I chose not to hunt in the evenings because after about noon the wind always picked up and swirled very bad, so I figured I would be doing myself more harm than good by even going in the area. I have not gotten any more pics of them on the Moultrie D40 either so I thought that they must have been just passing thru, or I spooked them by leaving  scent around the feeders.

 I will be the first to say if that is the case these are the spookiest, most skittish deer and hogs in this area I have ever seen. I always try to be careful and not touch alot of stuff and leave as little scent as possible in my areas, but I guess I am going to have to start taking extreme precautions. From now on I will wear rubber boots and rubber gloves when checking and filling feeders and even checking my game cameras.

I know that it had to have something to do with it, because even though they abandoned the feeders, they have not left the area. We have 2 small ponds on our place and one is less than 75 yards of the feeders, and they have been all over it rootin’ and makin wallows, so from here on out I will be extremely cautious about scent control and hopefully they won’t even know a person has been anywhere around.

I plan on getting after them again this weekend, but to tell the truth, I just can’t seem to get very much into it right now. After finding out at the first of the month that the plant I have worked at for 20yrs is about to layoff 260 people by August, I have been pretty stressed out trying to figure out what I am gonna do.

 I know that we are just now feeling the economic effects that thousands of other americans have been feeling for 2 years now, but if  Obama, Biden, Nazi Pelosi and all the rest of those communist’s that call themselves democrats stay in office much longer, you can bet that there will be thousands more! At least I can say I didn’t vote for em’!!!  And for the people who did because they wanted change, well all I can say is congatulations, they got it!!

This was actually my first gobbler taken but over the past few years I have had alot of close calls and almosts including the gobbler I called in and missed at 9 YARDS! I hate to admit that I missed that close but figured out the hard way that a mossberg 500 turkey gun with a extra full turkey choke throws a very very tight pattern at 9 yards and a turkeys head aint very big anyway but I was still sick about it for awhile!  lol

Also learned alot about makin the mistake of over callin em and havin em hang up or gobble up hens that led em away cause I was makin them gobble alot by callin too much, but hey I cant help it I love hearing em gobble!

Well this year it seemed like every day I have had off since April 1st it has been windy and I am not gonna lie, I HATE wind when I hunt.I have to deal with it alot but I hate it especially for turkeys cause its hard to hear em and when you do you cant tell which direction you heard em half the time.

Well I had gotten up several mornins but stepped outside to wind whippin around so I would just use that for my excuse to go back to bed! lol  When I got off work on Wed i told my girlfriend that I was gettin up and goin in the mornin windy or not. So Thursday mornin april 16, I got up at 5:00 am got dressed jumped in the truck and headed to my place.

I had to stop at a store on the way there to get my turkey stamp and somethin for breakfast so I was runnin a little behind when I got to the woods. It was already startin to get daylight so I parked at our camp got out and grabbed my stuff and started just walkin slowly down our logging trail.   I was hopin to hear some turkeys start gobblin on their own but I would occasionally hoot on my owl hooter to see if I could get one fired up.

 Took my time and by the time I reached our middle which is about a 1 acre clearing where we plant a food plot for deer I hadnt heard any turkeys. I stopped at the edge of the clearing and pulled out my slate call and gave a few small hen yelps and  just listened the woods were comin to life with all kinds of birds and sounds but still no response from a gobbler.  I just stood there leaned against a tree for a little bit watchin and listenin to everything wake up for the morning. 

Finally I walked across the clearing and as soon as I started down the logging path on the other side I heard a loud gobble thunder through the woods and it sounded like he was on the other logging road that runs to the back of our place and he sounded close.

 I looked around for a place to set up and I just dove into some bushes and up against the first tree I found that was right off the path I was on popped my raspy hen diaphragm call in my mouth,pulled my face mask up and got ready.

Started cuttin on the call and a couple of short series of yelps to let him know where I was and then I shut up and waited. He never would gobble again and after about 10 minutes I was gettin ready to yelp again and wondered if I might should try and move closer to the logging road where he was at and decided just to sit tight.

 Just as I was about to hen yelp again he came over a little hill in front of me in full strut!  My heart was poundin he was 10 yards in front of me when he topped that hill I just gave a quick putt on my call to make him break strut and I hammered him with a 3 inch winchester supreme #4 turkey load!

My 09 turkey season was over at 7:20 am my first mornin out this season. 

The gobbler had 3/4 inch spurs and a 10 inch beard not sure of his weight but guessin he was around 20 lbs.  He was sure a trophy to me !