BuckBuster
05-02-2005, 03:21 PM
I went to hunt a new place Saturday. I got set up in an open pasture, under a cedar, Lucy (decoy) in place, right at morning light, hit my call a few times & two gobbled across the road. When they flew down one gobbled going away from me. Wondering where the other one went, looked up 30 minutes later & here they come , two knolls over , 1 tom, 3 jakes & 3 hens. Well for another hour they went back & forth feeding, not paying any attention to my calls. Finally the 3 jakes broke & headed to my decoy. Old Tommy couldn't take it. He comes slipping up from the bottom side. Once he hits the first opening @ 50 yards away , he picks me out & starts walking back up hill. So as the day progresses the whole flock feeds back & forth , never close enough for a shot. After 6-7 hours of this they meander on down into the bottoms where Ol' Tommy struts under a dogwood for another hour, while the 3 jakes just look on. As I was watching them off & on I was thinking there's no way he's gonna cross that creek & go in the field with all those cows - wrong! The next thing I know he's crossed the creek & is chasing after a hen, disappearing into the wood. I figured he would probally come back to his strutting zone sooner or later , I just didn't know when. So I stood up & went & done some quick scouting. Upon returning back to the top of the hill, guess who's making his way back down along the fence line in the bottoms. After glassing to make sure it was him, I quickly scooted down the hill , set up behind a tree along the fence line , hit my striker once, peeked around the tree & boom ,there he is closing the gap@ 25 yards. We finally closed the deal @ 20 yards @ 3:30 PM. He had a 10 1/2" beard, 1 1/4 spurs & weight close to 22#. I'm tagged out after taking a jake earlier.