A buddy and I met up this morning for a hunt in Medina County and, needless to say, it went extremely well. He had seen birds in a nearby picked soybean field strutting yesterday, so we knew they'd be in the area.
We had an idea where they'd roost but we couldn't slip in close enough. Instead, we set up between the roost and the bean field, hoping to intercept them on their way to strut. In order to make sure we'd be seen from a distance, we pulled out every decoy we had and set 'em up... 2 strutters, 2 or 3 hens, and a couple jake birds. It was quite the spread.
We heard the first gobble at about 5:30 a.m., off in the woods to our right where we thought they'd be roosting. We actually heard at least 2, maybe 3 birds roosted in there. They gobbled regularly up until fly-down, then it went quiet. I made a few yelping sequences with some cutting and after a few minutes we heard a gobble on the ground, and he was coming our way. Just then we heard another gobble off to our left! We had no idea that bird was even over there. But we were sandwiched between two fired-up longbeards so I wasn't complaining. lol The bird from the left was making his way up the hill and was out of our sight the whole time, but he was coming in on a string. Meanwhile, the bird from the right swung out wide, and when he saw the left bird coming toward us he went into a full sprint to get to that bird. They met up out in front to our left, about a 150 yds away... and proceeded to strut out in the bean stubble field for 20 minutes or so. A hen came in from the right and led them away down over the hill. We thought that was it.
The birds continued to gobble, sporadically. After a bit we heard that hen over the hill start yelping and cutting like crazy. So I answered back and cut at her pretty aggressively. We went back and forth for a minute then she shut up. Next thing we know, we heard a gobble... and another gobble... He was getting closer!
It seemed like forever but finally the top of a tail fan crested over the hill. Minutes later his buddy appeared over the hill too. Ever so slowly, they both strutted their way toward our spread. They hung up at about 60 yds for a bit, then turned and started working away from us again. Right away I cut at 'em like a fired-up hen... They immediately broke out of strut and started their death march.
Right into the decoys they came. My buddy and I were sitting about 5 or 6 feet apart in a brushy fencerow. As the birds postured up to one of the strutter decoys, they split apart... one going left, one going right... perfect. "I'm ready when you are," I whispered. "One....... Two....." BOOM! Both birds dropped like rocks. After working these birds for almost an hour, it had finally ended. A successful, clean double kill. What an awesome hunt it was!
Both birds had 1" spurs and beards were 9 1/4" and 10". I'd say low-20s on weight. A nice pair of two year olds.
We had an idea where they'd roost but we couldn't slip in close enough. Instead, we set up between the roost and the bean field, hoping to intercept them on their way to strut. In order to make sure we'd be seen from a distance, we pulled out every decoy we had and set 'em up... 2 strutters, 2 or 3 hens, and a couple jake birds. It was quite the spread.
We heard the first gobble at about 5:30 a.m., off in the woods to our right where we thought they'd be roosting. We actually heard at least 2, maybe 3 birds roosted in there. They gobbled regularly up until fly-down, then it went quiet. I made a few yelping sequences with some cutting and after a few minutes we heard a gobble on the ground, and he was coming our way. Just then we heard another gobble off to our left! We had no idea that bird was even over there. But we were sandwiched between two fired-up longbeards so I wasn't complaining. lol The bird from the left was making his way up the hill and was out of our sight the whole time, but he was coming in on a string. Meanwhile, the bird from the right swung out wide, and when he saw the left bird coming toward us he went into a full sprint to get to that bird. They met up out in front to our left, about a 150 yds away... and proceeded to strut out in the bean stubble field for 20 minutes or so. A hen came in from the right and led them away down over the hill. We thought that was it.
The birds continued to gobble, sporadically. After a bit we heard that hen over the hill start yelping and cutting like crazy. So I answered back and cut at her pretty aggressively. We went back and forth for a minute then she shut up. Next thing we know, we heard a gobble... and another gobble... He was getting closer!
It seemed like forever but finally the top of a tail fan crested over the hill. Minutes later his buddy appeared over the hill too. Ever so slowly, they both strutted their way toward our spread. They hung up at about 60 yds for a bit, then turned and started working away from us again. Right away I cut at 'em like a fired-up hen... They immediately broke out of strut and started their death march.
Right into the decoys they came. My buddy and I were sitting about 5 or 6 feet apart in a brushy fencerow. As the birds postured up to one of the strutter decoys, they split apart... one going left, one going right... perfect. "I'm ready when you are," I whispered. "One....... Two....." BOOM! Both birds dropped like rocks. After working these birds for almost an hour, it had finally ended. A successful, clean double kill. What an awesome hunt it was!
Both birds had 1" spurs and beards were 9 1/4" and 10". I'd say low-20s on weight. A nice pair of two year olds.
