Yesterday was the perfect day.

This past Thursday I traveled to West Central Iowa to hunt with my BFF.

He all ready had one bird in the bag. So he had spent the last couple of days scouting for me and had put a couple of big gobblers to bed Thursday night.

Early Friday am we snuck in under the light of a very bright moon and quietly set up a blind. Bwana then left me  for a blind of his own two miles away.

The woods  and fields had been burned recently and I had set my blind just on the edge of the burn and a green field . My blind was facing north towards the wooded gully were the birds were roosted.

I set out one hen decoy 12 paces straight out from the blind and a Jake just to the left of center at about 8 paces. I like to try and pull the Tom thru the center past the hen and to the Jake. Then when he is focused on the Jake in front of the hen I should have a nice close shot.

As the light in the East began to grow the gobbles erupted from North and from the East. I gave a few soft calls and was rewarded with another set of gobbles.

I heard birds fly down and spotted 5 toms about 200 yards east of me just on the edge of the burn. I called once and three of the Toms broke rank and were sprinting my way!

I turned on the Gopro 3  I had on a stake out side of the blind facing the decoys.

The first bird in looked huge! He actually went around the back of the hen and came at the Jake from behind. As he attacked the Jake with his wings I started to put a little tension on the string. As soon as he turned enough so his head was facing the hen I began my draw. I stayed focused and sent the arrow thru the sweet spot. The string from the tracker played out as he tried to run down hill. But he only went about 30 yards and started to flop.

Then all hell broke loose as the other 2 toms came in and attacked my Jake. The flew at him , they spurred it and ultimately broke its stake by jumping on it.  They stood on it and  made a tremendous amount of what I called PO'd noises!

I kept thinking, WOW I am getting all of this on video!! But some days not everything goes right. When I thought I had turned the camera on, I had actually turned the camera off!

 

He is my best bird to date. THREE BEARDS! They measured 10, 9, and 8 inches respectively. He weighed in at 25.6 lbs . One spur was 1 inch 1/8 and the other was broken off and measured only 7/8. For those out there who keep score, he approaches the 100 point mark.

 

My Black Widow El Uno came thru for me again. It has some serious MoJO

Oh and my buddy got one too. Here we are with 50 pounds of bird.



it was a four drive and a 30 minute hunt. But I wont forget it for a long , long time.

       

  what a bird!

Wow, congrats!

Awesome hunt!

Nice job Congrats.

Super hunt!!!  

Bummer about the camera, but outstanding hunt! Congrats.

Outstanding!!!      

Great photos and story! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Nice.  Very cool!!!

Most-excellent LBM!

Enjoy the feast!

Celebrate a Happy Easter!

Shoot straight, Shinken

 

Congrats on a NICE bird. Thanks for taking us along.

Great hunt, congrats Jim!!

Love that triple beard, nice birds,congratulations!

That's awesome! Congrats!

Congrats on the Turkey!

Great job!

Awesome!!!!