Every spring I try to take out a new turkey hunter or two. This morning I took out the Commander of the Agency where I work. You always hope everything works just right. This morning we met up at 0630 and drove to a spot I wanted to take the Colonel. He's never killed anything other than doves while hunting. Super nice guy and I was hoping to have a great day. We round the corner and there is a really nice tom strutting in the road and gobbled at us. He had 2 hens with him. We drove up to him and he walked away from about 6 or 7 yards. I told him some guys would have rolled down there window and filled their tag. Some folks up in the NW consider them nothing more than big grouse. I told him that is not how we would be trying to fill his tag. We stopped at two places and hiked in a short distance and called and got no responses. Third spot we hiked in a ways and finally got a gobbler to answer. Long ways off. We hiked around and got above the bird, called and had a couple of hens answered back. I mimicked one of the loudest hens and she called back several times and here they come. We had a hen within 30 yards but could not see her, she talked back a lot but never walked into view. After about 30 minutes we walked on. On the way back we stopped near that spot and I called out and got a immediate gobble back. We set up, my Commander out about 5 yards in front of me. I called again and boom another gobble, just out of sight. Then I could see the fan coming. Then the head, all white. He was walking right into the sun, it was amazing looking. Full strut right up to 40 yards. Boom, dropped him with a load of copper plated #5s. Didn't even flop around. That was FUN!!!
