Tennessee regular season open yesterday, Saturday April 4. I have scouted hard last two months. I knew where my weekend targets were. Closing the deal was now going to be the challenge issue.

Day 1 target was a bird with a name. Yes. I know a turkey should never be named. Especially a grudge bird. Believe me I did not name this bird. Freddy did. Two years ago. We could not kill it. Then he left me for two years to kill the named bird. Worst possible pressure.

Anyway, the bird and the farm are named " Enigma." Never has something that appears to be so easy turned out to be so difficult. Named that because the birds on that property are somewhat visible to the back road on this place and the trespassers, poacher , and drive by shooters have really educated them year round. They can be seen daily. It should be so easy to pattern and cut them off. But they are so used to people presence and pressure that they change their routine daily it seems. Like facing a good pitcher, you dont know what the next days pitch will be or where the game will start. So despite a lot of scouting , I just made a calculated guess as to where I could be in their line of path on day one. And i put a blind in that spot a couple days before season opened saturday.

Saturday dawned as a beautiful spring day. Gorgeous pre sunrise morning sky cloud colors and 48 degrees. Birds started gobbling half mile away, but the woods I was watching only elicted some jake yelps early. Then finally some deep gobbles , and then through binocs I saw birds leaving the trees 250 yards away. I saw some full fans but most of what I saw , by far, were jakes. And right after flydown a long line of jakes left the woods and walked 125 yards straight at my strutter and hen decoy. They got there quick and just milled around the decoy at fifteen yards. Sort of yelping but not gobbling. And thankfully they did not attack the decoy.

At one time there were 18 jakes reviewing the strutter at close range. And some stayed 20-25 minutes. Others drifted off pecking at cow patties and eating greens from pasture. A little before 8 , the wise jakes who were on high alert saw three bit mature gobblers and a dozen hens leave the same woods and start our way. The jakes that remained took that vision of long beards approaching as a clear sign that they should leave the premises, and they quickly scattered in to the rest of the farm The hen and dominant bird parade was headed my way at a leisurely pace. Unlike many reactions that i have observed to a full fan B Mobile in the past , these large gobblers just eased along and none showed the "CHARGE and Fight " routine that decoy set up often seems to ignite.

The hens fed at a distance of fifty yards for about twenty minutes. And the gobblers stayed with them and strutted and occasionally gobbled . One was a smaller LB. He came with in range to as close as 20 yards twice, and on any other day I would have taken the bird and been proud of it. But today I was after the big boy strutter, who was significantly larger in all repsects than the other strutters with him. A barrel chested bully. After twenty minutes of the thought of one more time of "close but no cigar" racing around my head , once more with the "Enigma", i finally decided I was going to have to take a shot at anything 40 yards or under , if it presented itself. I had a well hidden blind, good sight plane, good gun position and support , all I need to do was pull the trigger. The hens began to drift off by themselves, and the three strutters started feeding on the green in the pasture , and occasionally going back in strut. They seemed to be stuck at 45-50 yards .

I was confident my old lead 3 in 4s would do the job, but I just didn't want to risk missing or wounding, so held out for what seemed to be the longest time before I finally pulled the trigger. Reality it was probably five minutes.

Finally he was what I thought ob forty yards, and He ran his head up to look at something out of the field. BOOM. Bird goes down. And flops some , and is immediately in a small puddle in the dirt farm road. i breathed a deep relief sigh. Poured some coffee. Let the remaining birds ease out of there without spooking them worse. Let it all sink in. And just savored the moment. And by the time I get there to pick him up he was a muddy mess. So pictures will be just that --a muddied up turkey.

