the gum pond gobbler
I haven’t posted any kills on here this year but I had to share this one. Ive battled with this bird since last Thursday. He gobbled so much on the tree that I swore he was a jake, but I hunted him anyway just to be sure. Thursday morning he flew down and went silent on the ground and then disappeared. Friday morning he gobbled his head off in the tree and then went silent on the ground, but I got him cranked up at about 7:30 and he got really hot. He ended up getting hung up on the other side of a gum pond and would not walk around it to come to me. he cut off every call I made. As he would ease off I moved up. Did that twice and had him as close as 50 yards but the last time I moved up he either saw me or got with a hen because he shut up and I never saw him again. Fast forward to Tuesday of this week. roosted in the same gum pond he hung up on Friday. I get setup within 75 yards of his roost. He again gobbles his head off in the tree and goes silent on the ground. Him and two hens and a few jakes skirted me through the little branch I was in and went out to the field behind me. as soon as he stepped foot in the field he gobbled every step he made. I eased back to the field and watched him gobble all the way across the field and down the road I came in on. As soon as he got in the woods on the other side he shut up and I never heard from him again. Tried to circle around but got no response so I left him. Wednesday morning I got set up exactly where he skirted me Tuesday. This time he was roosted closer to the adjoining field. He gobbled 70+ times in the tree and sailed out of the tree at 6:35. He landed 70 yards from me and didn’t want any part of my calling and went straight out to the field where he gobbled and strutted for 45 minutes 100 yards out in the field. i watched him eventually work off into the large field and on around the curve. I left him again as I couldn’t hunt where he was headed. Thursday morning I went in early to try to get to his landing strip and either shoot him as soon as his feet hit or kill him in the field on his way out. This time he was roosted 10’ from the edge of the field which limited how close I could get. At 6:30 he sailed out into the field and landed 150 yards out into the field. Again I had to watch him gobble and strut and work his way off the property and into the neighboring field. By this time it was getting pretty personal between us. I went back in there Thursday after work and glassed him out in the field with his hens and a few jakes. I eased around the long way and into his roost spot. I got to the exact tree he roosted in that morning, cut my thermacell on and waited. I watched the flock close the distance slowly heading straight for me. I never called. Just set there waiting in ambush mode. Eventually he gets to within 20 yards of the field edge and gobbled one time. I realized they were about 50 yards to my direct right. Ive lost sight of them at this point and by then I had wiggled all the way around to my right to pop him when he walked through the gap. Well, he didn’t walk through the gap and the next time I layed eyes on him he was back by his gum pond. At that point I didn’t have anything to lose by calling so I let out a few yelps. He blows into strut and stands there looking for ever before he finally started heading back my way. Some soft yelps and clucks and a good bit of scratching in the leaves and I coaxed him in to 50ish yards. He stayed directly behind the only clump of brush in there and spit and drummed for 30 minutes until he got tired of it and turned and walked directly away from me and back to his gum pond. I heard them all fly up, waited until I was sure they wouldn’t see me, and eased out. So I finally felt like I had the upper hand on this bird. I knew where he was roosted, I knew he was too far from the field to fly all the way to it, and I knew the path he had to walk down to get there. So this morning I got in there early. I eased my way to within 75 yards of where I thought he was and sat down. I looked at my watch and it was 5:55. At 6:05 he gobbled for the first time and he was right where he was supposed to be. He gobbled less this morning than any morning this week but still he did it atleast 40 times in the tree. At 6:25 he went silent. I figured it wouldn’t be long now. then I caught a glimpse of a bird tree hopping… I had my fingers crossed that it wasn’t him but I couldn’t see the bird once it landed in the tree 50 yards away. I was hoping he wasn’t going to tree hop his way to the field before flying down in the middle of it like he had the morning before. I was being as still as possible but trying my damnedest to spot that turkey I just saw light in the tree. At about 6:35 I heard another bird take flight and could tell it was a big bird. His feet hit the dirt 40ish yards directly infront of me and I saw his white lightbulb head bobbing. He was dead and didn’t even know it. I could kill him no matter which way he walked from there. He decides to take the path of least resistance towards the field and I let him walk to 20 yards before pulling the trigger.
That’s what turkey hunting is all about. Never have I hunted a turkey for this long and consistently be able to hunt him every morning without a shadow of a doubt that it was a different bird.. Ive never hunted another turkey that gobbled as much in the tree as this one no matter if he was roosted by him self or if he had 10 hens with him. Its gonna be silent in those woods for the first time in atleast 10 days in the morning. Ended up weighing 16lbs, 10.5 beard, and he had one 1” spur and the other leg looked like a hen leg. this is the second bird that ive killed in this same spot this year with only one spur. This one had some unique white barring on his fan. Ive seen a few with the white barring but never one with this much. His fan will be going on a plaque. I hope to never forget this battle.
and this is the only time a ziploc bag has any place in turkey hunting.....
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Originally Posted by fuzzy
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