My girlfriend and I, both 16 shot these birds on the April 21 youth hunt this year. I called all morning and had them gobbling for about an hour until we finally realized they were across a road and had little chance to get them into range. We took a walk around the fields and sat down for a break when the jake she shot came out about 300 yards away with a few hens & a mature tom. The tom put on a show for us trying to hen up and we called softly for a few minutes and got the jake to break free and come into range. She dropped him with a mossberg 20 gauge at 40 yards. After we came back from breakfast, we hiked around glassing until I spotted the ol tom in the photo above with a hen out in a field of golden rod. We went to the other end and set up on him . Within 45 minutes of calling and waiting he was into range and I blasted him at 25 yards with my remington 870. Great and memorable hunt for us both.
The old gobbler weighed in at 28 lbs and sported some 1.5" hooked claws and a 10" beard.
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