After eating tag soup last year I was more determined to put down a gobbler this year than ever. Opening day came and went; I only heard one gobble. It was slow to say the least. This morning roles around and I roosted two birds with an owl call. I didn't call to them on the roost, I heard them fly down though. Once they hit the ground I started to call and they were gobbling. Because of the property lines I couldn't persue them though. Something was holding them up and they wouldn't come in. I waited it out over an hour thinking they would come in if I went silent. They didn't. So then I go to relocate; I literally get about 30 yards from where I wanted to call from, a little ridge. I turn the corner on this makeshift trail and there are two toms staring at me 40 yards away. By the time I saw their beards they were already gone. Now I'm really pissed off, mostly at myself for trying to push to far. I was about to call it quits and head into work, but my mind got the best of me. So I walk all the way to the other end of the 80 acres and start to call. I make a few calls and then heard a bunch of leafs and sticks breaking. I look to my left and there about 10 does that I spooked. They are all just staring my direction now. I watch the deer for about 2 minutes and then just start whaling on the call really loud. The deer couldn't figure it out and on top of that I hear a gobble way off in the distance. I didn't get to exicted though, it was far away. I wait about another minute and then call again. This time he is half the distance and I realized he is coming straight in!!! In the mean time the 10 deer are still right to my left side and in sight. I knew I had to get rid of them fast cause this guy will be here in another 2 minutes. So I just did what felt right, I got up both hands in the air and ran at them like a bigfoot. Sure enough they all took off running. Now I could focus on finishing my job. Two more soft calls later and the tom shows himself at 20 yards. The rest is history guys! 22 lbs, 10 and 1/2" beard, and 3/4" spurs. It is my first tom that I called in and harvested by myself. It was a great two day season! Good luck to everyone still out there chasing long beards!
Awesome job... sometimes things just go right in spite of our best efforts to screw it all up. LOL. Congratulations... persistence pays, great bird too.
Thanks for the replies guys! I've been out all weekend trying to get my brother a bird, in spite of our best efforts we failed. It was still a fun weekend. Chasing turkeys is definately a nice change of pace from sitting in the tree for hours.
