Went hunting with a friend to be the caller for her. We hunted at her place as birds seem pretty scarce at my place and I decreased the number by one last week.
The weather was a bit cold and cloudy with a bit of wind. The forecast was for rain to begin around noon. We didn't start until 9:00 AM as my friend has health issues which make early starts problematic. Our first stand was a bust, not a thing was seen or heard.
Our next stand was more exposed to the wind which made me colder as I was sitting on the ground while my friend used a blind chair. Did a fair bit of cold calling with no results. I was about to suggest moving when a faint gobble was heard. Several minutes passed with silence after any calling set. I tried some loud aggressive cuts and got a short, faint gobble back just in front of me. I stayed quiet and a tom magically appeared in front of me at about 15 yards.
He was a decent bird, the beard looked to a good 8" or longer. My friend was able to bring her gun to bear and cranked off a round. Leaves and bark flew in all directions and the bird went down. Only to get up again. I told her to shoot again as the bird stumbled around and acted befuddled but it was another miss. A third shot went off into the distance just before the bird took wing.
That was it for the day, it started raining and though we tried one more stand, there was nothing working. This is the third bird my friend has missed, "buck" fever must be hitting her hard. That first shot was off by nearly two feet based on pellet marks on a nearby tree. I was really hoping she would connect, I have a number of things I would like to get done and helping her is cutting into my time. I do not begrudge helping but the timing sucks this year.
Hopefully, we get in another bird and she makes a good shot tomorrow.