This was a very heavy bird. Over 25 pounds. ..mud enhanced . Beard right at twelve inches and partially shot away by the shot. 1.125 Spurs not huge but sticky sharp.. and Enigma was down and in my hands. Hallelujah . He had rubbed all his chest feathers out in his breeding activity. The girls at the farm won't be " bothered" by him anymore. Right now the two bottom pictures are day one--Enigma

DAY TWO- Crystal clear early light sunrise. Its different farm with steep hillsides, some big woods around a really large piece of open cow pasture. The plan was to get close in the dark to the traditional roosting area consisting of steep woods pine and cedars. But to set up out in the open pasture field .And next to a small briar patch ,with turkey thug chair, and stake blind, and leafy jacket and on the shady side of the slope. It was an area where I have watched birds land pitching right out of those same trees in past seasons, and also while scouting earlier in the year. The grazed down pasture was not three inches high, so blending in to minimal cover was essential. And setting up in dark critical. I had walked in half mile as quietly as possible.

As the sky began to lighten, birds began to gobble down by the large creek half mile away, and sure enough a bird began ripping gobbles maybe 125-150 yards away, from the tree position right where I had hoped, but across a deep hollow.

He was in trees , and I was hopefully in the bare field landing knob he would fly to. I had a hen decoy on the knob in a visible to him position and a avian x jake and other hen decoys below my on the hillside. If he didn't land on top I hoped the decoys below me would attract him up to my position on the farm road beside me that led down to the small creek in the bottom. Moonscape for cover--it was the briar patch or nothing.

Soon a hen started yelping right near him. They really got it going with her yelping and him double and triple gobbling. Do I call, even though they are in the tree. ?
I usually do not, but in this case , in the steep stuff I knew it was worthwhile to risk as the visible hen decoy I put on the knob would give those roosted ones a visible sight target to associate with the hen I was imitating. So I took out the 30 year old Cody World class and let out a few good low yelps and then a loud series. The real hen then hit high gear on her yelping and the longbeard began the continuous gobbling that tells me he is ready to leave the tree.

But the hen left the tree first, and I watched her leave the limb and sail right to the open knob about 25 yards above me. Back fan and landed. in two steps.

The gobbler was ten seconds behind her. I was frozen. Head down. Gun down though. Thankfully the light was so dim and early. I knew my only prayer to get the gun up was if the LB seen in to strut and showed the back of his fan. A tense minute or so. The hen relaxed, Bent over to feed. Both are clearly silhouetted against the early light . It was not even seven oclock .

He went into two half strut looking west . Then The gobbler turned slightly and looked in to the east and the light , and popped in full strut and I had the back of his fan. In an instant i put the gun on him without spooking them. He pirouetted back to face the west . When he raised his head from strut , he died. 25 yards. As classic a fly down- boom as you could very expect in the spring woods. This was a heavy two year old with a big thick mountain bird half- twisted beard.

I would rather be lucky than good. About as good as the first two days could have gone. Lots of scouting. It pays off.

As of now the two top pictures are of Day Two....maybe can get that fixed later

Congrats GN. Well played as they say. I was going to hit my sisters horse farm just south of Nashville at the end of the month, but this virus stuff took care of that. My 86 year old mom doesn't want to leave her house in Va and I can't blame her. Not sure I want to leave the house. That said, I'll be at the local farm next Saturday and see what happens.

Another great year and it’s only begun. Congratulations on the birds and outstanding replay of the hunts. Thanks for sharing.


Earl

Great hunts. I cannot wait to get out.
Stay safe y’all

Congratulations GN, Love the scenery.

Congrats GN. Couple of nice birds right there. How many can you get in TN, 2 o 3?
V

Way to go man.

Tenn season limit is four birds. Plus potential for couple more on draw wma type hunts. Way too many With the pressure that is on the state birds these days. Since Tennessee is open for nonresidents. I expect the kill totals will be high this year as all many southern states people who would otherwise go to Kentucky are likely to end up in Tennessee, in my opinion. Most of my serious turkey hunters resident friends in TN think the season limit of four is too high. However not many of them self regulate by choice to a lesser number for their season goals

4, holy cow that is a lot.
V

Congrats, Gn for the wins!

no surprise here!!! Congrats GN

Doug

Great Job, GN hope you get on some more good hunts before you tag out