Opening Day Bird


Clap33

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Well I headed down to southern Ohio yesterday for our opener and things started off rough. Bout 6:15 I heard the first bird gobble from the same hill that they are on every year. He was followed by 4 other birds gobbling and 3 of those birds were on the same hillside. After some soft yelps and clucks I shut up and just waited. Bout 30 minutes later I called again and to my suprise I had 2 birds gobble at me from the woods in front of the powerline I was sitting in. Got the gun up and got ready only to have them walk down the hill out of sight. I let out a few soft purrs and clucks and they came back only to leave again. They walked to the bottom of the hill and gobble so I called again and they came back up. Not once did they come out in the opening. They gobble a few more times and walked back down the hill so I called again only this time when they gobbled I heard the neighbor guy shoot. Game over after all that. Never knew those guys were there. So i picked up my decoys and headed back to the truck to figure out my next move.

Once back to the truck I thought I heard another bird gooble from back across the road. I hit the box call and sure enough he gobbled again. Got in the truck and headed back down to the pasture by the barns. Got out of the truck and hit the call again only to have that bird gobble from the bottom of the pasture. Next thing I know I see his tail fan and then head pop up over the little knoll and he is within 75 to 100 yards of me standing at the truck. He strutted around for a few minutes gobbling like crazy. While he was standing there 2 other birds started gobbling and coming down the hill toward the first bird. Now I am penned down by 3 toms. The only thing I could think to do was circl around to my right on the back side of the hill and crawl to a spot and get set up. I put the decoy out in the middle of the trail and got set up. I called every few minutes and the birds just stayed at the bottom of the hill and gobbled. About 30 minutes in I thouhgt I had on coming cause he gobbled from just behind where the decoy was but I couldnt see him and he never came out. Just like that he was back at the bottom of the hill with the others. I shut up for the next 20 minutes and listened to them scratch around and gooble. When it sounded like they were walking away I hit them with some excited calls and brought them back up the hill. The funny thing was my right leg was totally numb so to get it to wake up I started moving it to make it sound like a turkey scratching in the leaves. Mixed with some soft calling 4 toms came up to where I could see them. I had my bead on the one that was in half strut and when 2 others looked like they were gonna leave I let him have it. The bird ended up being 21 pounds with inch long spurs and the beard was 9 3/8 inches long. Not my best bird but a great hunt to go with a bird I had to work for I counldnt have asked for more after the neighbor shot the other bird.

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