Please Dont Pick On Me Any More

huntinguide · April 30, 2006

Had a good hunt today, and heard alot of bird on the roost. chased this one bird away and he got away a few times. He always answered hot and started to come but in the end he always went the other direction. He did this 3 times and on the fourth we were back where we started so we went to some other property i had to find something else but all we saw was 4 jakes and a buntch of nesting hens, 1 good tom but didnt work.

Finally headed back to the first bird and he was back in the field where he started. So we circled and got in position but he got around us again, we where calling and he was responding great but just went the other direction. We finally moved to the last spot where we had seen him before earlier in the morning, and there he was 100 out in front. I started to call softly and he answered but didnt act interested, he just kept going on. Finally i cut and yelped and that got him fired up he turned and headed in our direction slowly. He came slowly 90-80-70 then 65 this is where he stayed for about 20 min. Strutting and spining in one spot, when we got a good look at his fan we could see that something was messed up. At 60 yards he started to walk away and i told andrew my buddy to get ready and shoot, I knew exactly how my gun patterned at 60 and knew it would kill a bird with a well placed shot. He squeezed the trigger and down the bird went, with a deep exhale we both were glad it was over, it was like a shoot out or stand off with the enemy.

When we got to him we finally found out the whole story, this bird was an outcast. He got picked by all the other mature bird to the point where he was scared to come to any type of call. We also figured why his head was so white, it was one big scab from the other birds. His back and fan also showed signs of abuse, his tail consisted of 7 primary and hardly no secondary feathers. his back was scared up and bloody like a hen that was bread to much.

He was still a good bird with a 10 inch beard and 1.25 spurs but he only weighed 15 lbs. One of the hardest birds ive ever hunted, vary rewarding.

"EDIT"We just figuerd out that this bird was blind in his left eye as well, my buddy just got done cleaning it, just thought youd want to know.

BowtechTurkeyHunter · April 30, 2006