Tale of the Hunt

Darrin and I have been hunting together for a few years now and I will say it is truly special to be able to hunt with a friend!

At fly down, the gobbler Darrin and I had set up on hit the ground and went the other way. After awhile of watching and waiting, we got back together and decided to run and gun some gobblers we had been hearing farther down the ridge. We split up and began our search. We could both hear them and they were hot to answer my call. There were three strutting gobblers with their harem about 100 yards away and out in a field near a thicket. The hens led the gobblers away from my calling and headed farther down the hill. We turned together and moved quickly along a fence row to our right and then left into a ravine running downhill through the woods. As we got to the bottom of the hill 200 yards later, we popped out into an opening and immediately saw the top of a gobbler's fan just up the hill to the left. We froze and they did not see us. We sat tight for about ten minutes.

I was quietly playing out the possibilities in my mind while Darrin was excitedly whispering for us to charge up San Juan Hill in a Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid guns-a-blazing rush!

There were two gobblers we could see, one fanned and strutting around the hens. The other was pecking calmly at the ground. We stooped and began literally inching toward the birds. They moved about ten yards farther up to the flat of the hill and when their heads were behind a tree clump we moved closer. I stood up straightly with my shotgun raised. Darrin was right behind me over my left shoulder. I got the pecking gob in my sights. As my shotgun roared the gob tilted backwards and the rest of the flock took to the air in a frenzy. The bird I shot was dazed and running like he was drunk. He was tilting left and right like he was almost ready to fall. He spun away from the rest of the birds and was headed right down my gun barrel! I had a bead on his head and suddenly Darrin's gun popped and the big gob fell right in his tattooed tracks! It was truly and instinctive shooting double-tag-team match this morning! We shared another exciting Saturday morning hunt and thank you, Darrin, I have another beautiful beard to hang on the wall!