One In the Morning Sun

shaddragger · April 18, 2011, 10:15:38 PM

The guy on the right in the bottom picture is Chris Hughes, a friend since elementary school and an awesome turkey caller. We have been trying to hunt together for years but it was always my daughter's softball or his son's baseball or spouses or something that got in the way. This year it worked out so we could take a couple days off work to hunt. The first evening it was windy so the birds stayed low, but Chris assured me that the next morning would be better.
We set up in the corner of a cow pasture before daylight with decoys in milling positions. Soon the gobblers sounded off but hens down the creek called them away from us. Just after first light two jakes, who were roosted so close that they never flapped their wings, just glided into the decoys. After flogging the decoys for a while the jakes left and we calculated our next move.
The gobblers had followed the hens to a hardwood flat across a powerline behind us that morning. We reasoned that they would come back through the area they started from and set up on the powerline to intercept. For once we were right.
Chris purred and yelped lightly and fell silent for about 10 minutes. He was about to call again when a gobble blasted off 75 yards to our right. The tom had seen the decoys as he came out of the hardwoods and the game was on! He skirted the jake /breeding hen decoy setup to confirm dominance and found a strut zone on the powerline about 75 yards out. Back and forth he went, and as he strutted, the sun played across the irredescent feathers in a 20 minute gobbling show that I will never forget. One more subtle yelp from Chris's box call and he turned our way. As he strutted up behind the decoys I heard "Wait" and I thought, "When he turns to face the jake I will have my shot!" Just then the gobbler took a shuffling sidestep and while he was still facing me, my tweaked-out brain heard "Shoot!" and the Mossberg roared. He never took another step, but I promise you we will not be mounting that fan! After the High Five Dance and the usual text hurrahs we measured and posed him up- 10 3/4" beard with 1 1/4" spurs! What could be better than old friends chasing an old bird strutting in the morning sun!

FinsnFur · April 18, 2011, 10:52:18 PM

That was just an awesome read

Thats pretty cool that you and your pal got to finally hook up.

Nice bird. He looks huge, what'd he weight?

linemansteve · April 19, 2011, 06:03:41 AM

Great job. good looking bird

Steve

HaMeR · April 19, 2011, 06:22:33 AM

Nicely done guys!!

KySongDog · April 19, 2011, 11:30:13 AM

Great story! With those spurs that's not a two year old bird for sure.

Frogman · April 19, 2011, 02:52:46 PM

Wow! Great story. I felt like I was right there with you guys! WTG! Good setup, good calling, and good shooting! Thanks for sharing!

Jim

bambam · April 19, 2011, 06:01:30 PM

Nice !!

coyote101 · April 19, 2011, 06:09:49 PM

Way to go guys.

I'm still working on getting my first gobbler.

Pat

markTNhunter · April 19, 2011, 07:13:02 PM

good job nice bird great story nuttn like chacin them ole gobblers with a good friend!

nastygunz · April 19, 2011, 10:57:51 PM

Great read, helluva bird, gooo Mossberggggggg ")

Hawks Feather · April 20, 2011, 08:32:23 AM

Great looking bird you got there. Better yet, you finally got to hunt with a life-long friend.

Jerry

lacie23 · April 23, 2011, 03:02:10 PM

That is a nice gobbler ! Good job !!

possumal · April 23, 2011, 05:45:24 PM

Mighty fine, Shaddragger! You gave him an unusual fan but you got him which is the main thing.

shaddragger · April 24, 2011, 09:10:32 PM

Quote from: possumal on April 23, 2011, 05:45:24 PM
Mighty fine, Shaddragger! You gave him an unusual fan but you got him which is the main thing.

Al, I had been waiting behind the trigger so long when my poor brain heard "Shoot" it didn't care where the command came from. It was a beautifully marked fan and I absolutely destroyed it. We had to do a lot of work to make the pictures look that good!