Managed to Get Out This Morning

[anonymoose]

I haven't heard a gobble at my place all season so I finally decided to go to the neighbour's and give it a go.

This guy was a long ways off across the road on another property, but he was gobbling like mad. Managed to get him to cross the road by playing "hard to get". Once he was across the road he came in on a wire, but when he got there he didn't like the looks of my beat up old jake decoy and bolted for the bush. I love it when they beat the tar out of the decoy but this guy had to do the flop without putting on a show.

 

[fishstalker]

?

 

[SIX-GRAND]

I haven't heard a gobble at my place all season so I finally decided to go to the neighbour's and give it a go.

This guy was a long ways off across the road on another property, but he was gobbling like mad. Managed to get him to cross the road by playing "hard to get". Once he was across the road he came in on a wire, but when he got there he didn't like the looks of my beat up old jake decoy and bolted for the bush. I love it when they beat the tar out of the decoy but this guy had to do the flop without putting on a show.

View attachment 13847

Nice hanger! nice wingmaster too.. classy walnut.

 

[anonymoose]

Nice hanger! nice wingmaster too.. classy walnut.

Thanks @SIX-GRAND!

I was given a wingmaster many moons ago by a hunting buddy who was retiring from the sport. It was of the old breed: fixed full choke and 2 3/4" shells. It is great for rabbits and turkeys, but after putting more steel shot down it than I care to admit, I broke down and got this one for the screw-in chokes. I still get a few chuckles in the duck blind from the Benelli crowd (especially for its gold trigger...) but it fits me well and the chuckles dry up when I outshoot their fancy guns!

It is "good from far but far from good" cosmetically. I don't own any safe queens - my guns go hunting!

 

[Old Cut LongPointer]

Nice bird ! Nice gun too ! Gotta luv those WingMasters !

 

[anonymoose]

Tagged out with another limb hanger. Great season.

This guy wasn't roosted where I expected him. Him and a second gobbler were about 100 yards behind me. Shortly after I set up, some fox kits started yipping and that set off one of the gobblers. Another eventually joined in. I let them gobble a good while and then I let out some yelps and cuts. They answered and I let them gobble away. 10 minutes later, a nearby hen (roosted where I expected the gobblers to be) flew away and joined the gobblers. I yelped again to let the boys know that one hen was left behind, but I was nervous knowing they had at least one hen to keep them occupied.

Eventually they flew down and one of the gobblers was getting closer. He came to 40 yards and gobbled a number of times. He was off to my left and I wasn't positioned to shoot in that direction from my makeshift blind. There were 5 or 6 hens farther off, and moving away. It was clear he was gobbling to locate the missing hen. I had a jake decoy out which wasn't enough to draw him away from the hens. He started to leave, so I changed positions and made the 40-yard shot. It was a little greasy, through a hole in some small brush. He was down, but as I approached he ran over a hill. I crested the hill and he was laying down with his head out so I swatted him. Fortunate to get the bird on a less than perfect shot.