I'm at a loss of words but I think I may have had the fastest, easiest hunt I have ever had in the 20+ years chasing these birds. I had work obligations for a few hours in the morning so I packed some camies with me in the truck and after a couple boring hours in court, I drove up to a public land spot that I knew had birds before the season opened.I drove up fully knowing that people have already hunted it hard and someone would propbably be there. When I got there, I didn't see anyone else and didn't even see a boot print in the trail. I was starting to get excited.
I hike down to the CNF boundary and hit the call with nothing. I get to a nice shady oak where I can just sit and call until end time. I set out a single DSD hen and get settled in. Once I sit down, I give a few cuts and yelps with my Adam Prouty slate call I hear what sounded like a faint gobble waaaay off in the distance. The wind was blowing a little so it was hard to tell but I told myself that it was a gobble.
I wait a little and give a few excited calls on the mouth call and follow it with calls from the slate call. Right away I hear a definit double gobble and it sounded closer but still about a mile away. I give it a few minutes and give another combo call from both calls and get a triple gobble much closer than before. This bird was definitely hot footing it to me.
I play around with him a little more but the gobble still sounds about 200 yards out. All of a sudden I see a single long beard pop up to my right with a second one coming up on him. Then a jake comes out and the two long beards back off under a oak next to me.
As the jake approaches my decoy, I can hear the two toms purr in irritation as the jake struts around the lone hen. The two toms couldn't take anymore and come running in but very quietly and chase the jake around. As the two toms separate, one continued to chase the jake while the dominant strutter attempts to mount the hen.
Now all this time, I'm still hearing a thunderous gobble off in the distance which led me to believe these two toms were subordinate satalight toms. As the "more" dominant strutter mounts the hen decoy and bends the metal stake, I line up the red dot and make him take a dirt nap. I checked how far I set the decoy and I paced it at 15 steps. The 3.5in magnum blend and pattern master code black absolutely destroyed the tom's face.
Final tally:
22LBs
10in beard with a thin strand of 4 inch beard above it (I didn't realize it had a second beard until my son found it in the carcass)
1.25in/1in spur.
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