End of Season Gobbler

This past Sunday was the last day of the 2009 Missouri tukey season.  The weather was a little unpredictable and wasn’t sure about the wind.  I woke up at 4:15 A.M. and there were stars in the sky and no wind.  I thought, what the heck, go and if nothing else check on how bad the flooding was.  Well, as the story goes, I put on my vest grabed my calls and headed for the woods.  There is a hay field on top of the ridge surrounded by hardwoods where I hunt, a great place to do a locator call.  I owl hooted and to my surprise a bird gobbled at one of the usual spots the birds normally roost.  With all the trees leafed out, it was easy to get close to the bird.  I owl hooted one more time just to pin point him.  I knew exactly where he was and where he may go.  After calling to him with a few soft putts and tree yelps, he finally cut me off during my calls, which told me he knew where I was.  After another 10 or 15 minutes of discourse between me and the gobbler, he flew down.  When he hit the ground he was only 70 yards from me and for the next 10 minutes he never made a sound.  I was confident that he was on his way but just being silent about his approach.  I never called again and he never gobbled again until a crow flew over and called.  The bird shook the timber with his gobble and was less than forty yards right at the end of my barrel.  One minute later he stepped out on the path at 20 yards, the magic distance.  The gobbler was mine at 6:20 A.M. and on a morning I wasn’t going to hunt. 

Don’t miss on these late season birds.  They will still turn all you hunters on with their thundering gobbles.  It’s true, it never gets old

The Outdoor Quaterback