my morning when i called in a double beareded gobbler. Ten inch and 4.5 inch. and layed the smack down on him with #4's. By the way i was in southampton.

Congratulations to you guys on fine birds! I was able to harvest a nice bird this a.m. in the middle of a down-pour. I arrived at my location at about 6:30 a.m. and struck a bird right off the bat he was gobbling his head off! I took two quick steps to setup and flushed a hen off the roost, which had me worried because he quit gobbling after she flushed. So I started calling to the bird but got no response, but after the rain slacked boom, GOOOBBLEE! He gobbled about two more times, slipped in on me silent strutting and I was able to make about a 35-40 yard shot on him. The results 22 1/2 lbs., 10 1/2 inch beard, one 7/8 of an inch spur and one 1 inch spur. All and all a great rainy day hunt that I will never forget.

Garrett

Congrats to all of you
Keep em Gobblin!
Struttinbird

how do you post a picture? forgot how