Dropped in His Tracks

Last night after we got out of class Shawn and I went out to his parents and had a big fish/turkey fry and met up with Dan Richardson…

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michaelhunsucker on April 24, 2008 at 9:59 pm

Last night after we got out of class Shawn and I went out to his parents and had a big fish/turkey fry and met up with Dan Richardson, the winner of our fieldstaff membership package. We sat around and ate some dinner, told some stories, watched some video and just got to know Dan a little better. Afterwards we headed to bed to get some sleep for the morning.

In the morning, Jeff, Dan, and Skyler headed out togehter and Shawn and I headed to another place. Aparently Jeff, Dan, and Skyler had a little trouble gettin in and accidentally spooked some birds off of the roost which pretty much put an end to their hunt. Shawn and I however slipped in and got set up and it wasnt too long before birds started sounding off. They sounded fairly far away and then two toms let loose a little over 100 yards away. The flew down really early and although they saw our decoys, they headed the opposite direction. A hen, however, did fly down our direction and walked around our decoys. Not too long after that Shawn spotted another gobbler at the end of the field, but he quickly walked away with the other two. About 15 minutes past and we had a hen fly across the creek from behind us and land in our decoys. About that time a jake also poped over they hill and they milled around and were starting to walk off when Shawn spotted that tom down the field again. He quickly noticed all the movement in the decoys and headed our way. I pulled the fan on the decoy up and down a few times and he came running. Unfortunately, i think the hen saw something and got curious and headed right toward our blind. She stopped about FIVE FEET from us and started putting and flew off. The tom then got a little nervous and started to head off with her and the jake, but couldnt resist the tom decoy with the moving fan. He hung up at about 65 yards for about 10 minutes before he finally commited to the decoy. He came in and postured agains the decoy when i heard shawn whisper “draw, draw”. I didnt know why he was wanting me to draw becasue i felt that i would get busted. About that time i realized that the wind picked up and was blowing one of the umbrellas that we had set up over. Fortunately it didnt spook the tom too bad and he continued his business harassing the decoy. When he stuck his head behind the decoys fan i quickly drew and waited for him to clear the decoy. Once he did i release and THWACK he dropped right in the decoys. I was so excited that i finally got one to just drop and start flopping!

After the hunt we met up with Dan, Jeff and Skyler to show them my bird. As luck would have it there were three toms and a bunch of other birds on the farm that Shawn and I live on. Dan, Skyler and I quickly set up on them but unfortunately a coyote messed things up for us. Dan and I moved to another farm and set up on a different bird only to have him go the opposite way and leave us empty handed.

Shawn and Dan are headed to Shawn’s farm in the morning and I believe I am headed out with Skyler and Jeff. Hopefully we can smack some more tomorrow!