Stampede Gobbler

[PA RIDGE RUNNER]

Eric and I went out this morning despite the rain. We actually sat in the truck about midway to the lower woods. At daybreak one started to really hammer for over an hour he gobbled about every 30 seconds. We finally could not take it anymore and suited up and went after him. As we worked our way up the lower woods we heard one above the woods in a young cattle pasture along with about 50 young cattle. I dropped off first and it was really raining by this time, I mean a virtual downpour. Eric went out beyond me and about directly below the gobbler. At one point he saw a cow litteraly chase the gobbler and a couple of hens into the woods at the top of the pasture. The cows finally left to go to the far end of the pasture and I walked out to Eric and he said to sit down as the birds were back out in the upper part of the pasture. I finally said to ERic that I see a red head about 100 yds up the pasture. I then said here it comes. It walked up to about 90 yds and disappeared behind some brush. About 5 min later a turkey stepped out then another but it was two hens. They began to work their way toward us when not one gobbler but two longbeards followed them. We had to wait about another 10 minutes and in that time Eric belly crawled up to the fence so he could shoot through the brush in front of him. I was sitting in the wide open so I could not move. The gobblers finally started across infront of us and He shot, then shot again knocking his bird down. The other bird took to the air but i missed him. Then Eric shot again. His bird was struggling away. I jumped up and got through the electric fence and took off after his bird. I saw it and it could not stand so could not fly either. Eric yelled to finish it off so I did at only about 5 yards. I will not go into detail what my shot did to that birds head but that anchored it. Just before my last shot the cows came thundering our way as hard as a young milk cow can. They did vear off at the last minute and hung around to watch us. We grabbed the bird and skedaddled as there is a bull in the herd. We did all this in a hard rain so the turkey was not very photogenic. We haven't weighed or measured it yet but will post the details. The dynhamic duo has one under our belts with plenty more to hunt. The gobblers are back to gobbling on the roost so they are much easier to hunt. We are not going out this evening because all our equipment is drying out in the basement. I still hate hunting in the rain.

[Herbie]

CONGRATS. Glad you and your son got another hunt in. Maybe a double before the end of the year?

[ADjam5]

That sounded like a bit of fun there Paul...Even if you guys did get soaked .
Getting chased by a bull is no joke...been there.
Congrats to Eric.

[WhitetailLady]

Congratulations to you and Eric!!!

[charles m]

Congrats on the bird guys.....pictures?

[GLW]

Congrats guys! Getting chased by long horns is NOT fun either!!! When I was a kid I used to swim in the crick next to my house but if that dang bull was out there HE OWNED THE CRICK FOR THAT DAY!!

[PA RIDGE RUNNER]

Eric has some pics so I must tell him to post them on here as they have a little other story to tell.

[Heirloom]

A few years ago, I was down in Fla with Toby hunting turkleburds. Had a nice spot that was near the roost but like here at the edge of a pasture. Went out, set the decoys and settled in, sure enough, a little calling and some answers and the birds started in. They were almost there when a big old angus bull came on the run, foaming and all to run them off. He turned and saw the decoys and freight trained them all several times. IN the end, I was able to get one hen and the jake decoy back but the last one was toast. I let the bull keep it....LOL