Invisible man and I made a run at trying to bag a gobbler this morning. The goal was for IM to bag an opening day bird which I would film and I would shoot cleanup if a second opportunity presented itself.
We headed out and setup and at first light heard three different groups of gobblers. Unfortunately all the gobblers seamed to be hened up and we couldn't seem to get any of the vocal birds to show any interest in us. Around mid morning we were chalking the day up as a hunting trip and not a killing trip so IM set off to setup a game cam to check the activity in his area. After setting the cam up I was playing with a new diaphragm and got a gobble from a bird across the valley and over the hill. IM broke out his calls and the birds replied again showing a lot of interest. The calling went back and forth for a couple of minutes and sounded as thought he birds were coming in. IM knowing the area suggested we go back across the valley where we started in the AM to lessen the distance the birds would have to come to us. We hoofed it across the valley and were at the toe of the slope where we were setup in the morning when we heard another gobble, a very close gobble. The birds were moving into us on the back of the hill. Our brisk paced walk turned into a run. We ran the remainder of the way to the tree where we started in the morning. IM hit his box call and we had an instant response inside of 100yards but still out of sight. We both adjusted our shotguns and set up for the birds. Two gobblers popped up. One bird was leading and the other was at full strut. They were both hot and not content to stay place. IM called lead bird as they moved in. Both birds headed West still looking for the hen. We adjusted again as soon they went behind a tree. Once the second bird cleared the tree I whispered to IM "call it". A little suprising to me IM's shotgun barked calling/ dropping the lead bird. The second bird turned and ran a few steps before my shotgun decided to bark as well. Well, that's all I have to say about that, two Toms dropped within a couple of seconds couldn't have worked out better. Unfortunaly do to our haste in setup none of it got videoed. Big thanks to Doug for dragging me along.
We headed out and setup and at first light heard three different groups of gobblers. Unfortunately all the gobblers seamed to be hened up and we couldn't seem to get any of the vocal birds to show any interest in us. Around mid morning we were chalking the day up as a hunting trip and not a killing trip so IM set off to setup a game cam to check the activity in his area. After setting the cam up I was playing with a new diaphragm and got a gobble from a bird across the valley and over the hill. IM broke out his calls and the birds replied again showing a lot of interest. The calling went back and forth for a couple of minutes and sounded as thought he birds were coming in. IM knowing the area suggested we go back across the valley where we started in the AM to lessen the distance the birds would have to come to us. We hoofed it across the valley and were at the toe of the slope where we were setup in the morning when we heard another gobble, a very close gobble. The birds were moving into us on the back of the hill. Our brisk paced walk turned into a run. We ran the remainder of the way to the tree where we started in the morning. IM hit his box call and we had an instant response inside of 100yards but still out of sight. We both adjusted our shotguns and set up for the birds. Two gobblers popped up. One bird was leading and the other was at full strut. They were both hot and not content to stay place. IM called lead bird as they moved in. Both birds headed West still looking for the hen. We adjusted again as soon they went behind a tree. Once the second bird cleared the tree I whispered to IM "call it". A little suprising to me IM's shotgun barked calling/ dropping the lead bird. The second bird turned and ran a few steps before my shotgun decided to bark as well. Well, that's all I have to say about that, two Toms dropped within a couple of seconds couldn't have worked out better. Unfortunaly do to our haste in setup none of it got videoed. Big thanks to Doug for dragging me along.
