Mr Limb Hanger

Well my buddy Dave called me last night and wanted me to go turkey hunting with him this morning but I wasn't going to as my Mom was having surgery this afternoon but decided to go and am glad I did as it took my mind off of thinking about that a little bit and he was out the other day and heard several birds so thought we might have a good chance to work some birds. We headed out and went to Wayne National Forest and when arriving there we hiked out the ridge top a ways and around 6:10 we started to hear several birds gobbling on the roost but they were way off on three other ridge tops.

I let out a few calls to them and we had at least 8 birds gobbling on the roost so Dave being newer to turkey hunting having killed a few birds ask me what we should do and I said lets go to them and see what happens so we headed down a steep hill and once at the bottom had to cross a wide creek and then I let out a few cackles and cuts to pinpoint them and we heard two old birds gobble on top and knew they were now on the ground and it was funny because when all the birds flew down and these older birds started gobbling all the other birds never gobbled again as they new who the boss was .LOL We headed up the hill and when we were about 200 yds from the top we stopped by a big tree and I let out a few soft yelps ,clucks and purrs with my Primo's true triple mouth call and the birds double and triple gobbled so we sat down and I would have liked to have been closer as we had a lot of greenery in front of us and could not see very far ahead of us but did not want to spook the birds and thought the greenery might also help us as the birds would have to look hard to see us also.

I had Dave sit to the right of me and told him their were two birds and if they came in to shoot the one on the right and I would shoot the one on the left after he shot well that was the plan anyway and then I started to work the birds and the first soft yelps and clucks they double and triple gobbled and then gobbled a few more times and got quiet. Dave said he could see them up the ridge but slowly working our way and when we didn't hear or see them I let out a few soft purrs and clucks and scratched the leaves with my hand to sound like a hen feeding and man they went nuts and gobbled several times and it felt like the ground was shaking so I didn't call anymore after that as I knew they were close. It wasn't long I could hear them strutting and soon saw a full fan come into view and the bird strutting was moving left towards me and I could see the other bird heading right towards Dave on the other side of a big tree about 20 yds in front of us. I kept waiting for Dave to shoot as I kept my bead on the big head of the bird in front of me as he went out of strut and was really looking for the hen he heard.

I kept thinking Dave would soon be shooting but knowing that all the greenery in front of us must have been preventing him from seeing the other bird I then noticed Dave adjust his gun just a few inches and the big bird by me didn't miss the movement and started getting nervous and putting several times all the while I had my bead on him waiting for Dave to shoot but when the big bird starting leaving I pulled the trigger and down he went flopping and rolling down the hill until he was 10 yds from us. We both jumped up and went to the bird and Dave said he couldn't get on the other bird and never saw the one I shot but was glad I did as he thought when he started putting that we wouldn't get any of them it was 6:45 am and the shot was 25 yds. When we got to the bird I was looking for his beard when Dave said holy crap I said what's wrong and he said nothing's wrong but look at the size of those spurs and man were they nice.

He was a big old bird and had the best set of spurs of any bird I have taken in my 31 years of turkey hunting as we figured they were 2 inches and ended up being 1 and 7/8 inches long and were needle sharp. My bird last year only had one spur and I thought it was long at 1 and a half inches but these were super nice. He weighed 20 pounds and had broken off all but 4 inches of his beard and it was two colors most being a blondish yellow color and figured either the snow and cold winter froze it off or they say when they are that color they sometimes have a melanin deficiency and break easy he would have been a nice one to mount if not for the broken beard but I am happy with him knowing he was an old bird and a limb hanger at that and after seeing his spurs I understand why all the other birds shut up when he was on the ground. It was a very exciting and fast hunt and what made it special was doing it with one of my good friends and getting a bird on the first day of my vacation and we had a really nice hike out but man was that hill steep on the way out. LOL

I told my Dad and my wife Lisa that it was going to be a great day and it sure turned out that way as my Moms surgery went great and the doctor told us that it went really well and looks like they got all the cancer out of her so that was the best news of the day. Well it has been a long day between hunting and the long day at the hospital land I wish all of you good luck if you are still out there chasing them and I will be out some more with some of my friends trying to get them on some birds. Be safe.

Thanks guys and Hicks I told my buddy that shooting a bird with spurs like that to me was like shooting a 200 inch whitetail.I have been chasing them a long time and will probably never get another one that good.