First off, congrats to those that have harvested and best of luck to those looking to harvest.
I got up this morning and watched the weather channel to see that rain was on the way. I thought about putting my head back down and taking a pass but decided to head out.
I grabbed a Timmy's and was at the property by 4:30 and stood for a bit trying to decide where to set up and eventually came to the realization that with my luck no matter where I set up the birds will be at the other end of the property anyways. Once I was set up I enjoyed my coffee and waited for the dawn.
My new set of decoys (taken later in the morning):
The view from my seat:
About 30 minutes before day break light to medium showers set in. As day break approached sure enough the first gobble came from the other side of the 280 acres. I thought about moving but decided to stay put. I talked with Tommy back and forth for about a 1/2 hour. Unfortunately the Tom was heading away from me so I put away the call and waited. About 5 minutes later this little lady came out of the bush behind me and started to chatter and chatter and chatter:
She passed me at about 8 yards and then headed into the corn field behind me. I was soaked at this point. I waited a little longer and watched a small doe bust out and bolt to the far side of the field (sorry for quality of the pics as it was raining pretty good at this point):
About 5 minutes later I could hear the Tom (or a Tom) getting closer from approx 700 yards away. I gave a couple calls and he replied. I think once he entered 2 fields over he spied my big Tom decoy and started gobbling and coming closer. He stopped at the edge of the field (80 yards) and hung up strutting and gobbling for about 3-4 minutes. He then slowy swung out around my decoys (I had set my decoys up for this very purpose as I have found in the past that the Toms always give a wide birth to the decoys). He stopped and gobbled one more time .. My Remington 3 1/2 Mag (Red Labels) did the job. Both the bird and I were soaked so I could not get the pics I wanted at that time:
I packed up my wet self and headed home. The fan was a mess so I hung him in the garage with a gentle air (fan) blowing on him and then this afternoon I returned to the scene to get a couple better pictures which are still not the best but the best I could do (I just didnt think I represented the bird properly earlier given his condition and the weather):
Once I was done with the photo op I dressed him and within minutes of starting a spectator showed up:
The end result:
I was alone and couldnt use my timer to get a pic of myself with the Tom so:
I did weigh him on a poor set of scales and he was between 21.5 and 22.5 lbs.
Sorry for the length of my post. Again best of luck to everyone and stay safe out there.
Cheers,
Robin
