Posted By: wareagle22
Killed a goodun Monday - 04/26/24 01:56 AM
We’ve been after this old boy for quite some time and he finally made a mistake Monday morning. I had pics/videos of him starting in early February and could tell he had a serious set of gaffs. He was consistently in a plot up until the week before youth season and then he just disappeared only to reappear late last week. He showed up a couple of times and my brother hunted him on Sunday. He gobbled 12-15 times in the tree and only 3 times on the ground while working out into a fresh clearcut. My brother left him as he was with 2 hens. I got another pic of him late that afternoon so I knew he had to be close by. I got in there early Monday and it was dead silence. I knew he had to be in the area so I just started easing around trying to see if I could ever hear him drumming. I finally got to where I could hear him and could tell he was still with his hens. We played cat and mouse for several hours before his hens had enough and came to investigate. He was dragging along behind them ever so slowly as they got to within 10 yards of me. He was behind a tree so I couldn’t shoot him and I felt pretty confident that the hens were gonna bust me pretty quickly if I didn’t get a shot. Luckily he stepped out from behind the tree and that was all she wrote. Got deep puncture wounds on 2 fingers as I raced to pick him up and look at my prize. He gouged me pretty good with his razor sharp spurs. Not a big bird, only weighing just shy of 18 pounds with a 9.5” beard but he’s got 1.5”+ spurs. Longest spurs I’ve ever put a tote on and to kill him on a heavily pressured club makes it that much sweeter. I can only imagine what he has seen/heard during his 5-6-7 year life span. He was extremely spooky and very deliberate with his movements. It took until 11:40 for him to finally work into range. Sure makes getting up at 3:30 am and walking mile after mile worth it. This was a bird that dreams are made of and I’m super excited about killing him.
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