Well after passing on jakes ( 6 or 7 ) and 2 smaller gobblers than the one I shot opening day , and trying to get 2 buddies on birds and both missing them . I was after one gobbler that I had seen opening day of Central Zone , and I made up my mind , that I was going to kill him . Opening week I saw him inside private land and henned up . 2nd weekend passed up a smaller bird and 5 jakes . 3rd weekend put a buddy on a 8 - 9 " beard gobbler and he missed him at 20 yards . I wanted to kill him , on Mon I had thee gobbler at 30 - 35 yards and couldn't shoot him cause he was inside private land . I was working the whole group ( 4 gobblers , 5 jakes and 3 hens ) just as they were going to fly over the canal into the WMA a work vehicle or a tractor came by and spooked them , this happened 4 times in a 3 hour span . I was about blow up . Well I had to leave him till next week . 4th weekend I was determined to bust his AZZ . Got setup in the same place and they were roosted in the same place inside private land . They flew down and were going away so I moved ahead of them parallel but I couldn't work them in from that spot . So I did some loud nasty calls to push them the other way ( this always works ) . They started moving back to the original spot . I made a few soft yelps , and purrs and eased up the decoys over the canal , once they saw it , I backed out and got ready . I moved back 20 yards and waited , a few minutes later I could hear the hens purring right infront on the other side . I purred twice real low , and thats all they needed to hear . The hens flew over first , then the jakes . The 4 gobblers followed , once they landed I allready had a bead on him . My heart was beating out of my chest . Finally after 3 weekend chasing this booger and with the new Stogie , BANG !!!!! . Dead bird , what a relief . On Sun I setup another buddy up on another spot and he missed one , DANG !!!!! . My bird stats 10-1/4" Beard , 1-1/4" , 1-2/16" Spurs , 18 lbs . 
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How do you miss at 20 yards with a shotgun? :eek Good on ya for staying at it, being persistent, and doing the right thing. Like they say, "patience is a virgin"!
Nice going. :toast
congrats. what kind of shotgun is that it looks a lot like mine, but I have a bead only sight. well season is closing soon in zone c and toms are still quiet by me. gonna pull out all the stops and change up tactics a bit. I got some 18" pvc extensions for the decoy spikes to get them up and more visable and am going to go out afternoon to dark (hotest part of the day) and into the thick thorny nasty skeeter infested areas the toms seem to like so much. gotta pick up some storebought repelant, my home mix does OK in open fields but not in swamps. gonna carry the benelli 12 ga again, the wrists have just gotten over the last shot (carpal tunnel) and was using a 22 mag with no luck except for a yote.
How do you miss at 20 yards with a shotgun? :eek Good on ya for staying at it, being persistent, and doing the right thing. Like they say, "patience is a virgin"!
The boy I took on the youth hunt did just that
