# My son's first Tom



## SHANK (Apr 5, 2006)

This past Thursday we headed off to the turkey woods instead of school. 

My buddy Joel of J&T Guide Service, had his blind set up on a corner of a woods where he knew there were birds and invited my son Colin and I to come over to Coldwater and hunt while he videotaped. 

Shortly after daylight, two toms entertained three hens in the field for an hour or so while we patiently watched. The biggest tom wanted to add our hen to his harem and came our way. Twenty yards from our blind, he attacked our Jake decoy and Colin let him have it with a load of #5's from my 870.

A beautiful bird with a 10 3/4 beard and 1 9/16 spurs...a real limb hanger! Congrats Colin!


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## Wally Gator (Sep 21, 2007)

Congrats to you and your son, that one is going to be hard to beat! :lol:


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## SHANK (Apr 5, 2006)

Wally Gator said:


> Congrats to you and your son, that one is going to be hard to beat! :lol:


Yeah it's bigger than the one I have on the wall....so now what? I take mine down? lol


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## Knot Tellin (Jun 21, 2010)

Great bird, those are some serious hooks. Congrats


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## Patman75 (Jan 11, 2012)

What a beast! Congrats!


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## huntinlady (Nov 10, 2007)

Nice bird! Congrats to your son!


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## Ack (Oct 3, 2004)

Wow....impressive hooks! :SHOCKED: Congratulations to you and your son!


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## old graybeard (Jan 19, 2006)

Congrats to your son on a great birdLove those hooks!


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## Sprytle (Jan 8, 2005)

Congrats Colin, thats a great looking bird!! You wouldnt want to mess with those hooks!! 
Looks like a great day out in the woods there Bob!! My daughter has her tag for May so hopefully i can post something about her bird. I cant even get one myself right now...

Give me a call ...lets talk.

Congrats again to both of you!

-Bob


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## QDMAMAN (Dec 8, 2004)

What a stud gobbler! Congrats!


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

I love to see a young man or gal for that matter score on a bird like that.

Spurs like that are few and far between.


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## iLiveInTrees (Jun 29, 2010)

That thing has daggers! Congrats!


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## rentalrider (Aug 8, 2011)

Congrats to your boy!! That's a BEAUTIFUL bird. :SHOCKED: And nice job, Dad. Nothing better than seeing a father pass on these traditions to the next generation.


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## Thunderhead (Feb 2, 2002)

I'm impressed !! And I don't impress easily.....lol 
He's a solid 3 yr. old bird.............. maybe even 4.

Luring that old Tom into gun range , especially during a season like we've been having is quite a feat. Good job son !!!!!

Did you do any calling to get him in ? 
I see a fan behind you in the pic, looks like a mature Tom deke fan, not a jake.

What was your set-up ? How many dekes ?

I'm asking all these questions because I've never hunted a stranger season than this one and unorthodox methods are the norm.

Any advise for an old hunter to add to my bag of tricks ?


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## 00Buckshot69 (Dec 30, 2007)

I killed a bird of a lifetime 3 or so years ago. My buddy's all told me I should of had it mounted. I got an idea to make a neckless using the spur from a friend....I would have loved to have a full body mount but really enjoy showing my trophy off out side of the house. I made two diffrent ones from each spur.

The black pieces are prong horn tips I got from a buddy along with the yellow looking beads that are turkey wing bones.

Congratulations on one heck of a tom,
Bucky


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## SHANK (Apr 5, 2006)

Thanks a lot guys! 

Thunderhead - I was in a hurry and "mis-spoke" in my original post. We actually had a strutting Tom decoy and one hen out front. 

The birds started off in the field to our left, 200 yds away...two toms and three hens. They were feeding along the field edge and slowly working our way. They couldn't see our dekes due to a large tree that had fallen into the field. We thought they were were going to end up in front of us eventually so after the initial excitement we just waited. After 20 minutes, they just disappeared. 

We were contemplating moving when Colin looked behind us (we were on a woodlot corner) and saw them all in the bean field to the north. All five birds, for some reason, cut through the corner of the woods to the other field. The hens picked while the Toms strutted side by side the whole time.

Then, slowly, the hens started leaving. One left by itself, then the other two...in opposite directions. The Tom's just kinda strutted the center of the field wondering where all the girls went and then slowly walked our way. When the lead one finally saw the dekes, he went right up to it and jumped on it's back and that's when Colin put him down. 

We did very little calling when we noticed they didnt respond. When the hens left, we turned it up a bit to get them headed our way. When they did, we shut up. If they would have seen our dekes sooner, we probably could have gotten away with no calling at all but, the terrain prevented that. 

Hope that gives some insight. Thanks a lot for the accolades guys. Colin will love reading them after school today.


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## SHANK (Apr 5, 2006)

00Buckshot69 - That's a great looking necklace! We're going to go with a mount like this:










Sprytle! Hey, I'll be around tonight. I'm doing some scouting today. Give me a call.


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## Thunderhead (Feb 2, 2002)

SHANK said:


> Thanks a lot guys!
> 
> Thunderhead - I was in a hurry and "mis-spoke" in my original post. We actually had a strutting Tom decoy and one hen out front.


Was wondering. 
It makes a difference sometimes. Mature Toms will attack a jake more readily than another mature bird, especially if there are more than one intruding Gobbler. Was just curious how they acted comming in on a mature Tom.

Classic hunt. 

Great job on letting the caller do it's work. Allot of guys over call and blow it.

You guys did it right. As as rule, if you hear gobbling in the morning and they walk off, they heard your calls, but were with hens. 

I'll start calling again about 10ish to remind them that I'm still here in hopes that they'll pay me a visit after their girls take off.

Can you remember what time the hens decided to leave ?


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## SHANK (Apr 5, 2006)

Thanks for the tips. 

Colin shot at 0900. The hens left probably 0840ish I would say. 

What's up with them leaving?


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## Thunderhead (Feb 2, 2002)

SHANK said:


> Thanks for the tips.
> 
> Colin shot at 0900. The hens left probably 0840ish I would say.
> 
> What's up with them leaving?


They went to nest. 
With as weird as this season has been, they aren't playing by the rules, so we need to adjust. Usually between 10 and 1 are golden for wandering Toms.

Lunch at 2:30 and back in the blind by no later that 3:30ish.

The hens will be back out with the Toms for a quick bite to eat before bed time.

Heck, they have even been roosting later than normal...........

Heading back out to scout now.


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