Looky what I found - an unpublished post from April! Here she is....
I'm slacking on an upland bird post but I was waiting until it was over to do a summary report.
I was in Lenoir county NC for opening day. Overcast skies and a little drizzle on the walk in but the rain subsided and it was a nice cool, crisp morning. Before long I had Tom's answering me and the game was commenced. I was set up in an oak cluster facing a tree line 25yds away and about 600yds long. Behind me was a 100 acre open field where the birds feed in the morning and afternoon. Right around 7:45 3 shooters with brooms on their chests walked out. Except 100 yds to my left. Hot on their trail were 9 hens & jakes. Anytime I attempted a call a Tom would go in strut, look my direction then look at a hen and decided she looked better.......They made it across my lane lickety-split and funneled in behind me where they fed for about 2hrs. Any attempt of mine to get their attention resulted in a strut, look in my direction, go grab one of the ladies nearby, do the deed and return to feeding. It SUCKED. My calls are pretty darn good but you just can’t beat the real thing when it’s 10ft away from them. They walked all the way across the field to the other end where they spent their sweet time lounging in that tree line and eating. The Toms would be in and out of Strut and I'd have to watch it from 400dys away. During this time I've surveyed every piece of that field attempting to discern any possible way to belly crawl over there. Unfortunately, I was on a bit of a hill and they would have caught me the whole way. Right around 10:50 a lone Hen came walking back towards home. Then the 3 Toms followed. Which was real awesome except for the fact that they were chasing the real thing and all I had was a $10 slate call.... Needless to say they thwarted my best efforts to sound better than she looked, again, and entered the same tree line 91yds to my right. At this point, I've had to watched those 3 Toms all morning, they were not getting away. I waited until they were in the tree line for a bit then grabbed my gun and willed my legs, which were asleep, awesome.... out of the blind. I huffed it 60yds down the tree line and 30yds in and found a decent shrub to put between the birds path and I then leaned back against a tree right quick. Well damn, that hurt, what was that? I leaned against a tree but it was covered in thorn vines. "Suck it up Brent, you can't move now" was all I could think (I still have the holes in my back to prove it). Lucky for me I had witnessed 2 birds take this same path at sunrise so I knew it was well-traveled. Gave a couple calls on the slate and not 5 minutes later there were the 3 big boys with brick red heads coming my way. They had zero clue I was there but one problem, they were coming around the bush to what would be a left-handed shot for me. They're 35yds away, what am I to do? I have to move, I've never practiced a left-handed shot with this shotgun before and I aint about to start on these monsters. So I steeled my nerve, set my hands down slowly, and made the adjustment in one fell-swoop. They heard me. CRAP and damn that hurt. (Two thorns broke off in my back) For better or worse, they changed course to come the way I was originally facing......Making it an over the shoulder right-hand shot. Brent luck right there to come the way I originally wanted them to after I adjusted. Good news was that I just had to make a little tougher than normal shot. They cut within 25yds on the good-side of the shrub and I lined up the guy I wanted. 2oz of a 3.5" Federal Premium #6 shot tore through the old boy and he dropped like a stone. I couldn't help but think to myself, holy s***t, that actually worked! Work, hell, I scored one big poppa.
The adventure didn't end there. After breasting and processing I stashed the beard and feet on top of my cooler. Never once have I had a problem with leaving something like that overnight. Only thing I didn't account for is one of the guys dogs. He decided that the beard would be tasty. I spent some time searching and one of the guys was able to locate the scene of the crime. Beard recovered but in about 18pieces. It'll be my job to put it back together but it shall become whole again.
My bird and I:
Shots of the turkey as they were in the field behind me early on. Zoomed then unzoomed. No chance in heck in getting a shot that far. You can make out the strut of one Tom in the first one just barely.
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