I've been keeping a log this year just to keep my stories straight
. We only hunt the zone that opened on 3/17. On that day we had two jakes breeding our decoys for about an hour. Later we did see some longbeards but that didn't come together for us. The jakes got a pass. The longbeards made their own luck. On three subsequent hunts we heard heavy roost gobbling then little talk after fly down. On 3/30 I watched a strutter display in a large pasture and two hens approach him. He was only interested in strutting not breeding
. Weird behavior. When I tried talking with him he would gobble but stay about 150 yards out. He eventually walked off. I made plans to set up as close to the spot I guessed he was entering the pasture and hunt him again on 4/4. I had three decoys, two hens and a Funky Chicken, set well before first light. As dawn broke I heard nothing. Shortly thereafter I heard lots of man made noise from a neighboring property. Guessed it might be keeping the birds silent. Picked everything up and made a run (sort of
) to another area. I stopped and called every 100 yards on the way to the new spot but again heard nothing. I placed the three decoys, deployed some camo netting, and sat down planning to wait them out. At 8:33 I texted my wife telling her I hadn't heard a thing and was going to sit until noon. At 8:50 my next text to her was that 6 birds had came in without gobbling (they did cluck and purr) and I had dropped a 17# 10 inch beard gobbler. Crazy day. The six birds were 4 jakes and two longbeards that were running together. When they spotted the decoys they all rushed the Funky Chicken. After finally getting some separation I got a 24 yard shot with my Knight TK2000 muzzleloader. I had loaded it "hot" expecting to get a long shot at the pasture bird. The 2 1/2 oz of #5 pushed by 90 gr of BP made quick work of him. Didn't even flop. Bird was cleaned up at a nearby creek, iced down, and we ate him the next day. One down one to go. Fun stuff. Thanks to George I now know how to post pics. Last pic is where he fell. Funky was a lot tougher than he imagined
. Thanks for reading
.
I can't believe Funky works.
