Skully
PMA Member
Small two year old or a big Jake, whatever you want to call it that's what I ended up with on my first 3rd season outing. 
Two toms were yammering on an oak ridge at 7 am so I decided to pack up and give chase. Seems the reason they were strutting and gobbling their heads off was because of a lone hen still yelping in the roost tree above them. When she seen me slipping up towards the toms she spooked and flew off in the other direction. 
The toms followed suit and in no time they were barely within earshot of me. I decided to do some stealthy big timber ridge-line sneaking to get as close as I could to them and try to draw them away. In my pursuit I managed to spook a whole herd of deer that of course HAD to run right at the turks I was trying to stalk! To my surprise the deer running by didn't phase them. They kept strutting and gobbling! I belly crawled up to an old dead log and rested my trusty Remington 12 ga on it and gave them a few soft purrs with my mouth call. They were jacked up and both turned 180* and came strutting straight at me! One had a red head and one had a white head so I of course picked out old whitey and gave him a face full of #5's at about 30 paces. He took it pretty hard and didn't even flop! When I picked him up I could tell he was a pretty good bird but he only had a 7 inch beard and just shy of 3/4" spurs. He ended up weighing just over 21 lbs. Weirdest formed bird I've ever shot but it felt good to have a hunt go like it should and now that my partner and I have tagged large-midget birds we can concentrate on trophy class animals from here on out. :way: Good luck to those out chasing this week!
Large midget bird:
Two toms were yammering on an oak ridge at 7 am so I decided to pack up and give chase. Seems the reason they were strutting and gobbling their heads off was because of a lone hen still yelping in the roost tree above them. When she seen me slipping up towards the toms she spooked and flew off in the other direction. The toms followed suit and in no time they were barely within earshot of me. I decided to do some stealthy big timber ridge-line sneaking to get as close as I could to them and try to draw them away. In my pursuit I managed to spook a whole herd of deer that of course HAD to run right at the turks I was trying to stalk! To my surprise the deer running by didn't phase them. They kept strutting and gobbling! I belly crawled up to an old dead log and rested my trusty Remington 12 ga on it and gave them a few soft purrs with my mouth call. They were jacked up and both turned 180* and came strutting straight at me! One had a red head and one had a white head so I of course picked out old whitey and gave him a face full of #5's at about 30 paces. He took it pretty hard and didn't even flop! When I picked him up I could tell he was a pretty good bird but he only had a 7 inch beard and just shy of 3/4" spurs. He ended up weighing just over 21 lbs. Weirdest formed bird I've ever shot but it felt good to have a hunt go like it should and now that my partner and I have tagged large-midget birds we can concentrate on trophy class animals from here on out. :way: Good luck to those out chasing this week!Large midget bird:
