The rest of the story.........

[Strut10]

Posted my pic in a hurry yesterday.

The other part of the story was that as I pulled the trigger on my bird, me & Lil were watching 2 more longbeards strut for 5 hens about 400 yards across the field. They double-gobbled at the gunshot and kept at their thing. Then I noticed a red fox pouncing for mice about 75 yards off to the side of the turkeys. Couldn't tell from where we were......but it kinda looked like the terrain blocked each from the other's view. Well....eventually Wiley Red figured out there was potentially
a much bigger meal right in front of him. He crept toward the birds, which busted him. The hens started cutting at him. But he eased to within yards of them then made a lightning dash at the strutting gobbler. He folded up shop and ran until the fox all but had him then he flew a 20 or 30 yard circle and landed. Fox made another bee-line at him with the same outcome. After about the 4th try, the gobbler finally had enough and flew into a treetop right behind my house !! The fox made a couple more futile attempts at the other birds until they had all run or flown away.

But, eventually, after the fox had gone, they all hit the field again and began slooooooowly strutting our way. FINALLY about 8:00, the
last hen had left the pair and they got fired back up and real mouthy. I had been hearing another hunter semi-circling our location and calling
intermittently. He had made it around to basically straight up the hill behind us. Just about then, a pair of Canada geese which had flown into the field about 1/2 way to the gobblers started fast-clucking. I knew what the yo-yo behind us had done. He was working his way down the back side of a tree row in the field and had skylined himself. I'm sure of it. Because about then the geese took wing and vamoosed along with the 2 strutters who tucked their tails and did the fast-walk the other way.

2 hours of sitting, calling and waiting in the 20 degree frost for some dingbat to think he could somehow get a shot at these birds by sneaking (and poorly at that) in a fencerow 400 yards from them.

No worry. Their strut zone is in the middle of an open field in the Safety Zone of my house. Maybe the same yo-yo will be watching from the fencerow again tomorrow when I relieve one of his noggin.

[snapper]

Won't you be at work...lol

[Strut10]

Won't you be at work...lol

Not until May 9th. Nope.

Wouldn't matter anyways. Keeps getting light earlier & earlier. I could walk out the back door and have one grounded and be back in bed almost before my alarm for work went off. It's happened before.

[Rhino]

Cool show to watch after the kill. Too bad about the Dingbat! Hope you don't have to give educate him.