Fool no more

I really don't have much of a story to tell compared to my opening weekend bird. My April fools day hunt was very successful when you consider I had my family up with me. My mom having meals prepared daily, my bed made when I returned, and the birthday cake she made to celebrate this fools birthday. What was the icing on the cake was I managed to kill my best bird ever as a guest on a public land hunt just 2 weeks after killing the heaviest bird of my turkey hunting career.
Not much of a story because Sat. morning I found the turkey mecca. A nice area of large openings surrounded cypress heads, pine woods with dry wetlands freshly rooted. Sat. I had at least 25 birds scattered walking around my set up no less than 5 toms. Problem was I was not in the sweet spot. The birds came in from the west milled around doing what tukeys do. yelping, gobbling, scrapping, and feeding this went on for an 1 1/2 hours they got close just not close enough. Than to my disgust they all left my area the same way they had came in. It was only 10:00, but I decided not to push the issue. So I left to try some of my other areas ended up killing nothing.
The next morning plan was to get in there an hour earlier, and position myself where the birds had entered, and exited the area I was hunting. After crashing through myrtles, and briar in the dark I got to the edge they had came from, and found the reason the birds were hanging there. It was nothing more than a tiny little hole in the ground with a nice source of water. I set up my blind 30 yds back slipped into the open, and deployed a single jake decoy.Than settled into my blind, and waited from crunch time. Now I would like to tell a story of how my expert calling skills, and tactics I learned over years of turkeys hunting have turned me into a turkey hunting pro. The truth is I usually kill my 2 birds yearly, but pro I am not. My calling skills would make most pros take all my calls from me if we were hunting together. My friend likes to call my use of a slate call the scratchy hen. I prefer the term drunken hen. I mean who could resist the call of a drunken female at closing time. Swallow your pride fellas you guys know what I mean. I think a tom is the same as us. This is the only way I can explain my success over the years.
I waited to call until I heard the first gobble which was well after first light. I can honestly say that with all the hens yelping, and putting. The gobblers would only gobble here, and there, but when I did my secret drunken hen call they would gobble right away. Any way I really did not need a call. After fly down I had a steady stream of turkey come by me to drink from the water hole. They would pass me for a drink than pass back by to return to there playground. It was not til 9:00 when the 1st tom showed up with his harem of 8 hens as he strutted by me with my finger on the trigger I noticed he only had a tiny beard so I let him pass, and drink. When he came back by he was close enough for me to see he had some real nice spurs. I almost let him have it. The day before I had glassed a tom with a decent beard, and decided I would wait for a chance at him. Thirty minutes later I saw a tom strutting about 100yds away so I call to him, and could hear at least 3 diffent toms respond as I am watching him out of the corner of my eye I see a tom approach for a drink when he clears the bush in front of me to my disappointment he has a tiny beard also, but was a really large bird. I was thinking maybe I should just seal the deal now. I mean how many opportunities could I possible have at a tom in 1 sitting on a pubic land hunt where there have already been 3 hunts before me. To my amazment, out of the corner of my eye I catch another bird running in, and this 1 has a beard. Well kaboom I swing the gun up, and drop him in his tracks. This is the 1st bird I have ever shot that did not flinch after the shot he just went down. The thing was my heart was racing from all the activity, and I did not concentrate on the head the bird caught the full pattern. Still I had me a dead bird. I was just happy to have me a turkey, and did not think to much about it until we got to the scale. The bird ended up weighing in at 22.1 lbs spurs 1.50, and 1.25 the beard was nothing fancy just 8 3/4. Still this is definately a trophy to me, and to kill kill him on my 42nd birthday priceless