Top_Heavy's World

The big toms came into the horse pasture daily to scratch for bugs and pick up spilled grain from the feed pans. I had been watching this bachelor group of birds all winter and I couldn't wait to get after them during 4th season. I watched the birds through 1st season where I hunted with a shotgun and took a great bird in Henry County. I watched them through 2nd season as my wife was too busy at work to be able to hunt. I tried to get Jason onto them during 3rd season with his bow, but they stayed just out of range or walked through his shooting window too quickly. We played this cat and mouse game for several days and season was soon over with the birds still around. 4th season arrived and the birds had dispersed. Only one big tom was daily in the pasture and he was usually with several hens. I patterned the evening routine for a few nights and I finally found an evening that Steph could hunt.
We had about 2 hours before dark as I picked up Steph and my daughter Korin. I grabbed a single decoy, the Benelli Montefeltro, a few shells and my turkey vest. It was warm so we each put on just enough camo to blend in a little and we set out. We were hunting in a young timber, the largest trees were only 8" thick. I was nervous about hiding against one of these tiny tree trunks, but I had the perfect evening pattern and I was going to push it a little! On our way to the last strutting ground before the creek, where the birds fly across and go to roost, I grabbed a few pine boughs. I leaned these branches against the biggest tree we had and all 3 of us leaned against the same tree! It wasn't long and the group of 3 hens and our big tom showed up and walked the same little trail they did every night. The group walked right in front of us and started dusting and primping before they flew to roost. The tom heard a few light calls from my diaphram call and he moved a little closer to the decoy. I never did get him to come out of strut, he just wouldn't release. At about 10 yards the shot wasn't difficult, but it was perfect. Steph harvested another monster gobbler, Korin got to watch another successful hunt, and I got to spend time with my ladies.

The crab apples were in bloom the afternoon that we finally had time to get out and hunt together, this fantastic hunt took less than a half of an hour. My daughter was inspired to hunt after watching my wife take this big gobbler, doing things as a family really makes them special.