« on: April 30, 2012, 09:07:56 PM »
My partner and I started out at 4:30 am on a run an gun hunt since we hadn't got to our camp till after midnight the night before and hadn't roosted any birds. After 8 hours of hiking and not hearing a single gobble we took a lunch break. After lunch we decided to go deeper into the area where we had taken birds in the past. At 1:45 we finally got some birds to respond and the hunt was on. We got fairly close and sat up. The 3 toms would only come into 75 yrds and hang up. They were strutting in a circle and getting further and further away. I decided to go after them and on my stomach slithered and crawled for 200 yrds. This took just over 2 hours as I could only move when all 3 birds had there fans up and blocking there heads. The whole way I'm saying to myself "this isn't going to work! It never works" "I'm waisting my time". Well I'm now 25 yrds from these birds with no shot because of the brush in front of me. Unbeknounced to me my partner had slowly been creeping up behind me and to my left. All of the sudden I hear a shot and see a bird tip over. I jumped up thinking someone else had heard these birds going nuts for 3 hours and moved in on them. Then I heard my partner yell "SHOOT". I turned just in time to see the other 2 toms taking off and I was able to lower the boom on my bird at about 40 yrds. The perfect ending to a long day. The only down fall was that we were still 2 hrs from the truck. Earlier in the day I had told my partner that the biggest thing that he had taught me over the years (he's 61) was that you don't give up until you get back to camp. That couldn't have been more true on Saturday.
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