Well this has taken me a little longer than I thought as I had some delays in putting a video together. My Pinnacle was giving me all kinds of problems so I had to go with Windows Movie Maker and well...I haven't used it in a long time. So I threw something together quickly. I had about 10 minutes of footage between the strutting hens and the Tom's shot and subsequent whacking. I didn't want it to be that long but I did want to share some of the interaction with the decoys for turkey hunters that enjoy that kind of thing.....and folks that want to see what it can be like. If your patience won't let you sit down for 4 plus minutes of cool video, fast forward to the kill shot. But I think the footage is pretty **** cool and unique for TBH. Its not the knockdown decoy slamming like last year but there is some struttin', drummin' and spittin' and face to face decoy interaction.....plus some ...well.... love is in the turkey air! 
This hunt took place at my deer lease in Tom Green county and was opening morning of the North Zone.
So... I’d had a couple of hens face off versus my dekes that morning, a nice cold wind and I had just about given up on the Toms showing up to my killing field. I did get some good footage of a boss hen pecking on my laydown hen and a bearded hen strutting though. It was about 9:15 or so and I was sitting back chilling... literally.
. In between wind blasts I heard a faint gobble back behind me. My first thought with this wind at my back he could be a 1/2 mile away
... so I just sat and waited. Calling would be useless right now. A few minutes later I heard another... and then another. Hell he was getting closer with a dang near constant search gobble. I was starting to get excited of course but knew with the wind it was going to be interesting. So he keeps on keeping on for 14-15 gobbles and and then went quiet for about 10 minutes. I was hoping he was still moving so I just waiting patiently. So after those minutes he broke his silence but he was west of me a good ways and what I felt was past me. I called... he ANSWERED!... I yelped again... he answers again!. So I laid off figuring he knew where we were. Another 5 minutes passes and he starts the search gobbling again and I answered right at the end of one of them. That was all she wrote. I saw him come running out of the trees headed towards my dekes from 70 yards away. I fumbled with my **** video camera with some light gloves on so I didn't get the run in but got him as he was walking into my dekes sizing up my jake.
Now he didn’t fight my jake as you will see on the video, but he did face him up and walk around him leaning into him. He’d spit and drummed while putting on a show but never pecked or spurred him. He just kinda leaned on him spinning him around some making a few passes. I should have drawn immediately when he put his butt to me early but, I wasn’t sure how long it would take him to turn around at that moment with me at full draw. He was moving very slow once he hit his strut. So the next 4-5 minutes, I am waiting for the right shot. He’s either looking my direction or standing in front of the jake. I didn’t want to put an arrow through my DSD on the maiden voyage, so I chose to wait it out. I didn't want him to catch me drawing either. Luckily my hesitating let me get some cool footage.
After the two slooow times around the jake, he broke off to my standup hen I had in a jimmy rigged lay down position. I had placed her poorly due to overthinking wind to make my jake face me and her. My thought was he would be occupied by my jake the whole time and I'd catch him on the side of it to shoot. Well, not today!!! He went and tried to get him some Henrietta lovin' before giving me a good draw and shot....and was now humping her looking right at me with my jake behind him. Again, didn’t want to shoot my jake so I waited for him to get off while thinking “you prob screwed up.. you should have shot him earlier..he’s gonna finish and walk out of my shooting window looking at me without stopping.”
Thankfully... thankfully he went from humping for a couple of minutes to standing up on her back while glancing down between his legs. This gave me the chance I needed to draw and his vitals were now above my jake behind him. I can remember saying to myself, “can you believe this ****?”. [emoji23][emoji23] He was slightly quartered to me and I aimed for the exit. I sent the 125gr razorcut 1-3/4” Grim Reaper through his lifeline, the arrow passed in front my jake decoy's head and he was down in 10 yards after a series of crazy flips you can see in the video.[emoji16]. Couldn’t have asked for a better hunt sequence in these windy arse conditions.....from the first search gobbles till he fell dead out of the dekes at 10 yards.....all by 10 am.
