Got this guy about 3 days after the 9.5" Tom I shot on our property. Got permission to hunt the neighbours where I was unfamiliar with the property and had no idea where the birds were.
After a morning of hearing gobbles out 60 yards through the forest I decided to move out, let things settle down then come back closer to where I thought I heard the gobbles. No matter how hard I was hammering on the box calls I had two firmly hung up birds with a bit of a coyote issue to my north.
I regrouped and came back a couple hours later at around 11am. I found that on the other side of the forest there was a steep set of hills associated with an old gravel pit which was growing in. As a crested one particularily large and steep hill I looked down and had a staring contest with a rather large turkey. I slowly lowered myself down on the top of the hill where I sat completely exposed but at least out of sight for the turkey.
I immediately started calling but got nothing back. Fearing I scared the bird off I stood up about 5 minutes after where I then was looking down at two birds who were both looking in the opposite direction but considerably closer to me. These turkeys were still about 50 yards out and I wasn't able to get the binos out to identify them.
I sat back down again and started calling not thinking the birds would show up two minutes later. Next thing you know three heads pop up and are looking directly at me. My gun was about 3 feet behind me and I was looking like an idiot with my call in my hand. I sent out one more call but they weren't fooled... All three gobbled at me and started to do that run where they are about to take off. I reached back, grabbed the shotgun and pumped one solid round into the head of the lead turkey.
Large jake, small beard, nothing to be super proud of but hell I finished the season with a story!
