jmoose
PMA Member
After finally filling my bow tag on Friday, I couldn't wait to get the gun out and hunt without carrying a blind, chairs, decoys, etc! My bro had a 4th season tag as well and I knew just where to go. There is one particular bird in one of my spots that has given me the slip 3 times over the last week. Well, Saturday morning this bird was roosted in the general vicinity he usually is. He flew down and proceeded to strut and gobble in one place, 100 yards from us, for a couple hours before moving on... away from us.
Bird: 4
Me: 0
Sunday morning we had a new plan...we were going to get right in his bedroom. We snuck in quietly, very early. We set up on the very ridge this bird likes to strut on almost every day. I was excited. Finally, revenge would be mine! As the woods started to wake up, so did my nemesis. The problem was, he was roosted two ridges North of me! Well, he and another gobbler flew down and continued gobbling...away from us.
Bird: 5
Me: 0
I told Joel to follow me. We were making a move. As quickly as we could without making too much noise, we moved and got set up on the ridge those birds had been roosted on...about 100 yards from where i'd heard them last gobble. We picked out a couple good trees and i purred a little with my slate call. GOBBLE! GOBBLE! Two birds answer, right where I thought they'd be. We got our guns up and waited for the inevitable.
15 minutes pass without any sign of them. I yelped softly with my mouth call. GOBBLE! GOBBLE! Two birds answer just over the hill. Ten minutes later, the top of a fan appears, then two red heads. I purred a little, just to get a better show, and they both gobbled and went into the mean walk...you all know the one I'm talking about...the half strut, fast-paced, beard swinging from side to side walk. At 35 yards, Joel (sitting to my right) couldn't shoot the one on right At 30 yards, he could but I couldn't shoot the one on the left. Then the bird on the right saw something he didn't like. His head came up, he putted, and he turned to leave. At the exact same time, the bird on the left stepped out from behind a tree.
"Shoot em!"
BOOM!!
Two birds dropped!
We stood up, started to high-five, and to our suprise, the bird on the right got up and flew away! He was across the creek and gone before we even knew what happened.
What should have been a double for the Moose brothers, turned into just one filled tag, but a very fun, exciting hunt! Not to mention one heckuva story!
Joel was a little disappointed at first, but I told him it happens and at least we had some excitement. Now we just gotta find another one for him. We do each have a WI tag as well, so hopefully we can find him another bird here and then head up to WI and double up the weekend of the 18th.
I'm telling myself that the one I shot was my nemesis, but in all reality, it was probably the one that got up and flew away, as lucky as he's been! If so, I took out some frustration on his buddy then!
My bird:
23 lbs
11" beard
1" spurs
Bird: 4
Me: 0
Sunday morning we had a new plan...we were going to get right in his bedroom. We snuck in quietly, very early. We set up on the very ridge this bird likes to strut on almost every day. I was excited. Finally, revenge would be mine! As the woods started to wake up, so did my nemesis. The problem was, he was roosted two ridges North of me! Well, he and another gobbler flew down and continued gobbling...away from us.
Bird: 5
Me: 0
I told Joel to follow me. We were making a move. As quickly as we could without making too much noise, we moved and got set up on the ridge those birds had been roosted on...about 100 yards from where i'd heard them last gobble. We picked out a couple good trees and i purred a little with my slate call. GOBBLE! GOBBLE! Two birds answer, right where I thought they'd be. We got our guns up and waited for the inevitable.
15 minutes pass without any sign of them. I yelped softly with my mouth call. GOBBLE! GOBBLE! Two birds answer just over the hill. Ten minutes later, the top of a fan appears, then two red heads. I purred a little, just to get a better show, and they both gobbled and went into the mean walk...you all know the one I'm talking about...the half strut, fast-paced, beard swinging from side to side walk. At 35 yards, Joel (sitting to my right) couldn't shoot the one on right At 30 yards, he could but I couldn't shoot the one on the left. Then the bird on the right saw something he didn't like. His head came up, he putted, and he turned to leave. At the exact same time, the bird on the left stepped out from behind a tree.
"Shoot em!"
BOOM!!
Two birds dropped!
We stood up, started to high-five, and to our suprise, the bird on the right got up and flew away! He was across the creek and gone before we even knew what happened.
What should have been a double for the Moose brothers, turned into just one filled tag, but a very fun, exciting hunt! Not to mention one heckuva story!
Joel was a little disappointed at first, but I told him it happens and at least we had some excitement. Now we just gotta find another one for him. We do each have a WI tag as well, so hopefully we can find him another bird here and then head up to WI and double up the weekend of the 18th.
I'm telling myself that the one I shot was my nemesis, but in all reality, it was probably the one that got up and flew away, as lucky as he's been! If so, I took out some frustration on his buddy then!
My bird:
23 lbs
11" beard
1" spurs
, great bird and way to finally layith the smackith down on that bird.