Myself and a friend had hunted hard in the morning. We got on a bird early from the roost. We worked together calling the bird only to have him come in silent 2 hours later. He bird- dogged me when I tried to make a move with the gun and took off. We moved out of the area to work another bird.

Around 11:15 a.m. my friend said he had enough and went on in. I went back to the first area from the morning hunt and set up and did some calling. I then got up to move up a ridge to start working my way back to the truck at about 20 minutes to 12. I got to the top of ridge and made one last cackle when two gobblers sounded off near where we had setup in the morning.

I moved 75 yards towards them on a logging road, made a soft yelp and one gobbler sounded off again. I sat down against a small oak and made some soft purrs when I saw 3 Toms coming down the ridge onto the logging road. I picked the biggest of the 3 and made the shot at about 40 yards. The bird was on the ground at 11:52 a.m.

Goes to show you, if you don't hunt until 12 you might miss the big one!