Story of the Hunt

It took three days of hard hunting to finally get in front of this bird after I missed him Sunday morning due to unseen brush in front of me. I had thought the bird roosted above my right shoulder was his jake friend but later I found out it was another longbeard. The boss of the two just strutted at my calls and went to the gas line to either leave or strut. A cackle brought him to full attention and I swear I had the perfect shot, never even saw the brush between my gun and him. Off he went. Off I went, in search of more birds.

I ended up getting fooled twice more before I finally saw a barrel strutting in the gas line. All day, I'd tried to call the birds into the woods with no luck. I'd just about given up and planned to call it a hunt. Went back to the truck and glassed the line once again. Lo and behold the toms were further down the line. I knew how to round 'em this time. I hotfooted it down the creek line about 120 yards in front of them. A coyote went to howling and let me know they were still there, when a sorry gobble came out. I figured it was the jake gobbling. Not 15 minutes passed when my eyes couldn't stand it anymore and I must have dozed off.

At about 6:20, I opened my eyes to see two longbeards about twenty five yards in front doing the bug looking neck stretching they do. About that time the lead tom got attentive and looked me dead in the eye. Clucked, and paid no attention to the hawk screaming from a limb above. I was trying hard not to allow them to see me bring my leg and gun up but that was impossible. Two sharp putts later and they were leaving. God graced my bullet and sent one into the second slower bird.