Sorry I'm just now updating. Not much cell service in the area we were hunting. My sone
Day 1 - Lot's of gobbling! Ended up sitting under 3 long beards on our way to a fourth. This is not what we wanted to do, but we had no choice as the gobbled right on top of us. Gobblers went quiet after fly down, but we finally got on a bird at about 9am. He gobbled good for a bit and then went quiet. We hunted the rest of the day with only a break at lunch. About 30 minutes before fly up, we had 2 toms come in close. They ended up roosting right behind us in a thick mess of pines.
Day 2- Went back to the birds we roosted the evening before. Not a call was made while they were in the tree. Hard not to call when they are gobbling hard, but it ended up working out good. Birds flew down in a holler behind us and I thought it might be over for the morning as the hens were close. For some reason the hens waited a long time before flying down, which worked to our advantage. After they flew down, we made our first call. Gobbler responded way off in the holler. We waited for a long while with my son in front. We were setup in some of the thickest stuff I've seen, but he could see down an old road bed good. Finally after a while we decided to move down the road and setup on the edge of a field. Called just a few times on the way to the new setup. Heard about 3 gobbles total while they were on the ground, but the last gobble was closer. All I could see was my son raise the gun just a bit and then he whispered "there they are". He ended up shooting the strutter at 30 yards. 22lbs, 10inch beard, inch spurs.
I got out on the back porch the evening of day 2 and owl hooted right at dark. Had 2 birds gobble. One close!
Day 3 - The morning found us sitting across the field from the birds I had roosted the day before. They gobbled good, gave us a long show with hens and then finally broke towards us. My son picked the lead tom and made a good shot at about 45 yards. 2nd and final bird down. 20lbs, 9 inch beard, 1 1/8 spurs.
I haven't had the chance to spend this much time with my son in a long time. I can't describe how good it felt. Seeing him take a couple good birds just made it even better.
Here are a few pics:
