Well got the first bird which was no slouch by any means and then started looking for #2. Went out on a morning before work and st up in a spot I'd been hearing a gobbler several mornings and had gotten on the ground gobbling a couple of them. Tom was on the field coming in when a hen flew down in front of me about 15 yrds walked out into the field and dusted. Tom was gobbling doubles and triples all the way in to about 80 yrds then started showing his back to the hen who continued to hang out in front of me. I know this means he wants her to follow him across the field to the west where there are some hens I had already widowed earlier. He gobbles and strutted in from of me for about 20 minutes and gave a real good look at him and an impressively bushy long beard. I'm figuring this has to be the King of the corn field. He went of over a knoll and I had to get going to work so got up spooking the hen and left.
Came back Friday afternoon to fix up a blind and dang there he was Mr. Longbeard himself with a pair of hens. I watched to see where they were headed and set up in a bulldozed stump pile right in their path. Sur nuff I heard a shuffle to my left and stupidly turned my head to fast and Tom saw me, stretched his head straight up at 20 yrds offering the perfect target. I went to swing the bead on him and f**ked if my sling didn't catch on a snag and I didn't get on him. I tried to get loose and Thomas got out of Dodge
Now we have a grudge on. and I have it in my mind to kill this bird with the big beard. Set up next morning to seal the deal only to greeted by some trespassers in the predawn light. Went out to run them off to find out it was the Game Warden and his son. Won't elaborate on that except to say no turkeys were shot that morning .
Got back out Monday morning and had a couple birds gobbling in the same field but no shows from my buddy or any others. Afternoon it had to be since season is running short and I have few more Saturdays to hunt. Sat there near froze till 6o pm seeing nothing but have had a nice snooze. Time to go so I headed to the Jeep and the trip home empty handed. Instead of just turning around I decided to drive to the back of the farm and turn around in the alfalfa field and have a peek around. Dang there was that old gobbler with the beard hanging right to the ground with two hens in the corn stubble to the right side of the alfalfa. I stopped and the birds alerted but didn'y spook so I slipped into reverse and got back out of sight. Binos proved this to be the bird of quest and he was although in a different field just 50yrds across a gully from where I'd been seeing him. Ducking int cover of the trees I tried to get where I could watch and pattern the movement and direction they'd head as they continued to feed and sort of cut them off at the pass. Best way is to head across the alfalfa field on the low side of the slope and get over to a stand of pines to wait.
Two steps into the hay field and I see yet another gobbler and three hens so crossing the field is now out and I may just have to kill this one instead. I've spent hundreds of hours over the years watching game on this field and I know where these birds are headed so did the belly crawl into position. Birds are coming as expected when all of a sudden up went heads and the looked to the east then bolted. Somebody on the neighboring farm left their blind in despair that the birds had turned and headed west. Time to make the dash across and set up on the bird I've been after.
The lane goes through a low spot and there is one tree, a shag bark hickory to sneak up behind for a peek to see where the birds are. Dang there he is right there and coming straight my way beard a hanging to the ground as he picked at the ground. Stuck the Noginator out around the tree waited about 15 seconds and the bearded one wandered into range. Turkey season ended with a bang at 6:51. I let out a Wahooo and ran the 42 yrds to see a beauty of a 10 3/8 paintbrush of a beard but the bugger had only 7/8 spurs and weighed in at 18.5. Hardly the 24lber with inch and a halfers I d envisioned but a decent bird for sure. I did call this bird onto the ground twice so I don't feel too guilty about bushwhacking him
Came back Friday afternoon to fix up a blind and dang there he was Mr. Longbeard himself with a pair of hens. I watched to see where they were headed and set up in a bulldozed stump pile right in their path. Sur nuff I heard a shuffle to my left and stupidly turned my head to fast and Tom saw me, stretched his head straight up at 20 yrds offering the perfect target. I went to swing the bead on him and f**ked if my sling didn't catch on a snag and I didn't get on him. I tried to get loose and Thomas got out of Dodge
Now we have a grudge on. and I have it in my mind to kill this bird with the big beard. Set up next morning to seal the deal only to greeted by some trespassers in the predawn light. Went out to run them off to find out it was the Game Warden and his son. Won't elaborate on that except to say no turkeys were shot that morning .Got back out Monday morning and had a couple birds gobbling in the same field but no shows from my buddy or any others. Afternoon it had to be since season is running short and I have few more Saturdays to hunt. Sat there near froze till 6
o pm seeing nothing but have had a nice snooze. Time to go so I headed to the Jeep and the trip home empty handed. Instead of just turning around I decided to drive to the back of the farm and turn around in the alfalfa field and have a peek around. Dang there was that old gobbler with the beard hanging right to the ground with two hens in the corn stubble to the right side of the alfalfa. I stopped and the birds alerted but didn'y spook so I slipped into reverse and got back out of sight. Binos proved this to be the bird of quest and he was although in a different field just 50yrds across a gully from where I'd been seeing him. Ducking int cover of the trees I tried to get where I could watch and pattern the movement and direction they'd head as they continued to feed and sort of cut them off at the pass. Best way is to head across the alfalfa field on the low side of the slope and get over to a stand of pines to wait. Two steps into the hay field and I see yet another gobbler and three hens so crossing the field is now out and I may just have to kill this one instead. I've spent hundreds of hours over the years watching game on this field and I know where these birds are headed so did the belly crawl into position. Birds are coming as expected when all of a sudden up went heads and the looked to the east then bolted. Somebody on the neighboring farm left their blind in despair that the birds had turned and headed west. Time to make the dash across and set up on the bird I've been after.
The lane goes through a low spot and there is one tree, a shag bark hickory to sneak up behind for a peek to see where the birds are. Dang there he is right there and coming straight my way beard a hanging to the ground as he picked at the ground. Stuck the Noginator out around the tree waited about 15 seconds and the bearded one wandered into range. Turkey season ended with a bang at 6:51. I let out a Wahooo and ran the 42 yrds to see a beauty of a 10 3/8 paintbrush of a beard but the bugger had only 7/8 spurs and weighed in at 18.5. Hardly the 24lber with inch and a halfers I d envisioned but a decent bird for sure
. I did call this bird onto the ground twice so I don't feel too guilty about bushwhacking him
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