2 Much Fun!

My even year seasons continue to be good ones as I bagged turkey number two for 2012.  This was a two year old bird with an 11 inch beard, 3/4 inch spurs, and weighed in at 18.75 lbs.  He was taken on a Sunday afternoon hunt that lasted all of 30 minutes.

Daddy and I had hunted Saturday morning and chased two gobblers all around the head of woods where I killed my first Tom earlier this year.  No matter what we tried, the two birds would not leave those woods to come see the hens that were calling their names over and over.  I want to believe it was the two birds that I have on video in an earlier post.  A wedding would prevent us from coming back and rejoining the chase that afternoon, but Sunday afternoon found us with nothing but opportunity awaiting us.

We eased our way through the little bottom and set the decoys up in the same spot as earlier in the year.  We sat down in a slightly different spot to take advantage of better shooting lanes and started some soft calling.  About 30 minutes had gone by and my mind had started to wonder a little as I took in the woods around me.  I was constantly looking for movement and thought I was on high alert.  You can understand my surprise when I looked towards the right of our decoy setup and saw a black ghost emerge from the shadows not 40 yards away.  My Tom was standing there in full strut.  I told my Dad that I saw a strutter and got ready to shoot.  The Gobbler put on quite a show as he strutted back and forth between the pines.  His drumming was the only sound I could hear in the woods besides my own heartbeat that I thought would surely give my location away.  As the Tom finally stepped out into a shooting lane, the Browning barked and turkey number 2 for 2012 was down.

My Dad looked at his watch and asked if I realized that this hunt was exactly like the hunt that produced my first turkey of the season.  We set up at 3:00 in the same spot both times, and both times I killed the turkey at 3:30.  We have a new name for this little spot.  It will forever be known as "Death Hill".  We tried to remember the exact number of turkeys we have killed in this spot and came up with 6.  That's not a bad little set up!

I'm trying for a "Turkey" I guess you could say as I go after bird number three.  I have a particular Tom that I want to chase and will concentrate my efforts on getting him.  He was the first bird that I heard gobble this year and he hangs out in a spot on our club that we have never really hunted that much.  To make things harder, he roosts on the side of a big clear-cut.  He is going to be a challenge!

I'm ready!!

PS:  On a side note, this is the Brave Eagle's 200th post!  I'll have to have a small celebration of some sort!  Thanks for all of you who read this thing and encourage me to keep writing!!  I have met some very awesome people on this journey and have made some really good friends!  It has been sooo worth it!!