Well, this season has been an interesting one for me. I started out the season missing a tom that walked right in on me... Then, on the 25th I had an opportunity at a gobbler right before dark and missed again
. This taught me to always pattern your gun before going hunting. So, after getting different shells, I headed back into the field yesterday. Got there at 5 am, I was aliitle late, so I couldn't set my decoys out in the field. Instead, I just sat down in a riverbottom along the edge of the field. There were three toms going nuts for the first couple hours of light. They were answering all of my calls, but they were totally henned up. No matter what i tried, they just weren't going to come in. So, as they headed up the mountain, I decided i'd come back to that spot later in the day and see if the hens had left them yet. Well, fast forward to about 5pm. The turkeys had all been silent since the morning. I decided to drive by a property that I had permission to hunt. There was one turkey out there and it was a tom. I quickly drove back to the other side of the property and made the half hour hike over to the edge of the field. I tried calling, but didn't get any responses. I started to walk along the edge of the field hoping that i would just be able to walk up on the gobbler feeding. I finally see him feeding up the hillside about 50 yards ahead of me and he doesn't know that im sneaking up on him. That's when i noticed that he is limping very badly. He doesn't see me till I get about thirty yards from him. I quickly pulled up and shot him. Bird Down! Now comes the nasty part. When, I was hiking him out of the woods, I noticed how light he was compared to most toms. Upon further inspection, he had obviously been shot in the leg by another hunter. I cut him open to see if his meat was alright and he literally didn't have but maybe a thin 1/4 inch layer of meat along his beast bone. He was literally skin and bones. It was really sad. I don't how long he had been crippled, but long enough that 80% of his muscle had deteriorated. I'm just glad I was able to end this birds suffering. Typical two year old gobbler: 8 inch beard, 1/2 inch spurs.
