When I first heard him this morning I wasn’t sure it was gobble due to some cutting on the neighboring land. I cut a little louder and he had gotten closer. I was set facing directly down the middle of the ridge, he hung left and I didn’t see him until he was 35 yards. I tried to move the barrel to him, but he saw movement and putted 2-3x and eased off in the bottom. Few minutes late he started gobbling so I knew I was still in the game. I watched him strut and gobble for about 8-10 minutes waiting until I could move on him. He eased on to the next ridge, so did I. He got quite on me, so I was waiting him out. A wood pecker fired off right above me, and he ate it up, but had moved to the next ridge. While he was hot, I cut at him pretty hard and he cut it off. I caught glimpses of him working the other ridge, and noticed he was coming. The only place I didn’t need him to come was hard left, and you know he did that. He was in some thick stuff drumming for about 8 minutes gobbling periodically. It was frustrating knowing he was so close but I couldn’t see him, but was awesome feeling/hearing him drum. He finally broke out behind the thick cover and I threaded a needle. We battled from 7:15 until about 8:50.


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