I had been scouting hard on a farm on the shore I have hunted for years and had never even seen...let alone killed a turkey. Paul and I were there shed hunting and came across a ton of turkey sign. I made the trip back down setting up a Primos DPS cam (reason being...Turkeys are so quick I didnt think I would catch many on cam...this one takes a pic every few seconds like a plot watcher so I figured I would get more.) They were there alright...not a ton but enough....and pretty regular in the oaks...I even had them passing by a few times on cam on the WYLD mineral site!!!
We hit that farm for the opener....and we were done by 7:30!!! Right after fly down I got a little more aggressive than I thought I would have to on the calling because of the distance...(they were roosted on a farm I cannot hunt so we got as close as we could) As the Gobbler first came into view he was calmed and intrigued by the hen scratching in the leaves behind....kind of a perfect storm....But when he caught a peek of the pair of Zink dekes...He lost his composure (and then his life) The dude walked up and basically winked at the hen deke....how you doin....and continued a few yards to take care of his light work.....
I will never forget the look on this birds face when he looked back over his shoulder at the fakey jake....right around the 10 yard marker he looked like he wanted to kill that lil dude....and I couldnt take it anymore....
I freakin missed!!!! the first shot.....he flew up and hit the ground gittin it!!! I cut his legs out from under him as he started to fly again and hit him in the face with the third shot dumping him like a goose.........
Below is the GoPro angle...
I have never missed a gimme like that before....The shot looked good....Im blaming it on the super tight pattern....Its the size of a baseball at 20 so who knows at 10?!?
After some pics we hit the road toward our second spot an hour away....Public ground that we doubled up on last year mid morning....We got some play but nothing commited....
At noon we were haulin azz even lower on the shore to scout some more public property for the next day and hopefully find a prospect. Just about the time Paul was whining about being to far to drive in the am he spotted a strutter....I spotted the dude at the house on the property and pulled in.......... We were in business and had a plan for the next day!!!!
2AM came awful early but we were ready to get on with it!!! I had every intention of only videoing but when we were gearing up at the truck the sound of multiple birds was too much to handle so I brought the gun for back up.....
Long story short........cuz it is long.......4 hours long........4 hours of watching these gobblers strut, fight, spit, and attempt a little love with two hens that only wanted to eat and dust.......before finally heading into our corner where we had seen the afternoon bird the day before........We were waiting with a plasti hen....... It looked real good to the biggest strutter and he came over to flirt....Paul made quick work of the bird and commenced to cutting and purring on the mouth call......
And then the craziest thing happened.........with only a few minutes remaining.....a bird we had been hearing across a paved road came running across to check out the commotion.......I knew he would hang up on the flopped over gobbler so I belly crawled out into the tall grass almost 6 feet from the hen decoy....Paul seduced the bird and I shot him as he picked the head of Pauls dead gobbler up in his mouth!!!! Bam....2 birds in a heap...2 doubles 2 years in a row!!!
Pauls bird made it easy for pics as we just hung him from his dagger spurs on a limb......I was stoked to have just taken my first double bearded Tom and tag out in Md. for the first time!!!
