Dusty and I had a blast over the weekend and finally sealed the deal yesterday morn.
Saturday we heard 4 birds, 2 way off only gobbled once or twice and two fairly close that gobbled several times on the limb. We set up on the closest birds, but they shut up when they hit the ground. We hunted hard all day and only saw two hens.
Sunday morn was pretty exciting as we were greeted with a gobble before daylight not too far from the truck. We set out for the tom and soon found that it was two as they covered each other up with gobbles on our way to set up. We slipped as close as I felt comfortable, found a tree, and hunkered down. The two toms hollered at some tree yelps, so I figured we might stand a chance. Then, I heard the hens
Once again they went silent after fly down. I got them to hammer once in the distance with some cutting, but the ladies didn't want anyone messing with their men. I told Dusty we'd give em a few hours and come back to see if one was lonesome, so we pulled out and headed to another area to listen for a while.
We decided to set up on the edge of an old highline in an area that usually holds birds and call blind for a while. After about 15 minutes I heard a faint gobble in the distance. A few seconds later I let out some cutts and he answered back much closer. I hit him again and he hammered back about 100yds out. It wasn't long before we heard footsetps in the dry leaves and he popped out in the open puffed up. That's the first time I've heard a jake drum and Dusty's first time to hear a bird spit and drum. He did the dance to about 20yds and then started to get alittle nervous, so I told Dusty to let him have it. I knew it was a jake, but didn't tell Dusty any different and after seeing how excited he was during the show I decided to let him lay the hammer on him. Heck, I was pretty shook too, the ole pen was still shaking when I filled out the tag
That's what it's all about.
Ya'll have a good one,
loder