Written by Smitty, posted by charlie elk.

Slowly sneaking into position I question whether I made a good decision or not. I had been running late that morning so instead of going for a bird that I had roosted the night before, I headed towards a spot that I had seen one earlier in the year.

I am about 40 yards from my planned location when a gobble echoes through the pine swamp. Just as I had feared, the bird is already on the ground.  Belly crawling to the field edge was my only hope for getting a shot.  Soft yelps come from my dad as he sits back and watches my sneak. Once reaching the edge of the field, I try to stay still with all of the adrenalin flowing through my veins. He is close, maybe 60 yards, but I am still unable to see him. Both my dad and I begin calling frantically trying to work him into a frenzy. It works as the gobbler begins cutting and yelping back at us in between spells of triple and even quadruple gobbles. He refuses to come out into the field and into range. Then it all stops. Not another sound comes from the bird. After about 15 minutes I decide to sneak to the corner of the field to look down the wood-line.  Just as I reach the corner, the tom lets loose another gobble.

Using a large pine as cover, we begin another sequence of calls. Again the bird refuses to come closer. The sounds of him digging in the leaves die off and he again slips away. I begin to look around and plan my next move when he appears in the field about 200 yards away. Then two hens come over a knoll in the field and begin taking him away from me. The next 5 minutes entailed near constant gobbling as we cut and yelp at him like mad. Finally he could take it no longer. The tom lets down his tail and begins a full out sprint straight for me. He gobbles a couple times on the run and then drops behind another knoll in the field. All is quite except for the slight ‘click’ of the safety on my Remington 11-87. Many times have I seen a gobbler quiet down as he enters the woods so I knew the crucial time was coming. From behind a blow down at 28 yards he appears. A light squeeze of the trigger and a load of #6 shot drops the bird dead. It took only one hour and fifteen minutes for me to kill my biggest turkey ever but the memories will last a lifetime.

He is double bearded with one measuring 10 1/4in and the other 6in with dual 7/8 inch spurs.