Last year, I got on a bird early in the season yakking away every morning. But every single morning he hung up. It all started when I had seen him out in his strut zone with 2 hens. What the hell I said let me ambush him and set up on him. As any good Turkey hunter knows, stealing a gobbler away from 2 hens is near impossible, but its always worth a shot, call it desperation, but its worth a shot. So here I am set up in the middle of the pines, a good spot. Throwing a few soft clucks at him I wondered what he was doing in the field. I couldn't quite see that far to the field where he was, probably 150 yards through the pines. Heck, I wondered if he was even still there, we've all been in that position before. But then he gobbled back. I could hear him spittin' and drummin' and it got deeper and deeper and louder and louder. If you've never experienced a bird spittin', it's pretty crazy. I had the Benelli up and got the bead on his head, but he was way to far through way too much brush to blow a first shot. I managed to hold off on shooting a desperate shot that wasn't gonna make it and try for him the rest of the season.
I must have set up on this bird at least 5 more times throughout the course of the season. Every morning I would get him gobbling and then he would hang up. So I would set up on him a different way the next morning and he would hang up again, always making you believe he was right on the other side of that knoll.
I made it a goal for this year to kill that bird. I am changing my tactics and we'll see if it works...
Things to Change:
Hunting with a partner- This bird only got more educated over the last 11 months that I haven't hunted him. By having one caller and one shooter, I can pull this bird farther a lot easier without having him hang up on me.
Time to scout the land before the season- Last year I went in blind and had no idea about how the land was laid out. Lots of small meadows to use instead of getting hung up in thick brush or heavy pines where taking a shot can be compromised.
