2018 was a bust year. I failed to journal any hunts….Maybe it was for the best. This past year, my Garrett who is 12 has taken quite an interest in hunting and fishing…duck hunting, pheasant hunting, turkey hunting, except I don’t think he likes deer hunting as much….kind of like his daddy! The fall and winter of 2018/19 involved several duck hunts and deer hunts. Garrett’s Uncle Matt and I took him duck hunting a couple of times and then I took him on a Continental Pheasant shoot near Centertown Missouri in February 2019. He shot a hen pheasant. I think he’s hook on wing shooting!!!

In early April, Garrett’s uncle took us to a new place to turkey hunt near Garden City, Missouri. The land is owned by Stan and his wife Juanita who come for a long family history in the area of farming and the Mennonite Church. Matt worked for them at their cabinet shop in the mid 1990’s to probably 2001 I think.  He stayed in touch with them through the years. In sum total, there are about 300 acres of timber and fields to hunt. This family apparently had an overabundance of turkeys eating their garden cabbage and lettuce, so Juanita wanted the population thinned.

We arrived on opening day of youth turkey season. My brother napped in his truck until it was time to head to the woods. We heard a dominant gobbler sound off at 6:10 and off to the northwest a few more gobblers from a different bird. Having set up on cedar lined fence row with the dominant gobbler to our back, big mistake, we both called periodically. The bird gobbled on the roost for a solid 35 or 40 minutes, then silence. We heard some hen clucks and yelps about 7:30. At 8:00 Matt started calling again and the gobbler fired off on the ground about 100 yards behind us. Matt started purring constantly and the gobbler just kept rattling off. Pretty soon he appears about 20 yards to our right and I turned my head a little and whispered to Garrett that there was a turkey.  Less than ten seconds later, the gobbler turned right back the direction he came from and gobbled 300 or 400 yards to the east. It was the last we saw of him. We picked up our gear, walked to Stan and Juanita’s house. Stan pulled up in his minty GMC 2500 quad cab four wheel drive and got out and waited for us to finish the walk. I introduced myself and Garrett. Matt and Stanley shook hands. We visited for a while and Stan talked about the crop damage loss from the deer over the winter due to wet field conditions and no running combine. As we departed, we observed six or seven strutting toms south of his farm and likely the same bird(s) we heard early in the morning. If we had been facing the cedars and looking through the fence, Garrett might have had a shot at the tom, or could I have moved a little too much when I whispered in Garrett’s ear? Or would a decoy have enticed him to make another 20 yards for a shot. Who knows? That is turkey hunting, so many infinite variables and situations. It keeps you coming back for a slice of humble pie each and every time!!

Today is the third Tuesday of April, 2017, and I meander back to Gunn City. For the first time ever, I didn’t hunt the traditional Monday opening day of the Missouri spring season. Opening day was forecasted heavy rain. Rather than burn a day of vacation for naught, I rented my time at the salt mine.

I arrived at 5:30. Again I hunt the heavily wooded west property boundary very near the creek. And again, gobbling activity is reserved to property across the creek….or giant chasm. Crap! Same as previous years. A very vocal gobbler called from the roost until 6:30 not 100 yards or more across the creek. I could not see him, but a blind man could have walked straight to him if not for the creek. I call moderately. I heard yelping that turned into aggressive yelping and cutting further west and south of the gobbler thinking it was another hunter. Eventually I conclude it was a real hen trying to ward off  the phantom yelping east of the creek. I called again around 6:45, nothing. With period yelping, I make the gobbler sound off around 7:30 and south of his roost tree. This solidified my opinion that a nearby roosted hen was in fact real and his interests were focused at slinky Suzy. At 8:30, I made the gobbler sound off again further south and he gobbled several times and appeared to me moving closer to my position. I made calculated move further south about 50 yards to a more open position to sit under a large oak tree. Silence prevailed and so did my lack of patience. I depart at 9:30 or so.  Breaking the tradition of hunting opening day proved to be a bad omen to Missouri’s 2017 spring season.

This morning, a fine Thursday, started at Stranger Creek. Having located roost sites the previous day, I hunted the north boundary edge behind a ground blind and one hen decoy. A turkey gobbled north of me about 200 yards multiple times starting around 6:10. By 6:45 this gobbler and a large assembly of hens aggregated in the middle of the field to my south. I called the group of hens with gobbler in tow to within 60 yards to my left at about 8 a.m. Several of these hens came within 10 yards, but the gobbler remained back suspicious with the other 8 hens. They stay put for a while, then departed back north. I ranged the distance to the gobbler position, it was 57 yards….clearly a risky shot.  I departed around 9 a.m. in the pickup.

