Fellas,
I had an AMAZING weekend in TN hunting on my buddy Jim Catino's lease near Shelbyville, TN. On Saturday morning Jimmy C dropped me and Kerry Collins QB of the Titans out to chase some birds. I had the back half of his lease and Kerry had the front half. I hunted the front half the day before and gave Kerry some info of the birds I heard before the weather got bad on Friday.
I get to where I was getting and had at least 6 birds hammering on the roost. At daylight I spent two hours working 4 birds behind me to my field. Around 8am 5 hens came out at (what I thought was about 60 yards). I lost my rangefinder and didn't have an accurate range. My gun is patterned to 70 so I felt good with the steady rest of my trigger stick if the gobblers were following. After 5 minutes I got a bad case of heartburn and let out a cough. The hens became alert and nervous. A few minutes later a longbeard was in check and he was nervous as well. I thought the longbeard was at 55 to 60 and I squeezed the trigger...MISS, he took off flying and chambered a shell in my 870. I stood up and the other three were looking at me. I put the red dot on one's head and watched my pattern hit the birds feet on the chert rock gravel road. The next shot was the same. I felt sick. I stepped off the yardage and I was mistaken. The first bird was at 76 yards and the other was 73. I was discussed with myself.
Kerry heard me shoot and sent a text to Jimmy C that he heard my three shots. Jimmy C called immediately and said "What the hell?" Walking back to the camp, I heard the three birds gobble. Out of shells I walked back with my tail between my legs. After eating a good breakfast and regrouping, we decided to head back out about 10. I went to the same field about 400 yards to the other side and the drizzle started. I called occasionally and the field started to fill up with hens. I called a couple of jakes to the decoys and another lone hen. Around 12:45 I decided to get up and stretch my legs. I contemplated leaving for lunch and thought to wait another 15 minutes.
5 minutes later I saw a big black spot at 400 yards. Putting my binos up I saw a big chested bird with a red head. I yelped and cut hard and he put his head up. I had a Dave Smith jake and two hens. After periscoping my set up he began to walk my way. At 300 yards I noticed that his beard was the size of my forearm. My breath started to pick up. He would stop every 10 yards to look and see what was going on. After 40 minutes he cut the gap to 100 yards. At 100 yards I yelp 3 times and he blew up into strut. He started to walk my way strutting every 5 yards and stopping to look. At about 75 yards I decided it was time to ease my binos down and put my hand on the gun. I moved the binos down a 1/2 inch at a time until my hands were on my 10 ga. At 25 yards I got my cheek on the gun and his head happened to be in line with my bead. I squeezed the trigger and the new sample 10 ga 4x5x7 Hevi 13s hit him like a baseball bat. After 45 minutes of watching this beast then walking up to the beast my adrenaline took over and while looking at his spurs and his rope I hit my knees. This hasn't happened to me since high school football but I was so excited I began to puke. I was torn up! When Jimmy C and his buddy Trey showed up we gave a proper toast to the turkey gods with a bottle of 101!
He didn't gobble once.
I love this sport.
22.75lbs
12 1/6" beard (massive thick)
1.5" spur, 1.4375" spur
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