Shortly after legal light, I nearly jumped out of my chair when a tom gobbled that had to be closer than 40 yards. Then, two more toms gobbled. One was clearly a jake... sounded like he was being strangled when he gobbled. I figured I was all done... they had to see me walk to the blind and set up the decoys.
At that point, I decided to gobble back at them every time they sounded off. That went on for about ten minutes, and then I heard a hen making some soft yelps a little ways back in the woods. I knew she was roosted where she couldn't see me. So, I decided not to call any more.
The next thing I hear is a bird flying down. It was the hen, and she landed right in the middle of my decoys. Within a minute, two mature toms flew down and immediately started strutting 40 yards to my left. The hen spent quite a bit of time feeding and checking out my decoys. But, the toms wouldn't budge. They stayed out of range.
Finally, the hen walked out toward the middle of the field, and then the toms started coming in to my spread. They both got right up against the jake decoy and brushed against it like they were trying to bully it. I drew and waited for one of them to be clear of the other tom and the decoy, and took the shot. 13 yards. "Hit 'em high and watch 'em die," as the saying goes. My arrow flew true and the tom did a couple of back flips before falling dead five yards from the jake.
He had a 9 1/2 inch beard, one spur was 3/4 inch,the other was 7/8 inch. I guessed he weighed around 18 or 19 pounds... didn't actually weigh him.
So... I'm tagged out in MA. I'll be in upstate NY part of next week. Hopefully, I'll arrow another one or two up there.