Man I was pumped!! 10” beard and a shade over 1.25” spurs. Those Razorcut Grim Reapers ate his lunch. Love this stuff. Anyway.....I put together a video and included some pics for those that don't frequent the JFT thread. Enjoy!
Trying to embed the youtube but its giving me some problems. Click on the link if it doesn't show.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_iktM-Wu38&t=28s"]2019 Tom Green opening day longbeard - YouTube[/ame]
Shot sequence...
LDP..
Just a shade over 1.25" spurs
This hunt took place at my deer lease in Tom Green county and was opening morning of the North Zone.So... I’d had a couple of hens face off versus my dekes that morning, a nice cold wind and I had just about given up on the Toms showing up to my killing field. I did get some good footage of a boss hen pecking on my laydown hen and a bearded hen strutting though. It was about 9:15 or so and I was sitting back chilling... literally.
. In between wind blasts I heard a faint gobble back behind me. My first thought with this wind at my back he could be a 1/2 mile away... so I just sat and waited. Calling would be useless right now. A few minutes later I heard another... and then another. Hell he was getting closer with a dang near constant search gobble. I was starting to get excited of course but knew with the wind it was going to be interesting. So he keeps on keeping on for 14-15 gobbles and and then went quiet for about 10 minutes. I was hoping he was still moving so I just waiting patiently. So after those minutes he broke his silence but he was west of me a good ways and what I felt was past me. I called... he ANSWERED!... I yelped again... he answers again!. So I laid off figuring he knew where we were. Another 5 minutes passes and he starts the search gobbling again and I answered right at the end of one of them. That was all she wrote. I saw him come running out of the trees headed towards my dekes from 70 yards away. I fumbled with my **** video camera with some light gloves on so I didn't get the run in but got him as he was walking into my dekes sizing up my jake. Now he didn’t fight my jake as you will see on the video, but he did face him up and walk around him leaning into him. He’d spit and drummed while putting on a show but never pecked or spurred him. He just kinda leaned on him spinning him around some making a few passes. I should have drawn immediately when he put his butt to me early but, I wasn’t sure how long it would take him to turn around at that moment with me at full draw. He was moving very slow once he hit his strut. So the next 4-5 minutes, I am waiting for the right shot. He’s either looking my direction or standing in front of the jake. I didn’t want to put an arrow through my DSD on the maiden voyage, so I chose to wait it out. I didn't want him to catch me drawing either. Luckily my hesitating let me get some cool footage.
After the two slooow times around the jake, he broke off to my standup hen I had in a jimmy rigged lay down position. I had placed her poorly due to overthinking wind to make my jake face me and her. My thought was he would be occupied by my jake the whole time and I'd catch him on the side of it to shoot. Well, not today!!! He went and tried to get him some Henrietta lovin' before giving me a good draw and shot....and was now humping her looking right at me with my jake behind him. Again, didn’t want to shoot my jake so I waited for him to get off while thinking “you prob screwed up.. you should have shot him earlier..he’s gonna finish and walk out of my shooting window looking at me without stopping.”
Thankfully... thankfully he went from humping for a couple of minutes to standing up on her back while glancing down between his legs. This gave me the chance I needed to draw and his vitals were now above my jake behind him. I can remember saying to myself, “can you believe this ****?”. [emoji23][emoji23] He was slightly quartered to me and I aimed for the exit. I sent the 125gr razorcut 1-3/4” Grim Reaper through his lifeline, the arrow passed in front my jake decoy's head and he was down in 10 yards after a series of crazy flips you can see in the video.[emoji16]. Couldn’t have asked for a better hunt sequence in these windy arse conditions.....from the first search gobbles till he fell dead out of the dekes at 10 yards.....all by 10 am.
Man I was pumped!! 10” beard and a shade over 1.25” spurs. Those Razorcut Grim Reapers ate his lunch. Love this stuff. Anyway.....I put together a video and included some pics for those that don't frequent the JFT thread. Enjoy!
Trying to embed the youtube but its giving me some problems. Click on the link if it doesn't show.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_iktM-Wu38&t=28s"]2019 Tom Green opening day longbeard - YouTube[/ame]
Shot sequence...
LDP..
Just a shade over 1.25" spurs
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