Missouri Bird #2

[need2hunt]

Well first off sorry I don't have any pics. I woke up at 4:00 and just was too wore out so I slept in until 8:00. It was windy and there wasn't anything gobbling so I went down and set-up in a relatively good morning spot. Had absolutely no action and wanted to check out another spot, on my way over I spotted a tom all puffed out, he was on the edge of an alfalfa field and I was in the middle of the open pasture next to it. I used the hills and the few trees to close the distance to about 110 yards. He was strutting for 2 hens and the only chance I had to close the gap was a briar bush with a tree coming out of it. I lucked out and all three turkeys bunched up and I basically ran across 70 yards of open pasture, keeping them behind the bush and tree, miraculously I made it there without being seen. There was actually two briar bushes and there was an opening in between them just large enough to sit in, so I scooted in and sat down (note: be careful where you sit when in the middle of briar bushes that are under a locust tree ). I did some light calling with my Slate call that our very own Strut10 made for me. He was too busy with the birds he could see to come over by me, so I just decided to wait until the right opportunity arose.

Then I saw another hen come out of the woods. The other 2 were dusting themselves and the new hen came out between them and the tom. the 2 hens popped out of the dust when they saw her. The new hen got REALLY aggressive and actually fanned out her tailfeathers and dropped her wings for a fight. One of the other hens made the mistake of trying to cut between her and the tom and the aggressive hen lit right into her, nailing her with a couple kicks and wing shots that actually knocked the hen right into the tom. The beaten hen joined up with her counterpart and headed toward me and ended up only about 5 yards away. The aggresive hen fed over my way a little ways and he followed, bringing him in to about the 25 yard mark. I could have shot him then if I really wanted, but he had yet to drop out of strut and I was enjoying the show so I waited.

Not to long after another hen came out of the woods and walked straight at the aggressive hen, I was suprised to see that the agressive hen saw her and started feeding away from her. The new hen came right at her and cut in between the aggressive hen and the tom and then went right over to the aggressive hen and bumped her away. I have never seen anything to this extent with hen activity so I was thinking this was really cool.

The 2 new hens started dusting, the other 2 that were by me went over to join them and got ran off and they headed to my left toward the other end of the field. The aggressive hen popped up from the dirt and quickly made her way to the back of the field and into the woods. While the tom was watching her leave, the other hen popped up and ran to meet up with the other 2 on my left at the end of the field.

When the tom turned around he was alone That's when I gave him a few sweet little hen sounds and he started towards me. When he finally slipped into a half strut and stretched his head forward a little I took the shot and he took the nosedive.

22#, 5/8 spurs and 9" beard. I first saw him at just a little after 10:00, I shot him at 11:51, when I shot him it was the first and only time that he came out of full strut. I shot him at about 15 yards, wasn't going to let him get any closer after my -4 yard miss last week. You remember different hunts for different reasons, this one was just incredibly enjoyable, to sit back and watch the show for that long was simply awesome!!!

[maytom]

WTG!!! I'm still working on bird #2 here in NY.

[Rhino]

Great hunt Gary! That's what makes a memorable hunt! Congrats on Missouri gobbler #2.

[Gus]

Nice story, congrats

[mo_hunter]

great story congrats

[wtnhunt]

Great story, and sounds like a great bird. Congratulations.