# "The Greatest Show in Spring!" (Long Story/Pics)



## Playin' Hooky (Aug 29, 2002)

The ZZ season has been over nearly a week! I finally found a moment to recap the successful season that my son and I enjoyed this year. After a swing and 2 misses on a nice mature gobbler opening morning, we hunted hard for the rest of that first week got close to a jake. Neither my son nor I was burning a tag on a young-un that early, so we kept at it. We had as many as 6 longbeards using the field that first week, plus a beardless bird that was the more aggressive of the pair that came in that first day and brutalized my DSD jake decoy.

My 8th morning hunt in 9 days dawned Tuesday the 27th. I set up on the field for the 5th time, in a location closer to where a bird had been entering and strutting the past two times there. Gobbles greeted me as I sat waiting for the &#8220;Greatest Show in Spring&#8221; to begin. A pair of toms was directly behind me in the neighbor&#8217;s woods just as they had been the first morning. A few clucks in the trees signaled the hens&#8217; wake-up, and they flew down directly into the field in front of me. The toms kept gobbling from their roost for another 15 minutes and went silent &#8211;I believed them to be on the ground.

A hen in front of me seemed a bit annoyed by the boys&#8217; tardiness and started yelping loudly. Having not called at all to that point, I started to mimic her as she was about 100 yds out in the field and a bit to the west of my location. The toms thundered back with gobbles from the woods directly in back of me. The hen stopped calling, and I followed suit. A few minutes later I saw two white heads coming through the grass 30 yards to my left&#8212;it was déjà vu all over again! A longbeard and the beardless tom! This longbeard was a bit thinner than No Beard&#8217;s partner on Day 1, but he was in range and I was ready to redeem myself!

The pair walked out about 10 yards from the edge of the field and stopped to survey my decoys. No Beard tucked his head, fluffed his feathers and started stalking toward the jake. His bearded partner followed suit and they were soon on a determined trot toward the interloper. When they both gobbled mid-stride I nearly jumped out of my chair! They stomped in and ganged up to kick the deke, strut and batter it with their wings. I got the barrel up and steadied the gun, waiting for them to separate. The longbeard seemed to back off after a couple kicks, but No Beard was intent on destroying that jake! When the longbeard gained a few yards of separation, the safety clicked of and a load of 5s put him down!

No Beard stood tall on the shot and looked around. He then went back to the decoy, walked around it, looking it over and then laid down next to it! A couple minutes later he got up and walked over to my bird as its wings flopped a couple of times. I thought he would pounce on it and beat it up, but he surprised me by standing next to it for a minute or so and then lay down! While he was milling around I picked up the binos and from 20 yards could see he was sporting a really nice set of HOOKS! How he came to be beardless I don&#8217;t know, but those spurs and his aggressiveness belied his advanced age. 










My bird had a 9.25&#8221; spurs 11/16ths and 7/8th+, and weighed 20.5#. He was a great bird and I was thankful for another great hunt!










My son&#8217;s time the rest of the week was limited by baseball practices and his need for sleep. We had one AM hunt on Thursday but the bird that was gobbling like crazy on the roost flew down to hens and went the other way. A sneak on Friday evening didn&#8217;t turn out well as we bumped a jake and something else, neither of which returned to the woods to roost. At least that narrowed our options for the morning!
0430 Saturday came with a rumble of thunder to accompany my alarm clock. A check of the radar showed the line of showers and thunderstorms to our west and headed NE. We headed for the field with the understanding that we may be heading back home to bed shortly. Arriving at the field, we found the lightning show well north of us and headed away. As we grabbed our gear my son asked if he should shoulder his gun with the sling or carry it in his hand. I told him that he should hand-carry it, hold his chair by the bag strap and if the hair on the back of his neck started to stand up he should drop them both and crouch down on the balls of his feet. He replied &#8220;Now WHY am I in this situation?&#8221; &#8220;To kill a gobbler!&#8221; I said.

We made our set near where I had taken my tom and waited for the birds to start talking. It wasn&#8217;t long before gobbles filled the air from the familiar spot behind us. For nearly 20 minutes after legal hours that bird sat in the roost gobbling at everything&#8212;geese, cranes, crows&#8212;but didn&#8217;t fly down! Another gobbler on the other end of the field was strutting for a few hens and I could see him gobble but not hear him through the humid air. At about quarter to 7 our tom gobbled and I fired a gobble back at him. Within 10 seconds I heard wing beats and he soared over our heads, landing in the field 60 yards out and to our right. A quartet of hens quickly flew down to join him, and my soft yelps got him all fired up, gobbling, strutting and fully colored. When he gobbled, I hit the gobble call and he would immediately gobble back, but wouldn&#8217;t leave those hens to come closer. 
For the next half hour, he strutted for those hens, responding to every call I made but refusing to come closer. As a rain shower started, one of the hens left the field and the other 3 started after her. The tom strutted along after them and I knew it was now or never! I started cutting like a crazy hen with some aggressive purrs thrown in. Suddenly, one of the hens reappeared along the field edge headed our way!

