I have been looking at the Burris Oracle X for quite some time but had difficulty with the price tag. So I started saving a little off the top from my small retirement woodworking business. Well, last night made me pull the trigger after pulling the trigger and missing (totally my fault) one of the biggest Tom's I've seen in all my years chasing Thunder Chickens.
The scenario:
Since taking a nice Tom on the opener I have hunted a few afternoons in the same place as my early scouting pics have shown as many a 4 Toms running together. I was getting in early afternoon and setting up my Jake 1/4 strutt/laying hen and feeding hen. For 2 nights in a row a big Tom has answered my calls and came in behind me (property that I don't have permission on) and just like the Tom I took hung up behind me strutting back and forth but would not commit. Eventually he gave up and headed to his roost. I figured it was time to introduce him to "Big Guy" (my Full strut Tom with a real tail that I can flip up and down). I am frugal so when I seen the price of an animated full strut Tom I decided time for redneck engineering. I had a full strut Tom I bought 20 years ago but the tail was always in the full strut position. I removed the foam tail that came with it and built a wooden hinged plate for the back of the bird and took last years Tom tail and attached it. As redneck as it gets I then took a couple steel fishing leaders and attached them to the inside of the decoy and then with the use of 100 lb fishing line and several heavy duty tent pegs modified as eye pegs. I then run the line through the eye hooks to my blind and the line is attached to a fishing reel. From my blind I can put my decoy into a full strut and then drop the tail.
Well just like the last 2 afternoons the Tom came into the field behind and started strutting. I responded with strutting my decoy to match his struts. It worked better than I thought. The Tom came into my field and started strutting which I countered with my own fanning. At 20 yards I took the shot and I caught a the luminok driving into the dirt at his feet. As much as I prepare for distances I SUCK at it. For the past few years when I set up my blind I have flags that I stick in the ground showing 20, 30 and 40 yards. I put these flags on my left, right and center positions. Unfortunately, I now know that depth perception is a problem as it turns out the Tom was 35 yards out and I shot it thinking it was 20 yards.
I figured it was time and picked up some new glasses for my RevX;
A complete bonus for me was that I am getting old and when I pull up the Over Watch it is blurry and I need my glasses to see the rectal but with my glasses on distances are blurry so I have had to keep my glasses low on my nose so I can pull them up when I need to zero in on a potential harvest. With this new scope I don't need my glasses.
Busy putting docks in but I cant wait to zero this scope in.
Take care and stay safe~!
Cheers
Chester
