THA4
A Few Steps Ahead Of You
Again, this isn’t a simple slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am story, so feel free to skip ahead and view the pictures, but I promise you, this was a classic Thomas Allen hunt. Nothing comes easy, I swear.
My Nebraska trip and the first few days of fourth season can be summed up as close but no cigar. I had more close encounters in a week’s time without getting it done than I ever have. I was able to harvest a beautiful bird in Nebraska but had to eat tag #2, I am satisfied however because I worked my tail off and found success in a rather unconventional manner.
This is no different. With a lot of work ahead of me and bass tournaments to fish, and allergies kicking my butt; I still wanted to enjoy my time in the woods, but like many of you, I wanted to get it done.
I set up my blind in a spot where we routinely saw birds strutting anytime between 9 and 1 PM and decided to sit till then hoping to capitalize. The birds didn’t gobble anywhere near I had hoped, in fact the closet gobbling bird was over a quarter mile away. I was going to stick it out.
Right off the bat, a hen came in and milled around but no gobbies. Finally, 10:30 rolled around and I was getting antsy, so I started glassing distant hillside and was excited to find two lone gobblers working their way through a pasture to a spot I knew they would end up. It was do or die time, so I elected to throw the dekes in the blind and set out after them.
I was kinda scared because it was a long walk and….. well…. I’m a bigger fella and quite out of shape. But I digress, I started out as fast as I could and when I reached the crick bottom I was to use to maneuver my way into position to get in front of these birds and hopefully make a shot.
I was already out of breath by the time I got to the crick and things were about to get very interesting. I guess I should have known this, but the crick bottom was not hard, in fact it was flat out sloppy…. It meandered back and forth and more than once I sunk in over my knee boots… still hot, sweaty, fat, and out of breath.
At one point, I slipped and dropped my TK 2000 in the bottom of the crick, totally submerged my ‘loader and you know water and muzzleloaders don’t mix! So I didn’t even know if it would go off if the opportunity presented itself.
I got to a place where I thought these birds would come through, I set up and to my delight, they were only 100 yards out and kinda working my way, well…. They ended up turning and continuing to another spot I MIGHT be able to get to… So back to the crick bottom…. I hate that crick bottom….. it almost killed me!
Finally, I got ahead of them, shimmied up the steep and sloppy bank and crawled 50 yards though poison ivy and stick weed, which eventually covered me head to toe… hey, natural 3D camo. I figured they were close, but I had to make it to one last tree to have a shot. I made it, clicked off my safety, shouldered my dripping wet and sand covered ‘loader, got to my knees and popped up.
I was right where I needed to be, but they saw me and turned to leave. I picked the closest red head and squeezed off the shot. The smoke enhanced the asthma attack I was already having and almost put me into cardiac arrest…. After the smoke cleared and I pulled myself together the sight of the upside down bicycle made my day!
I couldn’t have been happier with this bird, especially since it almost killed me. I managed to take a hefty charge from an electric fence as I leaned my loader against it as I was recovering…. Not what I needed! I also had to haul the bird, my blind/chair, gun and gear up a stupid hill to get back to my truck… I think I saw Jesus.
Here he is!! 20 lbs, spurs- 1-1/8th” and 1-1/16th” and a paintbrush 10.5” beard. I love this stuff!!!
Check out this gnarly claw! I would hate to catch that in the leg during the death flop!
I have been really blessed this season! Good luck to those of you still with tags!!!!
My Nebraska trip and the first few days of fourth season can be summed up as close but no cigar. I had more close encounters in a week’s time without getting it done than I ever have. I was able to harvest a beautiful bird in Nebraska but had to eat tag #2, I am satisfied however because I worked my tail off and found success in a rather unconventional manner.
This is no different. With a lot of work ahead of me and bass tournaments to fish, and allergies kicking my butt; I still wanted to enjoy my time in the woods, but like many of you, I wanted to get it done.
I set up my blind in a spot where we routinely saw birds strutting anytime between 9 and 1 PM and decided to sit till then hoping to capitalize. The birds didn’t gobble anywhere near I had hoped, in fact the closet gobbling bird was over a quarter mile away. I was going to stick it out.
Right off the bat, a hen came in and milled around but no gobbies. Finally, 10:30 rolled around and I was getting antsy, so I started glassing distant hillside and was excited to find two lone gobblers working their way through a pasture to a spot I knew they would end up. It was do or die time, so I elected to throw the dekes in the blind and set out after them.
I was kinda scared because it was a long walk and….. well…. I’m a bigger fella and quite out of shape. But I digress, I started out as fast as I could and when I reached the crick bottom I was to use to maneuver my way into position to get in front of these birds and hopefully make a shot.
I was already out of breath by the time I got to the crick and things were about to get very interesting. I guess I should have known this, but the crick bottom was not hard, in fact it was flat out sloppy…. It meandered back and forth and more than once I sunk in over my knee boots… still hot, sweaty, fat, and out of breath.
At one point, I slipped and dropped my TK 2000 in the bottom of the crick, totally submerged my ‘loader and you know water and muzzleloaders don’t mix! So I didn’t even know if it would go off if the opportunity presented itself.
I got to a place where I thought these birds would come through, I set up and to my delight, they were only 100 yards out and kinda working my way, well…. They ended up turning and continuing to another spot I MIGHT be able to get to… So back to the crick bottom…. I hate that crick bottom….. it almost killed me!
Finally, I got ahead of them, shimmied up the steep and sloppy bank and crawled 50 yards though poison ivy and stick weed, which eventually covered me head to toe… hey, natural 3D camo. I figured they were close, but I had to make it to one last tree to have a shot. I made it, clicked off my safety, shouldered my dripping wet and sand covered ‘loader, got to my knees and popped up.
I was right where I needed to be, but they saw me and turned to leave. I picked the closest red head and squeezed off the shot. The smoke enhanced the asthma attack I was already having and almost put me into cardiac arrest…. After the smoke cleared and I pulled myself together the sight of the upside down bicycle made my day!
I couldn’t have been happier with this bird, especially since it almost killed me. I managed to take a hefty charge from an electric fence as I leaned my loader against it as I was recovering…. Not what I needed! I also had to haul the bird, my blind/chair, gun and gear up a stupid hill to get back to my truck… I think I saw Jesus.
Here he is!! 20 lbs, spurs- 1-1/8th” and 1-1/16th” and a paintbrush 10.5” beard. I love this stuff!!!
Check out this gnarly claw! I would hate to catch that in the leg during the death flop!
I have been really blessed this season! Good luck to those of you still with tags!!!!
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