meyeri
PMA Member
Got my first chance to hit the turkey woods on Mother's Day and it all came together. I went to some public ground near Boone and I didn't hear a gobble in the first 3 hours so I relocated to a new spot. I decided to slowly do some mushroom hunting and stop occasionally to call to see if any birds were around. 3 hours in and 4 dried up mushrooms later I finally heard a gobble. He was a ways off yet in thick timber so I closed about 100 yds and sat down facing the direction I thought he was. He gobbled again and to my surprise he was to my 3 o clock and about 80 yds away dragging 3 jakes and a hen in tow. I didn't have time to dig out my face mask and I was silhouetted pretty bad so I just froze where I was. He kept coming in and at about 60 yds he came out of full strut and did an alarm putt. I'm guessing he saw my white face or gloveless hands and didn't like it. I figured I had nothing to lose so I reached over and grabbed my reaper fan and put it in front of me. He instantly went back into full strut and started back my way. I kept watching him through the fan and slowly moved the fan back and forth as he worked closer. I was able to rotate and get into position using the fan as cover when he went behind some brush. At about 35/40 yds he decided something was fishy and he quickly went out of strut mode and into alarm mode. Lucky for me there was a small tree that gave me a window to drop the fan and shoulder the 870 before he jetted completely out of range. I squeezed off a shot on the move and it laid him out into a short flopping frenzy. I had forgot to put my full choke in but the #5 shot did it's job none the less with a modified choke. He ended up having a 9 inch beard, 1 1/2 inch Spurs and was around 20lbs if I had to guess. This is the third bird in 2 years that I shot between 10am and noon, this one being right around noon. I think I might have to start sleeping in! This was also one of the quickest hunts I've ever had. From the time I first heard him gobble to when I shot him was about ten minutes. Gotta love it when they cooperate!