2017 spring turkey season finds me again hunting my go to property in Leavenworth County, KS. Prior to the season I took steps to clear brush and shooting lanes at a few good spots. This year I decided to give fanning a try. I purchased a TurkeyFan from killergear.com.

Arrived at 5:40 a.m. and set up in a thin finger of trees projecting into the field. A bird gobbled at 5:50 north of the field and a few minutes later another fired up southwest of my position in a block of woodland on another property.  I started calling about 6 a.m. By 6:30 the southwest bird was on the ground. I could barely see him through the field weeds. I decided to deploy the TurkeyFan. Making a quick end around the tip of the finger of trees, I deployed the fan at 300 yards, stooping over watching a gobbler with two hens at the edge of the woodland in the field. Approaching the trio at about 90 yards, they moved a little west, acting spooked, but not enough to run or fly off. I stop and sit behind the fan. They didn’t walk off, but moved about 15 yards. Finally the gobbler and one hen went to the woods, leaving a lone hen. Deciding fanning wasn’t working, I busted the hen and went back to my original set up. I tried working the north gobbler and his small harem, also along the edge to no avail. I decided to leave, but would deploy the TurkeyFan to the north group on the way out. They watched the approaching gobbler fan until about 100 yards, then slowly dispersed back into the woods. This was to be the only day I tried fanning the entire 2017 season. I have formed very little opinion. It is known to work well. I like the size of the TurkeyFan that allows a grown man to sit hidden behind, but I wonder if the gobbler image on the fan is so large that it intimidates other turkeys…who knows. I didn’t have any birds approach or at the fan that morning like the fancy marketing video’s show….I will give it a try a few more years before rendering an opinion.

When I became a father for the first time, I rationalized it was my moral obligation to make my daughter a turkey hunter. I arranged a father/daughter spring trip to the “Six”, my friend Chucks property. Emma was 7 at the time.  In preparation the night before, I had packed my Primos portable blind, chairs, and small NWTF cooler with drinks and snacks. My wife made sure Emma’s hunting trip also included a fleece blanket, her Nintendo DS, and a stuffed animal; all in her Spongebob backpack. We departed our home at 4:15.  Upon arrival at 5:25 and with sunrise rapidly approaching, I realized I might be in trouble. Numerous items to carry in, and numerous tasks to setup for a hunt with a small child in tow. With a “horn of plenty and a half” of equipment to haul, and, guiding a 7 year for the first time in the dark by holding her soft delicate hand, this might be challenging.  Somehow I was able to transport this mass of impediment, including child, over the scant 300 yards we had to walk from the barn. It wasn’t easy. I heard the first gobble at 5:45 as I was setting up our blind. I was selfishly wishing the seven year old and her supplies had stayed home. Peace, tranquility and rapid mobility were a mile out reach. Once all setup, however, all inconvenience was forgotten I thought. Emma was settled in with her blanket, drink, donuts, and Nintendo. As the morning gobbling session played out, I would tell Emma that there was a boy turkey gobbling and pointed in the direction. She smiled and asked when he was coming…I said soon. At 6:45 a single gobbler presented himself 150 yards across an open field. I yelped, he gobbled on the ground, then proceeded to strut for my hen decoy, but not budging an inch. I told her repeatedly that she needed to be quiet and sit still, more for practice than anything. I gave my binoculars to Emma several times so she could see the turkey better. Well by 8:30 a.m., the gobbler had long since presented himself on a tree stump and kept strutting. I heard the first “I am bored and want to go home”. I knew this statement was coming, but was in a state of denial. The child had become restless, talkative, and bored. I wanted a shot at this turkey. By 9:00 a.m., it became apparent. It was time to quit. Defeated, I gathered my horn and a half of plenty and broken pride which weighed nearly as much, and headed to Chuck’s house. Emma and Chuck’s daughter met and hit it off. That was good to see. This day was nearly five years ago. Ever year I ask Emma if she wants to turkey hunt with me. She smiles, and says no. I will keep asking, but realize it may never happen.

