Great last weekend, tho didn't get to hunt much doing chores on the farm.
I went after my nemesis from last year and this year... the only bird I really wanted to use my 2nd tag on. Got set up 100y away from him yest morn, he gobbled twice, hit the ground with hens. I worked around on them and got to within 80y of him and his 2yo buddy. Called, they looked, but just were more interested in feeding. Ignored the 5 hens that were between us. I backed out of there without spooking them to check him later this weekend. Got all my summer plots drilled yesterday and decided to coyote hunt this am on the same farm. He gobbled once on the roost, but I heard 4 other birds scattered WAY far away in other directions. The cold had them absolutely fired up this morn. A couple far away gobbled back to my coyote howls, then had a small dog flank in at full speed from out of nowhere. Missed him cleanly at 20 yards. Pulled out of that farm to coyote hunt on my other places and rest my nemesis until noon.
No more luck with coyotes, so spent 3 hours spraying. Got a late breakfast at noon then headed back to see if my nemesis was willing to play. I figured most of the birds would be in the plot I drilled the day before feasting on my soybean seeds, so I crept thru the woods to set up on the edge of the plot. Sure enough, he was on the edge of the plot feeding about 75y away.... but all by himself. I backed back into the woods where I could just barely see him and clucked once. He peeked up, then went back to feeding. 2 quick clucks from me got him to look my way and he just stood staring for about 5 minutes, but his head started turning from dull red to bright red. Called again and he started my way. Slight rise between us and he got on top of the rise, head turned white and he gobbled. He went into strut and started working back and forth sideways, but I knew he didn't need any more talk from me, so just waited. After a couple minutes, he finally committed and got himself killed at 30 yards.
I thought I might regret killing him, as he whipped me 6x last year, and this was my 8th time on him this year... but honestly, its more relief. He wasn't a fun bird to hint at all, usually only gobbling once or twice on the limb, then flying down in every possible direction of the compass except where I have been. Literally roosted in the same tree every time I've hunted him, yet still wasn't able to kill him until 1pm today. I'm glad that SOB won't be around next year, as I missed out on some fun hunts I could have had on other birds chasing this particular bird.
My take on the late season... pretty dang good if you still have live toms on your places. Saw 4 toms on one of my other farms (which has been shut down to hunting since April 16th) chasing a single hen, 2 of which were in strut. Another 2 toms strutting for 2 hens on another farm. Maybe it was just the crazy cold this am (was 48 here) that had them so fired up, but heard some of the best roost gobbling of the season this morn.
