DoubleJJ
Member
On Saturday, my 10-year old, Lane Bagby, was able to connect with a nice 3-year old Burke County bird that had a 10-1/8" beard, 1-1/4" spurs and weighted 21 pounds. Around 8:10am, I got the attention of a pair of twins that were double gobbling at the distant thunder. They crossed the creek and were coming in from around 500 yards away. My oldest son and I were sitting about 40 yards behind my 10-year old. We could see his hat looking down as the twins approached the decoys in full strut. With his hat down, I knew then he had fallen asleep! The twins started thrashing the Jake decoy and were making a loud "pop" sound when they flogged it. After about 5 loud "pops" my son woke up. I saw his hat brim lift and then the gun barrel slowly move towards the birds. He put a .410 TSS load into the biggest bird at 25 yards. Very lucky the birds decided to beat up on the Jake decoy to wake him up!
We heard multiple gobblers this weekend and they gobbled a lot. The hens are still grouped up in Burke County, so the gobblers were talking but not willing to play well just yet. We worked 2 other big birds and called them within 30 yards, but both times the birds looped us and came in behind our setup not allowing for a shot. We saw 5 flocks of hens and gobblers in fields around the farm this weekend. Most flocks had 4-6 hens and 2 gobblers with them. So we are still 1 to 2 weeks away from the hens leaving the gobblers to start the nesting process. Spring came early, but the birds are on a normal pattern in Burke County from what I've seen and heard.
We heard multiple gobblers this weekend and they gobbled a lot. The hens are still grouped up in Burke County, so the gobblers were talking but not willing to play well just yet. We worked 2 other big birds and called them within 30 yards, but both times the birds looped us and came in behind our setup not allowing for a shot. We saw 5 flocks of hens and gobblers in fields around the farm this weekend. Most flocks had 4-6 hens and 2 gobblers with them. So we are still 1 to 2 weeks away from the hens leaving the gobblers to start the nesting process. Spring came early, but the birds are on a normal pattern in Burke County from what I've seen and heard.
