Still Layin' down the Longbeards

and a short beard too....but it was for a good cause....

Hinky got his first bird ever thanks to his buddy Brad...Brad and his family are some turkey slayers and took Hinky out when he got back from his 2 weeks out of town for work...(could not have had a worse date for training...pretty sure I would be searching for employment at this time cuz I cant miss the first 2 weeks of turkey season)

Congrats to Hinky on this fine first bird and sone pretty cool video....Longbeards are great but this one was yummy fried last night...thanx bud!!!

Paul and I were so excited for this past Saturday with Andy...We had our azzez handed to us the previous two days and were ready to just get some video...Andy had quite a few talkers the last time out so we had high hopes...The birds were vocal but far away on another property that we could not access in the morning....We knew if we were patient and stayed put on this edge where we frequently see strutters that we could be in for a show...One bird was so vocal we figured he either had someone else firing him up with continual yelps on the next property or he was just extremely horny....Paul and I simulated a Jake fight on a couple slate calls...The gobbling went into the bottom...We did it a little more and it got a little closer....he shut up for a while so we shut up for a while...I laid back to listen and soak up the morning for a while....I think I was drifting off when I was startled by his gobble a lot closer....We all shifted ourselves and prepared....We had my strutter deke in the field and he was coming from the right so he would see it as soon as he popped into the field. Then we then heard that gobble that lets you know its gonna happen!!! He was in the field but we could not see him yet...That only took a second though as he came running with a sidekick Jake in tow!!! Paul told Andy not to shoot til he cut on the mouth call. The Tom was givin stinkeye to the impostor but then seemed to lose his stones...He went out of strut and turned to leave...He looked at the hen deke one time and Paul cut on the call but the bird put his head down...He cut again as the bird started to walk away and the deal was done...Andy was tagged out in MD!!!