I had hunted this farm 3 times and every morning this Turkey would gobble across the road a few times, pitch down and walk out of my life. This morning was more of the same, when at 5 am he gobbled to start his day. I gave him until 5:10 and called to be sure that he heard me, and he roared back. We traded contact calls for a few minutes and suddenly he was on my side of the road and he brought a buddy as 2 birds gobbled to me. I let them find me and only called sparingly to contact them. They slowly made their way to me, and I could see they were 2 longbeards. When the lead bird strutted to my Jake decoy I was on his head. I hardly remember the gun going off but my aim was true, and he laid there in a heap. It was 5:45 am. The other tom ran over and thought about trying to beat him but I spooked him off because I self imposed a 2 bird limit, rather than follow the state's limit of 5 which is absurd. I was very happy, and my season was now done.
It was a perfect hunt on a wily old bird who just had to see what was on the other side of the road. Persistence, patience and luck killed this bird.
A great hunt by a great sportsman. You are doing good. I saw a hen with a brood of about 8-10 chicks cross the driveway at the Great Hollow Wilderness Preserve in New Fairfield while working in my garden. I was surprised, I would have thought the cold weather and rain would have delayed dropping eggs or there would have been lost nests due to the weather. But this hen fought through it all to bring a new crop of young turkeys into the world.