What a roller coaster of a morning. Hunted some public land Monday and today and finally sealed the deal on #2. Yesterday I never heard a bird and put in alot of miles. Never really saw any sign in the 3 areas I went in either. So a area I have really good luck in opened up today and I was pumped only to hear nothing gobble on the roost. Knowing there has to be birds here I walk about a mile down in the creek bottom and just setup and blind call again nothing seen or heard. I had a gentlemen come up on me and he said he did work a bird on the other side of the area and he was going to go back mid day and see if he could work him later on . So I decided to do some running and gunning and made the loop back to my truck at 10:00. Not wanting to give up and it was starting to get warm I know of a food plot about 3/4 of a mile back in the woods. I grab a hen and Jake decoy and make it to the edge of the field and don't see anything so I grab the crow call and I get a bird to gobble about 300 yards back in the woods. So I setup the decoys and jump back in the brush and let out some yelps and nothing. Do another call sequence and nothing. So I stay quiet for a while and decide to try the crow call again and nothing. Been about 45 mins since I've called last so I grab the pot call and let out about 5-6 yelps and nothing. So I switched it up a bit and did a long yelp sequence like 15-20 yelps and he gobbled about 150 yards away in front of me. Really caught me off guard so get the gun up and now he is gobbling on his own and moving closer to the field entrance I see his fan he steps off the road into the field sees me decoys and turns around and walks away. I payed good money for them avainx's but at that moment I wanted to shoot both of them. So I see him walking up the road back to the truck and it's 11 o'clock I figured I would give him a bit and see if I could find him because he really seemed interested. So 11:30 I get up and start walking up the road stopping and calling and at 11:45 I'm about 300 yards from the truck and decided to do one more last call so yelped and nothing then I remembered I did that really long yelp sequence and I tried it and he literally gobbled 150 yards from me. I dive into this little pine thicket that is 5 yards wide and then it just drops off a steep hill and the road I was walking down was to my right. So I grab the call again and nothing and not knowing what he was doing I grab a stick and start raking leaves and purring I grab my phone to check the time and it's 11:55. Thinking this gig is up and he just gave me a courtesy gobble and is just walking away a lay the phone down and then I start hearing foot steps in the leaves I really can't explain what happened to me after that I literally starting getting the shakes and breathing really hard and I remembered I want to calm down because here iam trying to hear the footsteps and all I can hear is me breathing like I just ran a marathon. So it's getting closer and closer and what I hear sounds like he is coming up this steep ridge to my left so I swing the gun and I'm scanning frantically looking for a head and then I catch movement out my right eye he is literally 20 yards in front of me he came thru that 5 yards wide pine thicket. He turns sideways and goes into stut and knowing that time was almost out I swung. He never moved and I let him have it. I grab my phone and it said 11:59 and litterly turned to 12 while I looked. Can't say I have ever had a hunt come down to the wire so close.

21 pounds
1 inch Spurs
10 in beard

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I took a pic after I got all my gear and walked up and pulled him out of the thicket at 12:04

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Congratulations on a really nice bird.


Earl

Awesome bro!! Glad you sealed the deal, congrats on a nice bird. I can relate to that story a lot on a few levels. I know what you mean about when you get that pumped up when whatever you're hunting is on the way in like that and so close- that's the rush we all know and love as part of the hunt- no matter how many you've got under your belt it never goes away and that's what the thrill of the hunt is all about.

I wear electronic ear midday when I hunt, the kind you can turn the volume up and hear every little thing around you- great for hearing distant gobbling and quiet footsteps in the leaves, but also every little noise that you may inadvertently make. Like breathing- I've been in that same situation, adrenaline starts going and I was breathing so heavily (and my muffs were amplifying it even more) that not only was that all I could hear but I started to think I was gonna get busted- then you start to try to quit yourself down by force and sounds like you're shivering lol.

I know this is the turkey section- but I killed a deer like that this past season. Almost the exact same thing with the timing but without all the walking. I had been after several bucks at my main location for all of bow season, countless hours scouting and in the stand, thousands of trail cam pics, tons of sightings, and weekly encounters with all of them, but they ALWAYS seemed to skirt me or come before or after legal time. During the rut they were responding to my grunts and scents just about every time, but would always remain out of sight or range. Tried every trick in the book- one buck actually came in grunting back and forth with me for like 200+ yards until he got towards the edge of my property (he was on non huntable public coming onto private I had rights to), which is essentially almost a sheer cliff down to a river valley. The deer can traverse it it's tough for people. Anyway, he gets there and totally shuts up, but I can occasionally hear footsteps as he works in. From where I could hear him I should have been able to see him but I couldn't, it was starting to get pretty dark in there. I'm searching frantically for him because I can't hear the footsteps any more where he should have been (nor can I see him) and I got so focused and frustrated and zoned in to where he should have been walking out based on patterns and their regular paths to the feeder, that somehow I missed that he doubled back, came in about 50 yards to my left using a small creek valley as cover (no leaves crunching, no line of sight) up the ATV path and hopped the fence to the pasture behind me. Meanwhile I'm thinking he's still hung up, he's behind me in the pasture scoping me out in my stand while I'm grunting looking the other way down towards the feeder- then here's the dinger... he proceeds to walk out of the pasture by PUSHING OPEN the cattle gate to add insult to injury- as soon as I heard it I turn to see his white ass and tail waiving at me as he disappeared over the path into the woods. Of course I had to go shut the gate on my way out too.

1 month later its shotgun season. I've been trying my hardest to pattern these suckers- so I'm sitting in the stand one evening that from what I could tell based on temp and moon phase and blah blah blah that they would show up before legal lights over. 4 hours in the stand and all I've seen was a button buck come eat his fill and leave. Look at my watch and I've got 5 minutes left, start thinking once again "this blows, I can't believe they didn't come" when I hear leaves crunch to my far right. I look over and there's 5 deer coming in. 4 does and mr. slippery with his 140"ish 8 pt rack. So of course my heart starts pounding, they're about 35-40 yards out and closing the distance to the feeder. I slowly raise my shotgun and glance at my watch- 3 minutes left. It's almost completely dark because of the thick tree cover. I look through the scope, and I can't see a damn thing through the objective, too dark. I zoom it all the way out (it's a Nikon prostaff 3-9x40 slughunter) and doesn't do much to help. I go back and forth looking up at the deer and down through the scope, trying to make sure I was on the right one, the light was fading so fast I was almost unable to see his rack anymore at all, last thing I wanted to do was end up with a doe with him right there in front of me. Every time I looked down through the scope I would lose him. I finally lined up my shotgun with my line of sight, figured out where he was the best I could, waited for him to turn broadside, and let it rip. All the deer jump, his front legs collapse and he did a frantic snowplow all the way to the feeder, into the feeder actually- put the slug right through the base of his shoulder blade, broke his leg and through both lungs. The second he quit kicking, I looked at my watch and, no joke, hit the end of legal time as I looked (I think it was like 5:28 or something but I'm not sure exactly)- just like you with this bird. Talk about satisfaction and relief!

Crazy though, the buzzer beater kills like that will stick with you forever. You'll always remember this bird like that and that's how I'll always remember that buck. Congrats on your kill, great bird with a story just as great behind it. Just goes to show why you should never pack it in early, make every minute count, you never know when your prey will turn up!!!

Very nice.. congrats on #2

Great hunt! I killed one at 11:45 a few years back (had to use a gobble shaker to get him to come the last stretch) but you can't beat 11:59 for getting full value out of the morning.

Good job Matt, Congrats!

V