Young man asked for some help with a bird that wouldn't cooperate with him so I obliged. Figured out quickly that this bird wanted to be called all the way in. Every time I would ease off calling he'd drift away. I dropped back about 30 yards into a little bottom and threw the kitchen sink at him. Loud and aggressive is what this dude wanted. He would gobble about every step if not double gobbling. He finally got to the point where I KNEW he was in range of my shooter (like within 30yds of him) but the boom never came. I kept up the calling and he answered every noise I made. Kept steadily getting closer when the gun finally went off. Asked him what the hell took so long and he said that he was behind a mound of dirt and could only see the tops of his feathers. He finally popped up on top of the mound at 26 steps and got hammered mid- gobble. The first thing I noticed was how small of a bird it was. Everything about him was shrunk by 25% short tail feathers, short wing span, short body. It was a noticeable difference. Later we realized he only had 16 of the usual 18 tail feathers and was only about 15 lbs. Had a good 10" beard and 1?" spurs.
Pretty cool hunt to be a part of. Never had to call to a bird even close to as much as I had to call to this guy.
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