My friend Bill Sibert and I roosted 5 toms and 4 hens, and one of the toms was a hoss!! We went back the next morning at 03:30 since it got light at 04:45, and it was a full moon. The first shock gobble was at 04:00 to a coyote howling. At 04:30 they really started gobbling. By 05:00 they had gobbled well over a hundred times; often all 5 of them at the same time. I had done a little tree talking, along with a couple jake gobbles. The boys were fired up.

Mr. Big pitched down first, and started our way. You could hear him drumming from far away in the thin air. The other toms pitched down, and Mr. Big joined them. We watched 5 strutting and drumming birds. But then the hens pitched down and headed the other way - with the gobblers!

Bill and I called aggressively and turned the hens back - with the gobblers in tow. They slowly worked down to us, but Mr. Big was lagging behind. I finally I had to lean out around a tree to get the crosshairs on him. When Bill aimed at his bird, his sling fell off his knee and swing back and forth under his gun. The birds saw it and got nervous. They were fixing to bolt when I was able to line up for a shot. I gave the signal, and we fired simultaneously. Our birds dropped in unison!! It was 05:30!!

My bird weighed 25 lb’s, had a 10 inch beard and ¾ inch spurs. Bill's bird weighed 22 lb's, had a 6-1/2 inch beard (it had been broken off), and 3/4 inch spurs.