Decided on a whim to give my private stuff a break this weekend and try my luck on public. Having never killed a bird on public, I didn’t have much hope for a great hunt but man was I wrong.

Got to my favorite WMA deer spot at around 4:30. The gate that I wanted to go in had a truck parked at it already so I had to go on down the road to another spot. My buddy and I walked a little ways in and stopped on a high ridge where we could hear for a long way. I told Scott that with it being public I wanted a bird to gobble three times and then shut up. Once in the tree to give us direction, a second time in the tree to pinpoint his location, and then once on the ground so we’d know where he was headed.

At 5:25, in the pitch black dark we got gobble number one. He was about a half mile and three ridges over so we immediately started booking it in his direction. Once we got to the second ridge, and I’m talking tall, almost vertical slopes, we stopped to take a break and catch our breath. That’s when we got gobble number 2. This time he has a buddy gobble along with him and I got a better idea on where he was. So the sliding and climbing began again.

When we topped the ridge that I thought was nearest him we broke out into some wide open pines. Not knowing where they were and trying to avoid spooking them we sat down for a while and just listened. By now it was probably 6:30 and past flydown time. We sat there for about 20mins without a peep and I decided to get up and drop off the back of the ridge to move down to a higher spot where we could see and hear better.

At 7:05 we got gobble number 3. This time it was faint and distant. They had hit the big main creek bottom and began moving away from us. I pulled up OnX and decided from the sound of it he was about 600yds from us and just around a tight bend in the creek. So away we went once again. We had to slide down the front of this ridge it was so steep. Once we hit the bottom we ran as fast as we could to where the bottom started to make the big bend. I didn’t know where they were and wanted to get up high again so we took a right and climbed the ridge that jutted out into the bend.

Once we go to the top I cut on my mouth call and was immediately answered by two ticked off hens directly below us. After a few minutes of going back and forth with them I decided that they were on the side of the ridge opposite of us across the creek bottom. I told scott we weren’t going to get them to come across so we had to make a play. Dropping back off the back side of our ridge we ran about 1/4 mile up past them, dropped into the creek bottom, and shot across to the other side. There was a small finger ridge sticking out and I knew they were just on the other side of it so we climber about 3/4 of the way up the ridge and sat down. This time when I called I was answered by the hens and both gobblers.

After 30+ mins of cutting back and forth with the hens one of them finally topped the ridge and began looking for us. She worked her way down to my right raising cain and I just knew she was about to bust us. All this time the two gobblers were firing off every 2-3 mins. I could hear them spitting and drumming and dragging their wings through the leaves. They were almost in our lap. My butt was asleep, arms were tired and my heart was pounding out of my chest. Finally I caught a glimpse of movement to my right up the hill. I whispered to my buddy that I didn’t think we’d have a chance to double (he would’ve had to have shot within a foot of my head) and I needed to go ahead and take a shot if I got it. He said ok and I got down on the gun. I cut one last time on my mouth call and he stuck his head up over the crest of the ridge. All I could see was the top 6” of his neck/head through a basketball sized hole in the trees. I swung the gun up to him and as soon as the red dot touched his head I sent a load of #9s his way.

Not knowing whether I got him or not we ran over the hill as fast as we could. But he was dead as a hammer. When I got up to him and rolled him over I almost fell out on the ground. I have never in my life seen spurs like this in person. I had the guy at the WMA check station measure and weigh him. After looking it up on the NWTF records I think that I’m tied for #2 for longest spur length in Alabama. I’ll be submitting a full score along with witness signatures in a few days.

18lbs
10” beard
1-7/8 and 1-9/16 spurs

A real limb hanger

Yes sir! What a turkey! There’s just something different about killing one on public ground 👍🏻

Man that’s a beast. Congrats man.

Congrats on a bird of a lifetime

That’s a goodun, congrats!

Nice!

Well played sir. Congrats!!

Heck of a bird congrats

Wow, heck of a bird! Congrats! Nothing bears the feeling of getting one on public dirt!

Great photos! Congrats on a memorable hunt.

Heck of a story and bird teammate! Congrats again! Believe I have to mount him

That’s some swords right there. Nice job man, congrats

Congrats . Great bird

That's awesome.

Wow....what a bird!!! Congrats!!!

Congrats on a great bird.

Congrats on a hoss!

Stud