Turkey from yesterday

I left my house at 3:30 yesterday morning to cover a case in Tallahassee. Knowing I’d be done fairly early I threw my stuff in my work with plans to stop by our property on my way back. That’s just what I did. I made it to our gate at 10:35.

I changed clothes, gathered my things and slowly walked to a shady spot I had in mind. I was about 25yds off of the same plot we killed youth weekend. I set out Remus (my taxidermy decoy) and got comfortable.

At 11:00 I hit the slate at 65% volume and got no response in the breezy air. I checked work emails and might if dozed off for a few. The next time I checked the clock it was 11:32. I ran my slate at 30% this time. No response. Set it down and just peered across the field reflecting on this incredible season so far.

Then at 11:45 I spotted a red head crest the rise coming from the bottom. Then 2 more heads. Great I thought, it’s the 3 Jakes I had on camera a week or so back. They worked to my left against the woodline. Still thinking they were Jakes I lightly helped behind me, and then one blew up in strut. Full fan! I yelped again and they spotted the decoy and here they come.

To my surprise they were all long beards. They all marched up to the decoy at 17 steps. I wanted him close because Im shooting an old SxS 16ga with short open barrels and #5 pheasant loads. I had to wait for them to separate and once they did I yelped lightly raising the strutters head. Boom! He flopped and the other 2 jumped up and the show commenced.

For 30min the 2 stood over picking and strutting on their fallen companion. I took pictures and videos until they eventually eased off into the bottom. That is the 7th one I’ve seen die this year. #2 for myself.

Click for pics