Out at 5:00 AM on the second Saturday of the 2005 Spring Gobbler season.exactly where we had watch them roost the night before. Heard pre-fly down activity along with one gobble. Sat there for 2 1/2 hours and decided to go in for a coffee. At about 8:00 AM we decided to go to the "honey hole", an area of old tree blowdowns on top of a long bench of ledge rock. Upon arriving at the location, my friend, the caller in this hunt, laid down in what appeared to be an open grave (actually formed when a tree had tipped over and the roots uprooted the soil) and I perched on the side of this same "open grave". From where he sat he could only see me and the sky, from my position, I could see about 4 feet of land and then nothing because the terrain dropped off rather abruptly. It is now about 8:15 and Jeff made the first cackle. Three gobblers responded, one in back of us and two out in front. After about three minutes, another cackle call, this one more excited which was responded by a gobbler now much closer. Jeff waited for no more than another three minutes to go through a very hot and excited hen routine and low and behold two gobblers responded as if only feet away. Now with short breaths and jellied arm muscles, I held the gun, well as steady as 6 inch long figure eights, waiting for the appearance of the entourage. Well here he was, looking like a periscope, up over the edge as if on a dead run. Just as I was about to trigger the Mossberg 835 3 1/2 inch magnum a voice said to me, " That bird better have a beard". It did and the harvest was complete, not a big bird ( 16 # with a 9" beard. However upon standing up to get the bird a flurry of hens and at least two more gobblers (one of which was much bigger than the one that I got) left the scene in a hurry. The entire hunt in the "honey hole" lasted no more than 15 minutes.
The Mother's Day dinner was a delicious entrie of roast wild turkey with ALL the fixings.
Well that may be somewhat boring to you, but for me each hunt is as exciting as my first .