2008 Opening Day = My best bird to date

[Huckleberry]

My brother and I made the drive over to Colville for the opener. Spent a day scouting and saw no birds where we usually find plenty. Only found a few sheds that were all a few years old and one bear skull. Started opening morning with nothing bedded but had some ideas on where we wanted to look. I got into a flock of jakes first thing in the morning but didn't want to use one of my tags on them. I left them and hiked a few more miles only finding jakes and hens. Around lunchtime we met back at camp, ate and decided to try our usual "afternoon spot". A short drive and a few miles of hiking and I was back into where I wanted to be. The snow was low this year and I have the problem of always wanting to hunt ridgetops so I had troubles staying low. Saw too many deer to count and found a few more sheds but not a lot of birds. About 4:00 pm I stopped on a hill to assess my position and plan my next move when a turkey busted off the rocks next to me and flew downhill out of site. I sat there for 5 minutes and decided that I had better go after it and see what it was. I snuck down the hill and 1/4 mile later found it feeding in a clearing. Another jake. I had two tags, no birds and decided I should shoot it. 80 yards was still to far so I snuck in to 50 or so, pulled up and it took off running "what the h*ll" it didn't know I was even there. As it ran down the hill it puffed up and let out a gobble, then from 50 yards further down the hill another gobble. I let it work its way into the group at which point it immediately gobbled, strutted in like a bada$$ and then tucked it's tail and ran away. I worked my way down to the group and decided to see what was in it. Out comes a jake - I pass, another jake, then a hen, and a few more jakes - I pass, then nothing. I thought I'd screwed up when another bird came out strutting. I saw a nice beard and pulled the trigger. 50 yards away he flopped around for a minute or two and lay  dead. I walked up and new it was a nice bird. He had a thick 9 1/2 inch beard, 3/4 inch spurs and weighed 18 1/2 pounds field dressed which should have put him a bit over 20 live weight. Beats my previous best by about 1/2 an inch. We hunted another day finding very few talkative birds and decided to come back later when the weather warms up. All told I got into 8 groups and about 30 birds in the two days. Most of the birds hadn't moved into the areas I like to hunt and things were pretty quite. Only heard of two other birds getting shot.

[CP]

Well done, that’s a beautiful bird. 

[Michelle_Nelson]

That is a realy nice looking bird.  Congrats!

[ICEMAN]

Good job! Sounds like you worked hard for the bird.

We struck out this weekend.  So cold the birds weren't doing their regular thing...

[rosscrazyelk]

Nice bird

[DeKuma]

  Wife and I struck out too.  Snow was still pretty deep and in the afternoon, you would sink to your knees.
Had one coming into our set-up early Saturday, but would never close the distance and come in close enough for a shot.

[boneaddict]

 

[Red Dawg]

nice bird

[coastalghost]

Damm fine bird! Sounds like a great time.

[Backstraps]

Congrats on the nice tom!

[Machias]

Very nice bird, congrats!

[Head-shot]

good job   

[Todd_ID]

Congrats on a great bird, and thanks for the story!