BigKuntry
04-07-2009, 03:49 AM
Well, Tennessee season opened on the 28th of March. It began with a down pour of rain, but I, my bud Kenny and his 10 year old son hunted from a ground blind that early morning. To our amazement we saw no mature toms...but the jakes were all over us and we hoped that Kenny's son would harvest one...well he opted not to take a shot that he wasn't comfortable with-and that was a good decisive move on his behalf. Later that after we all headed to another spot and called in several jakes, and one tom-which came in silently (as expected at times) but saw Kenny's son move the barrel of his 20ga. DARN! Lol! That first initial weekend was Jake heaven, and no toms in sight-but we were limited to our hunting methods due to attempting to get Kenny's child his first Tom, and or Jake. We experienced bad weather; high winds and rain the entire weekend but hunted anyway. Now, as the new week begun we were able to hunt our way without child. That Monday morning we were on some monster birds on another farm that we hunt. We were hunting about 10 yards of a creek and had birds pitching off on each side. Man, when you see a bird strutting out at over 400 yards and he get you excited then we can surely imagine how huge he is/was. We saw and had over 15 toms in sight that morning. The birds were hened up and no too responsive toward calling. To make a short story shorter, Kenny and I ended up sneaking within 25 yards of several hens and two toms but ended up shooting the same bird-while trying to harvest a double...lol. When I shot...he shot, and I looked at him and he at me and then the truth was revealed that we shot the same bird. At least once a year he and I get to double up on at least one set of birds...but this time, we dropped the wrong, yet right shells on the same bird. The one that got away had a beard that was darn near on the ground...Lol. He's my partner in crime...we don't care about that stuff. We just hunt great together. The following morning, we were in the same tree line from the previous morning and had birds on us right of the bat. Needless to say I harvested a tom with an average beard of around 10.5 inches, 25lbs, yet had spurs of 1 9/16...pretty decent gobbler. The past week has been very eventful. Wading through chest deep creeks, running into some harmless-though startling snakes...and walking numerous miles to harvest some birds. I've taken some pics, but could have taken more...but when you're in the moments sometimes you do not have the luxury to be in position/s to do everything. At the end of week one, beginning of week two and have half my limit with 5 weeks left in our season...this going to be fun. Hope you all enjoy the pics...had to rush to get this posted...more to come later. Happy hunting guys.