I have a good friend that I have hunted ducks with all over North America, and for the last couple of years, he has wanted to see what the turkey thing was all about.
We had a close call on a pretty intense hunt last year, and he has been talking about getting back at them for a year.
I had one that I thought could give us a good hunt, so we went after him this morning. He roosted away from his normal spot, so he gobbled more and longer in the tree, and pitched down to a hen about 7:30. They hung out for a while and about 8:30 he started gobbling again. He answered me several times, but gobbled up another hen before he could get to us. After another waiting game, I got him going again at 9:30. I stayed on him pretty hard with the crystal and RMFPT and within a few minutes he came strutting across the cutover. When he got to about 25 yards, he caught movement and bugged out. My buddy raised and killed him on the move in a pretty impressive shot.
He’s full grown, and the first I’ve ever fondled with melanistic wings. A once in a lifetime bird for his first. 1-5/8” and 1-1/2” spurs.
To add to the coolness of the story, my friend is a Watts from Oswego, and we killed the bird about 2 miles from his family’s old home place. We went by and took a pic on the steps of the home in which his great grandfather was born.
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