I started my week out working a 60 hour shift on the ambulance. The only thing getting me through that was knowing I would be turkey hunting Thursday morning. As I got off work and looked at the forecast, I saw it was calling for rain the next two days. I was little bummed because those were the only days I could hunt before heading back to work. I was able to borrow a pop up blind from Trevor so I could stay dry while hunting. So I wake up Thursday morning and make sure I have everything before hitting the road. I get to the property and load up like a pack mule. It's pouring down rain at this point. I get to the area I want to setup and get the blind up and everything situated. It was a pretty uneventful morning. The rain finally let up around 10:30. The sun came out and I hear the first gobble around 11 or so. I couldn't pin it down and they weren't very often so I tried calling. There was another hen around calling out. I would cut her off and try to be louder. Still nothing coming in. I now hear a couple more gobbles, this time from behind me. By now it's a little after noon. In IL you have to stop hunting by 1pm. So I make the decision to try and find this bird on foot. I step out the back of the blind and behind me is a large crp field then a small patch of timber. Off in the distance I see a Tom on the edge of the timber in his strut zone. I make the move to stalk across this field. I only have a half hour to do it. The stuff I'm walking through isn't very thick but it can be about 4 feet tall in places. It's dry and loud to walk on. So I start my stalk and I am duck walking across this field. When the breeze picks up I move a little quicker while hunched over. I get about 100 yards from the bird and he walks into the timber. I sneak to the edge of the crp and see he is still strutting in the timber. I'm still good he hasn't seen me yet. I make my way behind a tree. He keeps moving further in so I follow, hoping tree to tree. He had his back to me and the ground was wet enough where I could keep getting closer with out being detected. The bird then slipped into a thicket so I jumped two more trees and then he moved through a opening and I set the bead of the shotgun on him and pulled the trigger. BOOM! I look and the bird drops, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe what I had just done. With minutes to spare I had stalked across a field over 300 yards to kill my biggest bird to date. This is one hunt I will never forget. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks guys and yeah I love the super nova. It's put a lot of birds down in the last couple years. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thank you. I'm lucky enough to have my good friend Trevor olson behind the camera for stuff like this. He has an eye for it that's for sure. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That's a great bird. Congrats! Blessings...........Pastorjim Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Thanks again guys. I decided to take it to the taxidermist to get a full body mount done. With the story and size of the bird I feel like I would've regretted later on not doing it. So now we wait lol. Specs. 23# 11 inch beard 1 3/8 spurs Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
