Opening morning, I set up in an area I’d scouted and immediately heard gobblers in front and to both side of me making a fuss. Got a quick response with my box call and a few minutes later a lone tom stepped out 75 yards in front and to my left. He strutted around for a few minutes but kept his distance and headed across the field to my right.

Thirty minutes later a group of 9 birds came out in the same place, 2 mature birds, a jake and 6 hens. They lost interests in my calls, seemed more content to feed then wandered off as well. A short time after that another tom and 3 hens appeared, none of them paid much attention to my calls or decoys. The next couple hours I watched all these groups go back and forth across the field several times, never getting close enough for a shot.

The sky opened up and rained for an hour. I watched all these birds gather in the center of the field then break up and disappear into the trees across the field when the rain stopped. About 20 minutes later a hen popped out of some cover about 25 yards to my left. She was followed by 8 more and right behind them was a nice looking gobbler. He came out of the cover and immediately began to strut and turned away from me. I eased my gun up and waited and after what seemed like an eternity he came out of strut and turned in my direction.

Bang!