Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting 3 years and 18 hunts later

7 first time hunters and 1 repeat offender x3. So the old boy has seen about every rookie mistake out there. And he had a bag of tricks that made him one of the hardest to know kill birds I have ever had the pleasure to chase.
My repeat offender / turkey spooker Ty had him dead earlier in the season but was waiting for me to tell him to shoot as I'm telling him to shoot the damn thing in the head about a hundred times. He was so focused on the bird that he couldn't hear a word that I said.
Then yesterday we had to work until .5am so that put us in the parking lot at 6:20 with the bird already off the roost and gobbling his head off right where I wanted to set up. We snuck in as close as I dared and hit the call and he pulled his famous gobble non stop and run away. As the Tom headed to the bottoms we backed out and hit two small wood lots to kill some time. Long story short. At 9:30 we are on him again and have him strutting at 60 yards. A hen pops up and takes him back to the bottoms. After about a hour of silence we stand up and there he is 30 yards away just staring at us and Ty forgets to shoot again.
This morning were out of work at 3am and set up in the bottoms with plenty of time to spare. At 5:08 he sounds off but instead of roosting where he always does he is behind us and across the road on private property. We literally walked past him within 30 yards on the way in. This is a new trick for the old man. I figured that he would head our way at fly down but instead he took the dirt road and left us in the dust. Over the next half hour all we get is a couple GFY gobbles letting us know he was still leaving then nothing. 10 minutes later we are talking about plan B and he sounds off 30 yards in front of us screened by brush. As soon as I hit the call he turns 30 into 60 and puts on a show. Over the next hour he comes into within 25 yards 5 different times and never offers a shot. The 6th time he goes silent and sneaks around behind us and let's off one of those gobbles that shake the ground about 10 feet behind Ty. Ty and I are about 6 feet apart and here he cuts right between us. As he gets about 20 yards out front Ty doesn't forget to shoot this time. Ty folds his hard earned bird with my little 20ga.
So 3 years and 18 hunts later we are standing in silence over a 25.5#, 10 1/4" beard,
1 1/4" hooked trophy. I'm a little sad that our adventure is over. I'm going to miss chasing that big boy around.
Ty didn't want to be campfire famous so here is the warrior.