So what are the lessons out of this first turkey hunt with a kid? Be prepared. Obviously having equipment to make the hunt comfortable for the kid is important. A blind and chairs is almost a given. A child simply can’t hold still for more than a minute or two at a time, and their attention span isn’t much longer. As much as I hate to admit it, allow the kid to bring an electronic device, game, book, or whatever to enjoy themselves. When the child fidgets or talks, try not to over correct a lot and do so in a cheerful manner. Remember you are her dad and father figure first, and turkey hunter second. Put those selfish tendencies on the back burner.  We hunters simply can’t drill Sargent kids into hunting and outdoor adventure. That will turn them into non-hunters. Give it time…..keep asking….find something else the child might like. Fishing seems to be Emma’s potential outdoor interest. Luckily my mother has a small pond we can catfish in. A few weeks Emma caught a nice bluegill and channel catfish. Her brother and sister also caught fish. Besides hooking fish, the child may get hooked on the outdoors…for life!  That is the goal.

Remember to check out all our handmade, custom, high quality Turkey beard and spur mounting plaques to display your gobbler!

God’s Blessing this Independence Day!

To Decoy or Not……That is the question.  Well I’m not Billy Shakespeare with great lines of prose on the subject, but I have read a fair amount and have had more than my share of experience with decoys.  Let’s start out with understanding what a decoy is and what variations they take. I started out turkey hunting for years with a simple foam hen decoy from Walmart, as that was all that was available in the 1990’s. Nothin’ frill or fancy, just an alert hen decoy.  As the technology got better, manufacturers started making jake and gobbler decoys, various versions of hen decoys in postures such as alert, feeding, and submissive breeding. All these decoys were stationary and motionless for many years. Then some manufacturers added swiveling on the stake capabilities in a light wind to give the effect of motion. And then some manufacturers took things to the extreme and made motion decoys, particularly jakes with a moving tail fan and rotating body. Heck some decoys now shake and decoys sometimes come in small flock sets. Some decoys are collapsible, which helps tremendously with reducing the equipment load in the field. Some decoys are now molded to have 3D feathers and look astonishingly realistic. The one thing about decoys you can’t get around is that they are something else you have to carry with you in the field, another impedimenta. I am personally against carrying anymore than absolutely the bare minimum if possible, but that is hard to do.

So what is the purpose of a decoy as it relates to spring hunting? In theory a decoy is supposed to help attract a gobbler within closer gun range because not only do gobblers hear calling, but they see the source of the calling. Any many hunters have killed gobblers over decoys. They are known to help increase success; however, there are many times they can prevent success. I’ve seen it happen many times. Let’s go back to basic turkey biology 101 and forget about what someone wants to sell you for a few minutes……During the breeding season, a gobbler calls from his tree roost, to attract nearby hens to his breeding lek. Hens typically fly down and go to the gobbler on the ground. The gobbler then struts and displays, often drumming and spitting to further entice hens into breeding. So again, basic turkey biology 101, the hen almost always goes to the gobbler. So when your hunting and have a gobbler fired up and on the move to your calling, the gobbler sees the decoy or decoys. What does the gobbler do? Sometimes he keeps coming, but what about those times he stops and struts for 40 minutes without moving so much as ten feet and he’s 80 yards out, well out of gun range. I have had it happen to me many times and it’s so frustrating. Why did the gobbler stop? Could he have seen something suspicious, like you swatting at a mosquito? Is your decoy not realistic enough? Or could it simply be…..drumroll…… that he is doing what nature programmed him to do for millions of years? Put on a display and let the ladies approach. Could it really be that simple. The answer is yes. When a gobbler sees a decoy, quite often he stops dead in his tracks and struts, not moving an inch until he realizes there is no interest by the immobile hen and he moves on to bigger and better things. Or quite often gobblers and/or hens when they get in close to a decoy or spread of decoys, say 50 or 60 yards, become suspicious and shy away or bend around the decoy(s). I have had this happen quite often as well. Just the other morning, I had a single gobbler with a small group of hens come slowly to my calling. The gobbler and most of the hens became suspicious at 58 yards and bent off to my left back into the woods. One lone yearling feeding hen milled out in front of my decoy for 45 minutes. The other hens and gobble never came back out.

