I went yesterday after work and was gonna roost the birds. When I got there, the birds were in the middle of the access road strutting. I watched them for about 20 minutes and headed home. They wouldnt be far. When my buddy and I got out there this morning, we saw the hens roosted on one side of the access road and the toms were gobbling on the other. Perfect setup!! If the hens came to us before the toms did, we could spook them off, but it wasnt needed. The hens flew down behind us and kept going away. When they piched down, the toms gobbled once more and we watched them fly down into a field.
We had setup on the gap in the fence they were coming to, but they would have come out about 6yds from us. That was a little to close for a shot as it greatly increased the odds of a miss. So I decided to ease up to the fence and into the woods so that we could have a longer shot and less chance of missing. We crawled our way over to the fence and the cedar trees to cover our approach. I stood up behind the cedars for a look and there were 3 of the 4 toms I saw fly down. I told my buddy that I was going to take the lead bird..... BOOOOOM. 3" #5 Remington Heavy Shot laid him out without even a twitch. The others scattered and we sat and waited, hoping that they would come back, but they didnt. We loaded up just in time for the rain storms. I got home, got some measurements, breasted him out and got the spurs and beard. I didnt get a weight, but I guesstimate that he was around the 22lb mark with an 8 9/16" beard and 3/4" spurs. There is a bigger one out there that I will try and get on before it gets later in the season.
