Never heard more gobblers in my life in this romp, and stomp. Saturday at our 3rd spot I was talking with a hen around 12:30. A huge gobbler snuk in behind us to the wrong side, and was as close as 15yds. We never could get a shot off. Saturday evening we decided to try to scout a new local. I made 1 call while sitting on a log in the swamp. We were sitting there in blue jeans with no headnets. I heard something coming, and 2 gobblers came right to us 10 yds out. I think the birds were retarded. They looked at us for a few, and then just made a wide circle around us putting, and purring then flew up to roost 75yds from us. We waited until dark snuk out to about 125yds, and built a nice blind. The bird were with-in 150yds of a main road so in the morning we parked down the road sneak down there in the dark, and a guy is parked right on top of them. So I think to myself nobody in there right mind would park right where the birds our roosted. I figured he must be down the road some where else. So we go to get in our blind anyway when my uncle says he sees a flashlight. The guy is building a blind right underneath the turkeys. We decided to slide down the road into the edge of the swamp about 300yds away so when the guy gets busted the birds might come our way. Not to mention we heard 4, or 5 other gobblers the night before. At first light the birds start gobbling, and when it is light enough for flydown the guy blasts 1 of those retarded longbeards. We stuck it out for another hour, and decided to move. We went, and checked some spots with no luck. Around 10:30 we decided to go back to where the bird came in silent the day before. We parked, and as we were walking in 2 guys come driving out. The road dead ends right where we set up, and those 2 had been parked there. We were going to go some where else not knowing if the other hunters were hunting down there all morning, or just were just road hunting. We decided to give it a whirl anyway. I started with some soft notes then as I always do later in the day got real aggresive on the call. at 11:15 I hear what I think is a faint gobble. So I get more aggresive another gobble a tad closer. The bird gobbled 4, or 5 times than it started getting windy with rain moving in. I never heard the bird again I called a few times with no response. About 10 mins. later about 150yds out I saw a bird cross a little opening at the end of a cypress head. I knew it was him. I picked up the call made 1 soft yelp set it down picked up my shotgun. With-in 2 mins. he was in my lap for a turkey dirt nap. We snapped a pic. just before the torrentail down pour.
The WMA where turkeys check in, but never check out!
