Angus Scores in 2021 Opener

This all gets complicated, so I will lay it all out in chronological sequence.

The Shaman Muffs It

To begin, I had a few gobblers out in front of me at the start of legal hunting, arrayed out in front of me at the Honey Hole. As soon as I started to call, a gobbler about 80 yards out, roosted over the back corner of the pasture to my right thundered at me. I got him pretty well worked up and expected him to pitch down into the grass.

While this show was going on, I heard a couple of very interested gobbles coming from a roost just east of Midway, about 200-250 yards down the other pasture that lay behind me. I was concentrating on the first bird when this second gob struts out in front of me about 60 yards away and about 45-60 degrees from where my gun was pointing. He took up a position directly in front of my shooting lane. I had no real way to turn my body and no matter how I tried, I could not get the shotgun up properly. The bird got hinky and moved behind some bushes. That let me get my gun seated a bit better. The bird was now on full alert. When he stepped back into the shooting lane I briefly got his neck in the crosshair.

Blam!

The bird looked at me for a moment and then ran, full tilt back the way he came.

So much for my day. . . or so I thought.

Angus Scores

Angus and Moose had built a blind last weekend between the two barns overlooking Dead Skunk Hollow. About an hour after my failure, Angus was able to successfully call a gobbler off the neighbor’s property and up the ravine in the Hundred Acre Wood. The bird got all the way to the top and suddenly got interested in a hen, 200 yards away, coming off Gobbler’s Knob and emerging into the pasture in front of Jagendehutte. Angus got the bird turned back around and finally got a shot at 40 yards. The gobbler took flight and started sailing back over the ravine.

Angus was busy kicking himself when the bird suddenly fell out of the air. A quick search down the hill revealed the bird had lost consciousness and tumbled. Upon regaining his senses, he bedded. Angus found him and put in a finisher. This is his 23rd birthday. Happy Birthday, son.

Back at the Honey Hole

I got myself settled back down, and shortly after hearing first one shot and then another coming from the direction of Hundred Acre Wood, I was visited by two very inquisitive, naive jakes. They walked right up to me and stuck their necks out, begging to be shot. I tried to shoo them away, but they were determined to make a nuisance of themselves. They finally clucked and putted their way back to my North in the direction of the Hollywood tower blind.

What The Moose Saw

While all this was going on, Moose was camped out in a new blind he had fashioned from cedar boughs between the Fountain Square Junction and The Big Bump. This was just across Hootin’ Holler from Angus and maybe 300 yards from the Honey Hole. There has been a lot of action in the pasture out in front of this location during the pre-season. Moose was not disappointed.

For one, he got to see Angus’ whole hunt from 300 yards away. He found that most entertaining. Shortly thereafter, two jakes came trotting over from the direction of the Honey Hole and intercepted two rather disinterested hens crossing over from the head of Hootin’ Holler heading towards Virginia and beyond. Moose was able to draw the jakes towards him several times using plaintive calling, but inevitably, the hens won out. The whole part disappeared to the west.

Angus’ Bird: The Tale of the Tape

Angus’ bird went 22 pounds with .75″ spurs and a 9 3/4″ beard– a hearty 2-year-old.

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