I just got back from good ole Rocky Top not too long ago. There is no doubt in my mind the last 3 days have been the most fun I have had in the woods in my entire life. It all started after this past deer season ended when a very good buddy invited me down to hunt longbeards in Tennessee. For some reason, I have always wanted to hunt Tennessee for longbeards. I made the drove down on Tuesday evening after work. My buddy and I put two londbeards to bed that same night.
The first morning was slow as far as gobbles were concerned, but when the sun popped over the beautiful mountains the birds began to get very vocal. We had gobblers hammering and a bus load of hens carrying on. The reports even before I made the drive down were that the birds were henned up. This was an understatement. The gobblers would hammer at our calls every time but would not leave their hens. So I changed my calling goals. Instead of calling a gobbler in, I shifted gears to call to the boss hen in hopes of making her mad. Well, it doesn't happen a lot but this plan worked out to a T. After I began cutting off the hens and cutting at them very very aggressively, Darius and I could tell they were getting closer to our set. Within 10 minutes we had 6 hens 20 yards from us feeding around our decoys. The boss hen didn't really know what to think of the Swinging Hen decoy not backing down when she got face to face with her, so instead she started fighting with one of the real hens. This was a blast to watch but we both were wondering where the gobblers were. "Darius, there is 2 longbeards entering the field and they are huge". As soon as the two entered the field the one on the left went into full strut. At this time I was watching them through my Nikons. I could see the one on the right had a super thick beard, but the one on the left was strutting. "I'm shooting the strutter D". They kept making their way to the hens (which one was at 5 yards from our blind now). As soon as they made it over a small hill they saw my strutting Jake Mobile, Tommy. As soon as those two longbeards saw Tommy they did the mean walk right too him. Darius was behind the camera and I hear him say "Joe I am on them" But I wanted to see what these big boys were all about so I told him I wanted to wait a second before I shot. Well, they destroyed Tommy with no hesitation. They both jumped on him with spurs flying and flogging him with their wings. They actually bend a metal stake that held the decoy up. That was enough for me to take, I had to save my decoy. I sent a load of Hevi #7 at the strutters neck and the big gobbler just fell over without a flop. Knocked out cold. Once the other gobbler saw that the more dominate bird was on the ground, he started flogging him. So I handed Darius my gun and grabbed the camera. 10 seconds later the other gobbler was laying dead as a door nail. An absolutely unbelievable hunt and it was over by 7:20am.
The next day Darius and were through the roof excited about getting after some more longbeards. But surprisingly we did not hear a single gobble, not even on roost. But him and I both knew more longbeards were here. We sent out some calls here and there but nothing. Around 8 we did have some birds work their way by our set. About 40 yards from our set we had a hen and 2 jakes working the fence line. The little jake was trying to strut for the hen but as soon as he saw Tommy it was like he knew he wasn't supposed to be doing that. He broke strut quickly and him and his buddy moved on their way. After that it went cold again. With not much going on Darius and I was just shooing the breeze in the blind. Then out of nowhere Darius nearly screams "There’s 2 gobblers coming to Tommy in a hurry". I didn't really believe it but when I peeked out the side window there were 2 gobblers doing the mean walk right towards Tommy. After the beating Tommy took the day before I couldn't let him get beat up again. So I shot the lead gobbler. 2 birds in 2 mornings....unreal.
Third day we went to a farm in a different county. Birds were polar opposites from the 2nd day. They were gobbling their brains out. Even though they were gobbling they were henned up bad. They would gobble but same story....they were sticking with their hens. So I went back to my calling the hen tactic. I got a boss hen boiling mad after 20 minutes but unlike the first day, she did not come to our set up. But it did work to a point. With all the racket we were making two gobblers came in and met about 50 yards from us. They got into the awfullest sounding fight you could imagine. After it was over the boss gobbler went to chasing the other longbeard off. The gobbler who had lost the fight was a heck of a bird. But they one behind him was not impressed....he would chase him for 10 yards then stop and go into full strut. This went on until they went over a hillside and we lost sight of them. We thought we could still work the more dominant bird until I experienced something I have never experienced in my life. The sound of a .22 over the hill where the birds went. Two shots, turkeys take off flying everywhere, and the sound of a truck starting. Some
fool must have heard the racket turkeys were making and had pulled his truck over on the side of the road to try and shoot one from his truck. When he was making his way down the road Darius took off after him but as soon as he heard and saw him he floored it. I was in shock. I have heard of this but never actually saw it happen. To say the least we were not the happiest campers. With us thinking that farm was ruined for the day we took off to another set of hardwoods. We were there 5 minutes and had 2 birds gobbling at the calls. Long story short, we called to those birds for nearly 2 hours and they just would not leave the hens they were with. But not all was lost for that set. While going to pick up the decoys, Darius saw a mushroom. After looking around we realized they were everywhere. Found 74 delicious mushrooms spread around the turkey decoys. After picking them we decided to get some lunch. While eating we discussed where to go for the evening hunt. We decided to go back to the first farm we went to that morning but set up over the mountain away from the road. So off we go. While walking back to our set up Darius spots 2 longbeards feeding on the mountain side. These were the first 2 birds we had seen the whole time without hens. I give them some yelps. Both just roar back. Without hesitation Darius and I go into autopilot. He pulls out his hen decoy and I pull out Tommy. We set the decoys 17 yards away and I slam down on a tree base. With little time we did not have any time what so ever to try and find cover. We were literally sitting up against trees in the middle of a field with absolutely nothing covering us. We were hoping the pair of the Swinging Hen and Tommy would work their magic one more time. Once set up I began calling again. Both birds were just flat out going out of their minds. There was no doubt they both were coming so we were just hoping they didn't bust us. As soon as they cleared the hill the saw Tommy. Just like every single bird that saw Tommy, they went to mean walking. The one closest to me went to strutting so I kept with my routine of shooting the puffy one. Once he got close to Tommy he broke strut to flog him. The fight was broken up by a load of Hevi #7 to his head. At 17 yards, his head was a mess. JELLYHEADED! Our hunt last 10 minutes at 34 seconds. Darius turned the camera on when we got on the birds and turned it off after the deal was sealed.
What more could a guy ask for out of a hunting trip. I enjoyed it beyond belief. It always good to see good buddies and sharing time in the woods, but when everything is going right.....can't beat it. 48 pounds, 41.13 inches of beard, and 6.25 inches of spur in 3 days.
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