Sometimes you just have to stay with it

HODY · Sun Apr 21, 2013 2:13 pm

Ive been hunting long enough to know that in Spring Gobbler hunting things can change on a dime. Yesterday was just that lesson. After scoring Thursday I had a pretty good idea that the birds were starting to break up a bit and a few areas they were at. Saturday morning stated out OK with me hearing a bird on the roost. He wasnt as close as Id like but I was on the opposite side of a field with decoys out so I stayed put. After hitting the ground he pitched down the other way and down a steep hill to a very low bottom. I could hear him gobble a few times and figured he had hens. I decided to explore some different areas to see what was happening. It got windy and just didnt feel like a great day to hunt but I stuck with it. After walking quite a ways and calling I rested for a bit on a point and the wind was howling. I decide to go out another ride and at the end had a gobbler answer...WAY off. I sat there for a bit to see if it would gobble again but no luck. I came back and decided to hunt an area that I dont get to hunt very often. After getting in there a ways I make a call before getting into a ridge that holds birds..immediate answer from a pair of gobblers. Wow, just when you think things are not going to happen, a gobble changes everything in an instant. Scrambling to set up I figure they were going to come in to this nice pretty little green field.....remember this part. No time to set a deke so I just set up and give a yelp...cut off Gooobblle. Cool.I do a few purrs but no answer, so I wait a bit and yelp again...closer...double gobbles from both....but coming to my left. I shift around and wait...purr some more, silence...hmmm. Ok Ill give them another yelp....double and triple gobbles. At this point I would have normally shut up but because it looked like they were going to come to my left or behind I had to keep checking them because when they showed up they would be in range. I gave another yelp and this time they gobbled until they were out of breath, that is so awesome to hear that. I shift again as they are CLOSE. After a bit I figure I better check one more time to make sure the gun is aligned to their arrival point...Its that close gobble that rattles and roars...holy cow they are right there, then I see two heads bobbing in the thick brush. The one gets to the right while the other steps closer, then behind a big pile of mess. OK come to the right one step...no he decides to come left, a little shift of the gun and I make the shot count. At the shot the other bird gobbles....I jump up to run to them as I hear no flopping.....and see a motionless longbeard laying there. Not too often to you get them stone dead without a flop so I was happy to see him there. The other bird flew in a tree and stayed there for a bit putting at me....wondering where his buddy had gone. He then flew away and I carried the bird out to the area where I figured they would come to and played with a new app on my Iphone that is a camera delay. Works pretty cool. What a great hunt. It is amazing that you feel like its just not gonna happen but then that sound we all thrive to hear changes it all. What an exciting hunt.

Sometimes you just have to stay with it

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