So what do you do? I don’t have a silver bullet to give you. There are too many factors and possibilities, but I do believe in the K.I.S.S. principle. Keeping it Simple Stupid. I think the easiest solution is to first know the birds habits and typical roost sites before you hunt. That requires scouting; an intimate knowledge of your hunting location and its boundaries. If you can locate general roosting and gobbling areas, signs of recent turkey activity like footprints or strut marks,  or even specific roost trees, you’ve done 60% of the hunt. If you do decoy, try just using a feeding or alert hen. Then maybe switch it up with a breeding hen.

Here is an alternative….Try hunting without decoys. I now almost always first trying hunting without decoys and try to be as well camouflaged in my setup location as possible. I think the setup, or where you sit, is next most important part of the turkey hunting equation. Turkeys are curious animals and when they hear turkey talk from your calling, they will eventually come and investigate. When setup correctly to see a turkey approaching and have a shooting lane ready is so important. When they don’t see the sound source, they will often walk around looking to identify the source for at least a few minutes. Gobblers do this in search of that lonely hen that he can’t resist. His reproductive drive keeps him moving and looking around until he loses interest and not within shooting range, or he puts himself within shooting range and you get a shot at him. If he is out of range, try soft yelping or soft clucks to help pull him within shooting range. Whether or not your successful using this strategy is up to the bird and your closure skills. If you’ve pulled a gobbler in close, within 40 yards, you’ve performed marvelously. I’d call that a success. Hopefully you can pull the trigger to have big tales to tell. More than anything, if you don’t use a decoy and are not successful, I think you’ve “done no harm” by educating him with a motionless decoy.  He will be there another day to duel with. That is what keeps me going back for a piece of sweet humbling pie each day I turkey hunt.

Remember to check out all our handmade, custom, high quality Turkey beard and spur mounting plaques to display your gobbler!

By now, it is early May and sunrises come earlier and earlier. I am able steal a few hours off over a few afternoons to hunt and pattern birds at Stranger 157 in Leavenworth County, Kansas. I can’t begin to exclaim how much I appreciate the opportunity the state of Kansas offers with all day hunting. I am still amazed at the number of gobs and hens this place is holding this year. I have pretty much figured out the prime roost sites.  By mid May, we have had steady doses of rain sufficient to partially flood out the Stranger 157 bottoms for several days at a time. An industry colleague lives nearby Stranger 157 in the town of Tonganoxie. He has several hunting spots near mine, and spends his evenings after work driving around looking for turkeys. He keeps tabs on the Stranger 157 birds. Strangely, it seems there are always two or three gobblers and a half dozen or so hens running around in the afternoon. I would have thought by mid-May that we’d be seeing only but the smallest of flocks. One afternoon, I went over to Stranger 157. Upon arrival, I change into my camo and realize I left me hunting boots at home. I guess it’s better than leaving your hunting vest and jacket at Lynxhaven Lodge in Texas one morning several years ago. I depart with my nice brown slip on boat shoes that became caked in mud, a minor inconvenience. I could see a lone gobbler along a north-south tree line that separates two large fields. Determined to try and call or at least roost this bird, I set up  at the end of a finger of thin timber running north south in the bottoms.  I began calling at around 3 pm. By 3:30, that nice gobbler was strutting persistently in the middle of the field, which seems to be “the strut zone” spot this year. The strutter never gobbles, but walks within 70 yards of my position, then returns to the woods eventually. At 5:00 p.m. I see this gobbler and a couple of hens walk north to the field access road. Knowing they were probably headed to roost, I know where the son-of-a-bitch will likely be in the morning. I text my colleague in Tonganoxie and he agrees to attend a classic roost hunt the next morning. The following morning, we walk east along the field road to the timber dividing the east and west fields. We are with 50 yards of the timber and it is still dark. Finding a tree to lean against was a challenge, it was more like leaning on a twig. The gobbler fires off at 5:45 without hesitation. My friend yelps softly and the gobbler double gobbles….this is going to be good and quick I think. Several hens pitch out trees to our left at 5o yards at about 5:55 and the gobbler can’t be more than 70 yards, I can see him in a large oak tree. I don’t have a great line of sight to the access road that he will likely pitch into, but I see him fly down.  At 6 a.m., I see the white-headed rascal at 15 yards heading left to right in front of me at a steady walk. I slowly track him with my gun barrel and hoping my friend will yelp or cluck to stop him, I see my opportunity for a continuous swing thru about to end, and the bird is painfully close. I decide that this is probably me only opportunity to shoot, so I fire. The turkey takes off running and I fire twice more missing. I get up running thinking I have wounded him a little and try to chase the bird down. We futilely search for the bird for about 30 minutes. It was so disappointing. As I retraced it all, I clipped a few back feathers off at 7.5 yards, a shot too close to take on a walking bird. The bird was only grazed. I don’t whine to my friend about not clucking to stop the bird, but I was frustrated. I am mad at myself for shooting at a bird too close and walking with an extra full choke. I should have let him pass, but I took the dice. Damn it!

Frustrated, I take a few days off and wait out another round of heavy rain and flooding. On May 13th, I agree to meet my friend out at Stranger 157 again at 5:45. To say I hunted would not be true. En-route to the hunting grounds and in the dark, I attempt to avoid flood waters, the road shoulder collapses. the below picture tells what happened and not happened that morning.

Thank you to the kind stranger who pull me out of the ditch. That wrapped up the season. I hunted 11 days this year. Missouri hunting was frustrating, having gone two years without harvesting a bird. Kansas had the highest of highs, harvesting a 5 bearded gobbler scoring 107, a county record for Leavenworth County. Kansas had the lowest of lows, with a missed shot and a stuck truck. As always, I look forward to the same highs and humiliations in 2017 THAT IS TURKEY HUNTING!!!

 

Thursday morning, second week of the Missouri season, finds me en-route to Walker, Missouri to hunt at my friend Chuck’s place. Chuck and Gina Naas own about 60 acres, running about 35% timber. Chuck and Gina live here and early after they purchased the land, he jokingly name it The Six. This means if someone else bought the land, they would have subdivided it into six, ten acres lots. Chuck and I go back to our college days at Northwest Missouri State. I have hunted the Six for nearly eight years off and on. Chuck and Gina have graciously let me stay at their home a few times during spring season. Most years there are birds on his place. It is very to access. A decent riparian corridor exists along the creek, with scattered pecan trees in the bottoms. It is a great place to take a kid; however, you need a ground blind. I have taken my kids down there several times.

As always, I have to leave at 4:20 to arrive at 5:26. One hour and six minutes exactly. Besides the long drive, once I get there it doesn’t take more than three minutes to walk in. I decide this morning to simply pick a big tree on the east side of the bottoms and face west. The bottom runs maybe a quarter mile north to south and I’ve had turkeys roosted all along the east side in years past. This morning it was a dead zone. No gobbling, no hens, no nothing. I try hunting an overgrown patch above the creek south of his house and with the same result. I depart at 10:oo. Before I drove down he told me he’d been hearing a few off and on. I don’t know if the populations are down, or the birds are simply using different property this year. The weekend weather forecast again looks abysmal for Walker. I decide to focus my efforts back over in Kansas at Stranger 157. This is the second year in a row I have not harvested a bird in Missouri. It certainly doesn’t help that places I hunt are small, but I do believe harvesting a bird is possible even on small acreages. This will be the one and only time I hunt The Six this year. Rain and winds have hampered the days I’m available to hunt. I shall return for redemption in 2017.

Late in the second week of Missouri’s spring season, I stole a Thursday morning off work when the weather was good. I headed back down to Pistol Gap to duel with Grand Canyon gobblers. I arrive this time at 5:15 as daylight is getting progressively earlier. Having parked and set up under the same tree I did the previous week, I heard two gobblers start distant gobbling to the west at 5:50 am. It was apparent they probably had hens nearby as the gobbing ceased at 6:15…I call periodically until 9:30 while reading from Tom Kelly’s Tenth Legion. Later after reviewing an aerial photo, I learn the west adjoining land owner had a green food plot opening on the hill above the bottomland forest. I suspect these Grand Canyon turkeys like to either fly down in this plot, or use it as a strut zone after fly down.  Aside from waiting these birds out until late morning to see if one will get so fired up he would cross the Grand Canyon, I hang it up. I decide to hunt at my friends Chuck’s place tomorrow after becoming frustrated with these Grand Canyon birds. As I drive out slowly down the old Frisco line rail bed, I carefully look for signs of turkey on adjoining property and think intently about how to improve success. I contemplate if there are other places I should investigate on the Camp Branch Creek property that has some semblance of open ground cover and nothing comes to mind. I just don’t know why my side of the creek seldom has roosted gobblers. The bottomland forest is nearly identical on both sides in terms of tree size. There may be a few larger sycamores on the adjoining property that they select for, or maybe it’s the food plot. The access road on my side of the creek is a good place for a gobbler to fly down in early spring. I just don’t have an explanation. Over the years I’ve called in several hens, a flock of jakes, and one walk-on gobbler. Unlike some other places I hunt, there are no real mowed trails for humans or wildlife to use, it’s just a jungle. I will come back though, in hopes of making one fly across the creek. I think next year I will try an new tactic. I will walk in first thing and go about 80 yards further east into the woods, wait for the first gobble and yelp a little. If he is on the opposite side of the creek, I will give him the silent treatment and move west towards the creek. Then yelp loudly at the creek, fall back 40 yards and yelp again. Alternately, I may have to scratch this property in the future.

