Mission oughta be proud of me; I had one of his traditionalist early morning hunts today. It was the first turkey I've heard all week, but he started gobbling early and often. I misjudged how close he was in the open woods, and set up at what I thought was 250 yds away. After getting into position, I saw him in the tree about 150 yds away. I was very blessed that I didn't get busted setting up, but because I didn't, I was treated to a real show for the next few minutes as he gobbled and strutted.

I waited until it was getting close to fly down time and gave him a 3 note tree yelp as he was concluding one of his gobbles. A couple minutes later, I did it again with just 2 notes. He pitched down into the bottom below me and was maybe 200 yds away. I gave him an aggressive fly down cackle as he hit the ground and he gobbled right back. Probably 10 minutes of silence, and then he gobbled right below me about 100 yds away. It was sure tempting to answer him, but I was sitting in wide open woods and I felt like he was too interested to just walk away. About a minute later I spotted him walking up the hill to me and gave him a load of tss to the face at 39 yds.

Another 2 yr old that weighed 18.5 and had a 9" beard and spurs just under an inch. We had a good crop of jakes last year and I am benefiting from it this year. Bad news is that I could hear nearly a mile in any direction this morning and this was the only gobbler I heard. Good hunting to all.

This is where he was lying when I got to him: