lunker99
Active Member
Finally got out with Drew this morning for his youth hunt. Decided not to go Friday morning since he had a golf meet that day. Yesterday was a wash out with the weather here. Wasn't as nice a morning as I'd hoped with the wind putting a damper on the morning turkey talk. No gobbling on the roost but was in an area that usually has birds so still had confidence that we would have turkeys to work at some point. As it got light I noticed that the strong wind had blown the hen decoy that I had sitting under the jake on her side and 2 ft away from where it belonged. Made the quick sneak out hoping something wasn't in a tree nearby to see me getting it put back in place and staked it down this time so it wouldn't happen again. That was about as exciting as things got until the turkeys snuck in from behind us. I had made a couple series of calls with no response once it was light enough that the turkeys should have been on the ground. Had just got done with another series of yelps and cuts that I had amped up the volume on trying to reach out through the wind when a couple minutes later thought I heard a faint drumming sound behind the blind. Wasn't quite convinced it was a turkey but still nudged Drew to listen for it to see if he could hear anything. Wasn't long before it drummed again letting us know there was a turkey close by. Turned out to be two of them and they were covering gro-und fast. When we heard them the second time I motioned for Drew to get his gun ready and by that time they were already coming into view on the left side of the blind. They were close, only 8-10 yards away but the strutter not only kept his head tucked down as he worked towards the decoys but his buddy also refused to get out of the way for a clean shot. Both birds were mature but the wingman didn't have a visible beard which made the target an easy choice. They worked across the front of the blind angling away before they split up enough for a shot. A couple light yelps was enough to get the strutter to raise his head and Drew dropped him in his tracks. Looked at the phone and it was 6:45 when he pulled the trigger. Didn't think of grabbing the camera when the birds first appeared but took this picture soon after. The second turkey is in the background between the flopping turkey and the pair of decoys. Did some cutting at him to see if he would come in to flog his partner but only gave us a gobble, the only one we heard all morning.
Was shocked at the size of the spurs when we walked up to his turkey, wasn't guessing them that mature they way they worked in and the size of the beards that they had.
Since Drew is my contest partner here's the pics for the stats. 1 1/2" and 1 7/16" spurs
9.5" beard
Was a little surprised it went this heavy as well 25.83 lbs,
Plugging those into the calculator come up with 74.1875 for his turkey.
Was shocked at the size of the spurs when we walked up to his turkey, wasn't guessing them that mature they way they worked in and the size of the beards that they had.
Since Drew is my contest partner here's the pics for the stats. 1 1/2" and 1 7/16" spurs
9.5" beard
Was a little surprised it went this heavy as well 25.83 lbs,
Plugging those into the calculator come up with 74.1875 for his turkey.
