R&S 
OWNER/PRESIDENT
Post by THE GOB-FATHER on May 9, 2005 13:46:04 GMT -5
[glow=green,2,300]Finally! The day has arrived and what a beautiful spring morning in May in Upstate New York!
The starlit night was quickly slipping away and ready to dip below the horizon accompanied by a dawning new day breaking the tips of the oak and pine tree silhouettes as I arrived at my hunting spot around 4:40 a.m. The sky was clear to the east painted in magnificent crimson blues, greys and orange brilliance. The anticipation was running rampid through my veins as I gathered up my equipment in a rush to get to my setup before daylight. Something about this morning was magical and a confident feeling ran through me as I walked quietly through the dew filled grass toward my destination. I used a hedgerow that separated two fields to camoflauge my entrance as I figured the birds were roosting very close to the open field and didn't want to take any chances. I arrived at a spot on the edge of the woods that was well within range of where I saw them yesterday as they pitched down into the field and decided that this would be my front row-center seat to heaven. The time was approximately 4:55 as I postitioned myself quitely in anticipation of their expected route into the field.
In an instance the woods became alive with life. Song birds were singing and chickadees winging by my head at 100 miles an hout and could almost feel the breeze they left as they glided by. This morning was feeling right! As the branches in the trees around me started to become more visible I started looking up and around me for possible blobs in the brances that may be a bird. I noticed one in paticular that was off to my immediate right about 45 yds out. I stared at it intently trying to determine if it was in fact a bird. Thinking back that was the exact tree one hen flew out of the day before so I kept a close eye on that paticular blob. About 15 mins go by without any movement from the black ball in the trees and so far no gobbles around me or in the distance for that matter. Then, all of a sudden I catch movement from the branch I've been watching. It was a bird! I couldn't tell at the time what it was but it looked like a hen to me from where I was sitting. I had been worried that the birds might not be there since yesterday they ended up flushing out from the field from a close range shot that rang out from the neighbors property and they bolted out of there as if they were the ones being shot at. So this put me at ease to a certain degree.... but where was Mr. Tom? Was he there, or did he move off to another area? I only saw one bird roosted and yesterday there were 3 hens and 1 Tom so there were still 3 birds missing from the equation at that time.
5:25 a.m. ... The bird in the tree looks as if it's ready to fly down and then decides not too. I'm thinking at this time that it's light enough to fly down now and wondering why it's not. I wondered if my entrance was spotted or that it could see me in the woods down below it? I started to think about my setup and strategy and whether or not it was a good plan. Before I went out this morning I decided I would do very little calling, if any at all, and that I wouldn't use ANY decoys. I was taking a chance and going against the traditional methods of turkey hunting, but this hasn't been a traditional type of turkey season for me! I knew that the birds wanted to be in this field and that they would more than likely make their way there without the assistance of my human interferance. So I let mother nature take it's course and hoped for the best. About 5:30 a.m. I hear the first bird fly down directly behind me about 50 yds into the woods. Yesterday showed that the first birds down were the 3 hens that were roosted right on the edge of the treeline overlooking the field and that the Tom was roosted farther back more towards the area I heard the flydown this morning. So I was pretty confident that it might just very well be him! Within about 2 mins of that flydown a booming gobble rings out across the country side directly behind me!!!! It was him! He was still in the area! I said a little "thank you" to God above and said to myself I'm gonna kill him today. Knowing my luck for the past 2 years though, I wasn't going to count my eggs so-to-speak.
No other birds flew down yet and I was thinking that this could get really good really fast because he didn't have any hens with him yet and he was on the ground. So I yelped a couple of times and was immediately honored by a double gobble behind me still about 50 yds back in the woods. He stayed back there for a bit and gobbled on his own a few good times. So I let out a good fly down cackle and then stayed quite. I promised myself that it would be the last call I made this morning. The woods were quite for about 10 mins and then I heard the leaves behind me crunching and getting closer and closer and closer! My heart was pounding out of my chest and I'm surprised it didn't spook everything within earshot. I stayed absolutely still and told myself to be a rock. The sounds from the crunching leaves were now directly behind the oak I was sitting in front of!!! I couldn't breathe. Any move now and the hunt would be over. Then, I hear something to my left that sounded awfully close. I looked out of the corner of my eye and there was a bird literally standing beside me with it's head within one foot of my ear and side of my face. I've had them within a few yards of me before and walk right past me, but never THIS close!
I moved my head a fraction of an inch to get a better view and then heard the dreaded sound we all hate to hear.... an alarm putt. The next thing you know the bird is putting non stop and moving back into the woods. I said to myself that the bird would still be awefully close to me if I turned to see if it was a Tom and possibly get a shot at it. So I did and it caught my turn around and headed into the field. It was just walking, not running and when it placed it's first foot into the open I could see that it was a longbeard!!!! All I could see was this nice beard and a beet red head. I didn't have my gun shouldered yet and slowly raised my cannon into position for the shot. He went into a clearing between two trees but I didn't have a bead on him yet. I saw out of the corner of my eye the next clear shooting lane and swung my gun into postion ahead of the gobbler and the very second his neck was directly in front of my sights I dropped the hammer on him and blasted his head rolling him over at about 35 yds!!!! The time was 5:45 a.m.
I got right up and went over to him as he was running on his back and saw this beatiful bird cleanly harvested as I had just taken a nice Gobbler with my brand new gun and broke her in good!
A sigh of relief took over me as it has been really rough just to get this bird. I stood over him in victory and pointed up to the sky to whomever was watching me above and let out a big "YESSSSS!!!!".
Vindication is sweet.... especially when it has a nice rope swinging from it!
