themanpcl
Well-Known Member
I was blessed to shoot my second gobbler this year. My first "afternoon" gobbler. After work, I snuck into an area that I expected the hens to be scratching and feeding. After a couple setups and only 1 distant gobble, I moved toward a field on the far side of the property where I thought I had heard the faint gobble. I found a flock with several hens and a few gobblers. They were at over 100 yds and moving away with no option for me to cut them off (property lines) so I settled in and began filming. It was a sight to watch. Hens fed and socialized, gobblers showed off and I got a lot of good footage. After about 30 mins I noticed another flock that was obscured by the rolling hill in the field moving to merge with the first group. They all continued to move away from me. A few minutes pass and around a point in the field a lone bird heads toward me. He's 120 yds but at least coming in my direction. I see a beard. Great I thought. As he closes to about 70 yds he heads toward the flock. Well that bites. So as he gets close to the flock, I notice a bird heading toward him. He immediately turns to go away from the flock being chased by this bird. Kinda like one of those "Cheaters" episodes..lol Apparently this is a jake and he's having none of this from an outsider. Maybe he was the flock bouncer, who knows. So the jake chases this gobbler up the hill about 200 yds away from me and far from the rest of the flock. They run back and forth across the field and never get back to within range of the flock or me. Not paying attention to them anymore as jake heads back to the flock and gobbler circles away, I notice the flock making a turn. Could it be, they come back my direction. Nope, they head toward the adjacent property. Well nice. I watch them make another turn but not toward me, just a different direction away. When the flock is about where the jake and gobbler had ended their show, I noticed a few of the ladies heading toward my direction. Great, maybe they bring a gobbler with them. Nope, just the ladies. Gobblers all continue to move with the flock and show off. Then, just like before, a bird comes around the point and wait, is that the gobbler from before? This bird never raised his fan during the entire time he was in the field before. Only knew it was a tom from seeing the beard. Now I'm thinking, is he gonna take these ladies down the hill and back toward me? Yup. He leads them down the hill at about 70 yds and comes up the hill toward me with them in tow. Not sure if he was trying to keep from being harrassed by the jake again or he just had it going on. Regardless, the ladies followed him. When he gets to about 50 I know its game on. On his current trajectory, death should be at 20 yds and no obstructions. Does anything with turkeys work out like that? Negative. He begins to veer to my left. I'm set up in woods, 20 yds from the field edge, trees and bushes between me and the way he's going unlike to my right where there is an opening wide enough for a semi, unobstructed view to the field lane made for my 835 Ulti Mag. Well ain't that great? So I spot an opening about 8" wide between 2 trees where he and his head should pass if he keeps this veer. I place the pin on the opening and wait for him. He makes the opening at about 30 yds, trigger pulled. The shot hit him and knocked him back about 5 feet. He gained his footing looking he'd been hit my Tyson and stumbled toward the ladies and in his mind, safety. Mistake made. He veered to his right toward that opening I mentioned before. Disoriented and moving parallel to the woodline, he was between 45-50 yds when he cleared the last obstruction between he and I. Neck forward ao kinda like leading a dove. Boom, thump, punch, flip, roll, flip, roll, fall, flop. I ran to him so he wouldn't mess anymore tail feathers up with the flips. He weighed 25#, 8 1/2" graying beard, 1 1/2" spurs, 45" long. Judging from the beard, spurs and the general condition of his feathers, I think he was an old bird in decline but who knows. That may be why he was being chased off by the jake. Anyway, total time was about 90 minutes of watching and waiting but well worth the wait. And got it all on the action cam this time but ran out of recording on the good cam. Apparently 32g takes less than 90 mins to fill up.Guess I better check that next time..lol
