Good Friday Bird

Went to the woods on thursday afternoon, got some rest and up at five to my trusty blind that has produced some nice birds over the years. I have herd several gobblers there the past few weeks and nothing would cooperate. The sun is starting to cast some light on the woods and he fires off to the north. Sounds like 3-400 yds and I hit the mouth call and he gobbles back, this goes on for thirty minutes and he cuts the distance in half. He stayes there for the next fifteen minute or so gobbling back and forth to me and then heads to the east just like the past couple weeks and he is off. Now the waiting game begins and about 1.5 hours later after some yelps and purs I am sitting there and he gobbles a couple hundred yards behind me. I hit him with the slate and a mouth call and he cuts the distance in half, I put down the slate and reach for my trusty barretta. The angle that he is coming is rite towards the corner of my blind and there is the small triagle window to shoot thru he is drumming and strutting and he is not slowing down he is now twenty feet from my blind and and I slide the barrel out the window just as he folds up his wings and I sqeeze off the shot, bird down and its 9:15 sweet. I climb out of the blind to check him out and he is big, I gather my gear and pick him up and off to the truck. I layed him on the tailgate and just look him over, pull out the tape and he has 1 1/8" inch spurs both were the same length his beard is long and he has three that were 11 1/2" long the main beard is 10 3/4. I get back to camp and weigh him on a fish scale and he is 19.6 pounds.

:chain