The hen was walking purposefully along the field edge looking at our decoy setup (DSD hen @10 yards, jake @ 20). The tom was in full strut on a parallel line 10 yards behind her, blue-white head rocking as he strode along, dragging his wings on the green wheat. As she walked in front of our blind she stood completely erect and her eye opened wide to seemingly take up a third of her head! &#8220;We&#8217;re busted!&#8221; I said quietly. &#8220;Get ready to shoot.&#8221; Then the hen stomped up to the decoy and kicked it. She started purring and posturing, then fanned her tail, dropped her wings and strutted in front of it. Meanwhile the tom had taken a swipe at the jake and was strutting around it!










The hen started to walk away and Dan got his gun up and steady, waiting for the tom to gain separation. I snapped a couple pictures and just as the camera clicked, the safety did too! Moments later a blast and a load of 5s but another longbeard to rest in the wheat! Dan&#8217;s bird had beard that was 9" long and had NO spurs. It also had a couple of goofy toenails and the end of one toe was missing. It weighed 19#.










We had some great hunts this spring! The birds were equally frustrating and exciting to chase. The other wildlife&#8212;deer, songbirds, and even the wet raccoon that shook the dew off itself as it stood up to look at our decoys&#8212;made every minute afield worth the effort! We had a lot more CLOSE encounters with the new Dave Smith standing hen and jake decoys than with any other decoys we had used in the past. They&#8217;ve already made the price tag worth it! Next year I&#8217;ve got to figure out a way to carry a video camera along to capture all these awesome sights in &#8220;The Greatest Show in Spring&#8221;!


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## Playin' Hooky (Aug 29, 2002)

Playin' Hooky said:


> My bird had a 9.25&#8221; spurs 11/16ths and 7/8th+, and weighed 20.5#. He was a great bird and I was thankful for another great hunt!


For those keeping tabs on the contest, beard was 9-3/8 (one strand), spurs were 13/16ths and 3/4+


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## Stiny357 (Nov 8, 2009)

Great story and great looking turkeys. I love all the other details you included, it is about *so much more* than just killing a bird. I hope my daughter and I have a similar tale next spring when she can go after her first spring turkey.


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## Playin' Hooky (Aug 29, 2002)

Stiny357 said:


> Great story and great looking turkeys. I love all the other details you included, it is about *so much more* than just killing a bird. I hope my daughter and I have a similar tale next spring when she can go after her first spring turkey.


Thanks! The kill was actually anticlimatic. The finality of punching that tag meant no more early mornings, but it also meant no more exciting encounters

Subdued elation may describe it best, I think.


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## Michihunter (Jan 8, 2003)

Great story and congrats to you and your boy.


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## don (Jan 20, 2001)

If you are not writing articles for hunting magazines then you have missed your calling. Excellent recap of the seasons events. 

Gotta love them DSD's. I had more interaction from both hens and toms in a weeks time, than in 20 years of using dekes of any kind. 
Gonna have to add some clearcoat of some kind to restore the shine in the DSD hens eyes. Those old nasty hens seemed to spend a lot of time trying to poke them out, and it shows.


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## Playin' Hooky (Aug 29, 2002)

And Don, having read some of your past accounts, that's high praise! I had an English teacher 30 yrs ago suggest that career path after reading my freshman project--an outdoors magazine. Maybe some day...

I had never seen a hen strut and intimidate like that in person before the last hen/DSD encounter. I saw your video a couple of days later and thought--"That's the b---- that beat up MY decoy!" (BTW Thanks--now my son wants a riser cam!) When the season's over I need to at least give mine a good wash to take all the muddy footprints off!

I'm hoping to get my youngest out soon to get myself another fix--and hopefully not have to fight with so many hens!

Eric


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## adam bomb (Feb 27, 2006)

Thats a fine season if you ask me.


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## Due51 (Oct 26, 2005)

I enjoyed the story and pics. Thanks for posting.
Congrats on a successful season.


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## EdB (Feb 28, 2002)

Great hunts, love the story and pics. Congrat's to both you and your son!


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## walleyein (Jun 4, 2007)

Thanks for shareing great story..


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## Michibamian (Nov 30, 2008)

playing hooky great write up and pics! enjoyed it! 
regards,
TOP SHELF!


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## blood trail (Mar 31, 2010)

Congrats to a pair of fine birds. Great story!!! 

So...Did the hair on the back of your boys neck fianally stand up when he got he shot.


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## Playin' Hooky (Aug 29, 2002)

blood trail said:


> Congrats to a pair of fine birds. Great story!!!
> 
> So...Did the hair on the back of your boys neck fianally stand up when he got he shot.


I was so focused on the bird taking pics I didn't look! He was breathing a bit heavily and said he starting to waver a bit holding the gun up so long, but he got it done in the end!

I did sing the chorus to "Thunderstruck" on the walk back to the truck!:lol:


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## mikieday (Jan 20, 2004)

great story and great pics


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## WMU05 (Oct 16, 2004)

Congrats to you and your son! Loved the story and pics.


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