Just needed a challenge....

[MNpurple]

I wasn't able to hunt the first two days of my 346B season do to work obligations. Maybe it was for the better as Wednesday morning dawned clear and calm after two straight days of heavy winds. I was in my blind at 5:20, decoys set up 20 yards in front of me with a jake pursuing two hens.

The first thunder of the morning echoed through the woods at 5:40 with many more to follow. That bird was on land I didnt have access to; I'd just wait to hear the first bird on the 200 acre farm I was hunting. 6 o'clock, 6:30, not a single gobble on the property I was hunting. I hate mornings like this when it seems like there isnt a huntable turkey for miles. You know they are there, they just wont give away their location. I like to "run n gun" so mornings like this are torture to me.

I was set up on the property line and the only two birds talking that morning were on a point probably three hundred yards inside the fence. I tried talking to them, cuts, yelps purrs, two calls at the same time. Sometimes they would answer, but in general you could tell they were strutting back and forth on a point with almost no interest in my calls. They were doing it the way nature intended, the hens would have to come to them.

7:15 hit and these two birds were still gobbling quite frequently. I was suprised no hens had joined them at this point, or if they had, these two Toms just liked to hear themselves talk. They were no longer answering any of my calls, so I pulled out a new call that I had purchased, one of the those shaker gobbles thats made by a variety of companies. I let loose with a series of cuts and yelps, no answer, and then I followed that up with a gobble. They fired right back. I listened for a while and they sounded of again, this time closer, then they went quite. My agressive style got the best of me so I hit the gobble again, and this time they sounded off less than 50 yards away. It was only seconds more when I saw the two white heads marching through the woods, under the property fence and out into the alfalfa field. The both saw the decoys, gobbled and went into full strut. They covered the distance to the decoys quickly and both started strutting. Which do I take (what a luxury to have)? Both looked the same size, both had the same size beard, but one had a perfect set of tail feathers, his fate was sealed. They finally seperated and one shot at 25 yards tipped him over.

The other tom jumped away and then sprinted back to attack his fallen rival. He jumped on and off asserting his dominance. I decided to have a little more fun so I gobbled at him again and he sounded off, this went on for probably three minutes, I would gobble, he would gobble. Finally he started working away from me, he would answer my gobbles but wouldnt come back. I scratched in the leaves alittle bit and he whipped around and came running right back to me. Amazing to watch.

Went I bought that gobble call I figured just another call to sucker me in, but it was the one and only thing these two birds wanted to hear that morning and it pulled them right in. 24 lbs, 8 inch beard, 1 1/8 inch spurs.

[ac777]

Wow, awesome story, love the pic also. I think you have sold me on the gobbler calls.

[outfishedagain]

i'm thinking i might go pick on up too! Great Story.

[Borch]

Great hunt!

Got me fired up again with that one!

Congrats!

[french_lake_kid]

Thats insane!!! Awesome bird

[paceman]

Awesome story, picture..