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We moved on tom number one because he didn't care for the shotgun blast.* He gobbled several times, but had no interest in coming to the call.* An hour later we had another tom located.* After moving on him a couple times, we had him coming.* He too decided to change the rule book and come in nearly behind me up a steep draw.* After standing at the bottom out of site for 15 minutes, he finally started moving up to us.* He was going to pop out anywhere from 25 yards to 10 yards depending on his route up the draw so I stayed on the call to keep him gobbling.* I needed to have my gun pointed at him when he came up.* He gave me one last gobble just before strutting out of the draw nearly down the gun barrel at 25 yards.* There was a few tense seconds before he strutted into a clear shooting window at 23 yards and I filled my first tag of 2017.
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Back at camp
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We still had two more days to hunt, more tags to fill, and a spot to check out in the next district that wasn't too far of a drive. We did some driving and scouting that evening to locate birds.* We found some birds late that evening just before they went to roost.* That night a little bit of rain rolled in along with cooler temperatures.* The worst of it was the wind.* The rain was done well before morning but the wind wouldn't let up.* I really thought that our hunt for that day was probably going to be a bust, but we headed to the same area where we'd seen the birds the evening before.* We were finally able to hear a gobble between gusts then spotted the flock moving into a spot out of the wind.* The terrain didn't allow for us to move on them much so we had to be patient and hope we could either break a tom away or call the hens in.* We were fortunate that the hens decided they needed to investigate and drug the strutters in with them.* We doubled on two toms at 8 AM.
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Over the weekend I got the kids out some with their limited 399 tags.* Saturday was cold and windy and a bust for my youngest son.* Sunday evening turned into a great hunt with my wife and daughter.* We found some birds a little after 6 PM that were a long way off across a property line that was off limits.* We backed off the property line 35 yards or so and set up.* Just as we sat down, my daughter said "He just gobbled.* He's a lot closer."* I didn't hear it because I was scraping pine cones out from under the tree before sitting down, so I thought she was mistaken, but a series of yelps brought a gobble from 75 yards. I could see the tom running toward us almost immediately.* He must have been a lone gobbler that hadn't gobble or he'd ran from the other birds that we could still hear.* The tom stopped behind a thick spot at no more than 45 yards and I could hear him drumming.* A few more yelps and few more gobbles and he eased around the cover and stepped across the property line.* A few more slow steps and he was at 30 yards and I whispered "shoot him".* He was a great tom for Olivia's first.* He weighed 19.3 lbs, had a 9 1/4" beard, and his spurs were 13/16 and 11/16".
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I've got one more tag in possession for now (I’ll also buy the two western district tags if I get the chance), my wife and son still have limited local tags, my oldest son will have a couple tags, and my dad is coming out as a nonresident hoping for his first Merriam's.* Lots of hunting and fun to go, but probably not enough time to fill all the tags.
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