Liv4Rut
Active Member
I had a good hunt Saturday morning. My buddy Fred and I set up in a secluded bean field surrounded by timber on 3 sides. As we were setting up the blind in the middle of the field a bird started sounding off to the North about 150-200 yards. We heard a lot of other gobbles as well but all were way off in the distance. Shortly after fly down we noticed our bird to the north was heading North and not towards us like we thought. I would imagine he was henned up. I called a few times and he would hammer back at us but that was about it.
About a half hour later we heard a few gobbles getting closer and finally after about 10 minutes two long beards entered the field 500 yards to the South of us. I yelped real loud a few times and they both perked up and then I started moving my DSD spread. I put the call down and just worked the decoys for the next 10 minutes. One bird strutted and gobbled the whole way and the other just followed him around and gobbled sporadically.
Fred was slated to have first shot. The problem was he wasn't situated well in the blind to pull the shot off unles the birds were on the left side of the DSD jake. When the birds finally came in, the bird that seemed to be subordinant started pecking the DSDs head and then all the sudden the strutter jumped up on the jake and was mounting it. Fred looked at me and said shoot him!! Talk about unprepared. I grabbed my bow and made a little noise and the strutter jumped off the jake and both started walking away slowly.
At 10 yards I let the BT guardian eat and sent a Hammerhead perfectly into the bird. The bird flopped around a bit and was done. Fred then got his bow back and shot at the other one but grazed it with no luck. He then told me that the bird I shot was the one that he wanted. I asked him why and he said it had huge spurs. I wasn't even paying attention to them because I was more worried about him getting the shot.
He was right about the spurs as they measured right in at 1.5inches each. These are the biggest spurs by far out of the 30 birds or so I have taken. The bird weighed 21 pounds which seemed really light and had a 10 3/4 inch beard. Here are a few photos.
From the blind. You can see my bird laying dead behind the jake decoy at about 30 yards.
Here is the bird.
Here is a picture of the Spurs. I put a 3 inch 12 guage shell for reference.
About a half hour later we heard a few gobbles getting closer and finally after about 10 minutes two long beards entered the field 500 yards to the South of us. I yelped real loud a few times and they both perked up and then I started moving my DSD spread. I put the call down and just worked the decoys for the next 10 minutes. One bird strutted and gobbled the whole way and the other just followed him around and gobbled sporadically.
Fred was slated to have first shot. The problem was he wasn't situated well in the blind to pull the shot off unles the birds were on the left side of the DSD jake. When the birds finally came in, the bird that seemed to be subordinant started pecking the DSDs head and then all the sudden the strutter jumped up on the jake and was mounting it. Fred looked at me and said shoot him!! Talk about unprepared. I grabbed my bow and made a little noise and the strutter jumped off the jake and both started walking away slowly.
At 10 yards I let the BT guardian eat and sent a Hammerhead perfectly into the bird. The bird flopped around a bit and was done. Fred then got his bow back and shot at the other one but grazed it with no luck. He then told me that the bird I shot was the one that he wanted. I asked him why and he said it had huge spurs. I wasn't even paying attention to them because I was more worried about him getting the shot.
He was right about the spurs as they measured right in at 1.5inches each. These are the biggest spurs by far out of the 30 birds or so I have taken. The bird weighed 21 pounds which seemed really light and had a 10 3/4 inch beard. Here are a few photos.
From the blind. You can see my bird laying dead behind the jake decoy at about 30 yards.
Here is the bird.
Here is a picture of the Spurs. I put a 3 inch 12 guage shell for reference.
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