The second week of Missouri’s season and it’s Monday. My friend Tom has secured a new place to hunt for us at his friend Ray’s place near Ridgeway, Missouri. Ray and Tom worked together for years in law enforcement. Tom and I duck hunted with Ray several times years ago. Ray is a hunting machine. If it walks or fly’s he hunts it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Tom has a knack with remembering weird names. He also has a knack for giving nick names and so aptly gave Ray the name Cigar Store Indian. Ray is just like one of those old wooden life size indian statues found in front of a tobacco store many years ago. Tall, bulky, olive skinned, mostly silent, and arms folded most of the time, while saying Ugh once in awhile. Ray and his wife have about 35 acres. Ray re-established native grasses, food plots, and has done timber thinning for several years now. Tom and I depart at 3:45 for the long-drive to Ray’s place. We arrive at 5:30 at Ray’s. Ray is supposed to hunt with us, but as it turns out he has a kidney stone and is in grave pain. Ray sends us to the north side of his farm where he’s been seeing turkeys on a green food plot next to a large wooded hillside along a creek on the adjoining property to the north. I had brought my pop-up blind just in case.  After talking to Ray, I decided we’d better use it because there wasn’t much in the way of trees to lean up against in the food plot. Tom and I departed on foot and heard a pheasant rooster crowing in one of Ray’s native grass fields. The sky’s are overcast this morning with a good chance of rain, and it’s terribly humid out. Tom and I set up the blind a little before 6 a.m. in the middle of the food plot. I decided to scratch out a few soft yelps, no response. A few minutes later we hear one gobbler fire up with a tone of melancholy, almost as if he knew it was going to rain, but he decided to belt out a few gobbles just to keep in tune. About 6:50 we see a hen wander in from the north wooded hillside. She mills about in the food plot for awhile then wanders of to the southwest.  By 8:30, we had not heard any gobbles since about 6:20 so we take a break and head back to the truck for a few minutes to get a drink and re-group. Tom and I hunted in the northeast corner of Ray’s land near some deer shooting houses and some timber for about an hour. Deciding nothing was likely going to show up suddenly, we went back to our food plot. There was a tree on the east side of the food plot that both he and I could lean up against that looked to be about 45 yards to the north fence line and timber. I did some aggressive yelping and cutting and the same hen I saw earlier in the morning returned from the southwest and headed back into the woods. We waited awhile and called again. This time, a jake showed up to Tom’s right at five yards. I could not see the jake, but Tom did. A few minutes later that hen comes back out of the woods with a gobbler in tow. The hen walks into the food plot and mills about at what I believe to 40 – 45 yards. The gobbler stays right along the tree line in strut. He never gobbled, but would parade back and forth. The gobblers body size seemed small and I knew I would have to try and call the hen closer to me with the gobbler in tow in order for Tom to take a shot. We both realized that the gobbler was further than 4o yards out, and would be a risky shot so we just waited. The feeding hen eventually returned to the woods with gobbler in tow. With no turkeys to spoke, Tom and I both independently used my range finder to confirm the shot distance….It was 71 yards. The ground on the food plot folded and dipped a little near the tree line, but you couldn’t tell from where we were sitting. We didn’t have a lot of options for trees to use and in hind site did the best we could short of trying to belly crawl down hill to a strutter. We got a good show from the longbeard, and before leaving I give Ray one of my white oak tail fan mount plaques as a thank you. He really liked it. With rain pending, we depart for Bethany on the interstate to have a tasty Mexican lunch and beer.  As it turns out, Ray passed his kidney stone and shot that damn gobbler a week later. I guess with pain, there is always pleasure!