Official stats:
9 1/16" beard
3/4" left spur, 7/8" right spur
20 lbs 7oz
[/glow]
The starlit night was quickly slipping away and ready to dip below the horizon accompanied by a dawning new day breaking the tips of the oak and pine tree silhouettes as I arrived at my hunting spot around 4:40 a.m. The sky was clear to the east painted in magnificent crimson blues, greys and orange brilliance. The anticipation was running rampid through my veins as I gathered up my equipment in a rush to get to my setup before daylight. Something about this morning was magical and a confident feeling ran through me as I walked quietly through the dew filled grass toward my destination. I used a hedgerow that separated two fields to camoflauge my entrance as I figured the birds were roosting very close to the open field and didn't want to take any chances. I arrived at a spot on the edge of the woods that was well within range of where I saw them yesterday as they pitched down into the field and decided that this would be my front row-center seat to heaven. The time was approximately 4:55 as I postitioned myself quitely in anticipation of their expected route into the field.
In an instance the woods became alive with life. Song birds were singing and chickadees winging by my head at 100 miles an hout and could almost feel the breeze they left as they glided by. This morning was feeling right! As the branches in the trees around me started to become more visible I started looking up and around me for possible blobs in the brances that may be a bird. I noticed one in paticular that was off to my immediate right about 45 yds out. I stared at it intently trying to determine if it was in fact a bird. Thinking back that was the exact tree one hen flew out of the day before so I kept a close eye on that paticular blob. About 15 mins go by without any movement from the black ball in the trees and so far no gobbles around me or in the distance for that matter. Then, all of a sudden I catch movement from the branch I've been watching. It was a bird! I couldn't tell at the time what it was but it looked like a hen to me from where I was sitting. I had been worried that the birds might not be there since yesterday they ended up flushing out from the field from a close range shot that rang out from the neighbors property and they bolted out of there as if they were the ones being shot at. So this put me at ease to a certain degree.... but where was Mr. Tom? Was he there, or did he move off to another area? I only saw one bird roosted and yesterday there were 3 hens and 1 Tom so there were still 3 birds missing from the equation at that time.
5:25 a.m. ... The bird in the tree looks as if it's ready to fly down and then decides not too. I'm thinking at this time that it's light enough to fly down now and wondering why it's not. I wondered if my entrance was spotted or that it could see me in the woods down below it? I started to think about my setup and strategy and whether or not it was a good plan. Before I went out this morning I decided I would do very little calling, if any at all, and that I wouldn't use ANY decoys. I was taking a chance and going against the traditional methods of turkey hunting, but this hasn't been a traditional type of turkey season for me! I knew that the birds wanted to be in this field and that they would more than likely make their way there without the assistance of my human interferance. So I let mother nature take it's course and hoped for the best. About 5:30 a.m. I hear the first bird fly down directly behind me about 50 yds into the woods. Yesterday showed that the first birds down were the 3 hens that were roosted right on the edge of the treeline overlooking the field and that the Tom was roosted farther back more towards the area I heard the flydown this morning. So I was pretty confident that it might just very well be him! Within about 2 mins of that flydown a booming gobble rings out across the country side directly behind me!!!! It was him! He was still in the area! I said a little "thank you" to God above and said to myself I'm gonna kill him today. Knowing my luck for the past 2 years though, I wasn't going to count my eggs so-to-speak.
No other birds flew down yet and I was thinking that this could get really good really fast because he didn't have any hens with him yet and he was on the ground. So I yelped a couple of times and was immediately honored by a double gobble behind me still about 50 yds back in the woods. He stayed back there for a bit and gobbled on his own a few good times. So I let out a good fly down cackle and then stayed quite. I promised myself that it would be the last call I made this morning. The woods were quite for about 10 mins and then I heard the leaves behind me crunching and getting closer and closer and closer! My heart was pounding out of my chest and I'm surprised it didn't spook everything within earshot. I stayed absolutely still and told myself to be a rock. The sounds from the crunching leaves were now directly behind the oak I was sitting in front of!!! I couldn't breathe. Any move now and the hunt would be over. Then, I hear something to my left that sounded awfully close. I looked out of the corner of my eye and there was a bird literally standing beside me with it's head within one foot of my ear and side of my face. I've had them within a few yards of me before and walk right past me, but never THIS close!
I moved my head a fraction of an inch to get a better view and then heard the dreaded sound we all hate to hear.... an alarm putt. The next thing you know the bird is putting non stop and moving back into the woods. I said to myself that the bird would still be awefully close to me if I turned to see if it was a Tom and possibly get a shot at it. So I did and it caught my turn around and headed into the field. It was just walking, not running and when it placed it's first foot into the open I could see that it was a longbeard!!!! All I could see was this nice beard and a beet red head. I didn't have my gun shouldered yet and slowly raised my cannon into position for the shot. He went into a clearing between two trees but I didn't have a bead on him yet. I saw out of the corner of my eye the next clear shooting lane and swung my gun into postion ahead of the gobbler and the very second his neck was directly in front of my sights I dropped the hammer on him and blasted his head rolling him over at about 35 yds!!!! The time was 5:45 a.m.
I got right up and went over to him as he was running on his back and saw this beatiful bird cleanly harvested as I had just taken a nice Gobbler with my brand new gun and broke her in good!
A sigh of relief took over me as it has been really rough just to get this bird. I stood over him in victory and pointed up to the sky to whomever was watching me above and let out a big "YESSSSS!!!!".
Vindication is sweet.... especially when it has a nice rope swinging from it!
Official stats:
9 1/16" beard
3/4" left spur, 7/8" right spur
20 lbs 7oz
[/glow]
Glad you could make it bud!
