Moose Scores!

Things have been rough out here at the farm this season. Everything about the turkeys has been delayed. I have never hunted so many days in a season before, and I can tell you the action has generally been lousy. It was not until mid-week last week before I got anything resembling normal gobbler action. Thursday was the first morning I got a gobbler to come in to a call. For the most part, they’ve been hopping down off the roost and following hens. I was able to work a gobbler for the better part of an hour. He came by way of Virginia taking the road around to my blind, and then went out into the pasture at Hammond North and stayed there, just out of sight. He was at times within gun range, but obscured by some intervening bushes.

I had just given up. I had heard no response from this gobbler for 20 minutes or so. I put my gun down to reassess things and heard a cluck just behind my left ear. I turned and found 3 jakes staring at me from about 10 feet away. They went putting off. I got up to stretch and the gobbler I had been working had just slipped down the hill. He saw me get up and ran off.

Angus, Moose and Mooselette came down for the weekend. Saturday morning, Angus went out with the Mooselette to Dead Skunk. They had some rather frustrating action. A gobbler came up out of Hundred Acre Wood and hung up 75 yards out and would not come any closer for an hour. I had a good nap out at the Honey Hole. There was nothing but far-off gobbles– some of them in the direction of Moose’s Blind near Garbage Pit. As it turned out, that was where the real action was.

Moose said he started calling before sunrise and got a tepid response from 3 gobblers down on Yellow Willow Creek to the west. Another couple of gobblers sounded off from between his location and the cabin.

All of a sudden a gobbler appeared out his window at 20 yards, coming from the direction of Blackberry Patch. Even though Moose was secreted inside his new pop-up blind the gobbler had him dead to rights at about 10 yards. The gobbler realized something was up and tried to take a runner. Moose swung his gun around and took the shot. He hit the gob in the back of the head at 14 yards.

Moose’s gobbler sported an 11-inch beard and 7/8-inch spurs. He weighed 20 pounds.

This afternoon, Angus saw a gobbler out at the pond and went out after him. He called from the pond down into the Hndred-Acre wood. The gobbler came up ,strutted, but was hidden by the underbrush. Two other gobblers showed up and lured their buddy away.

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