FINALLY!!!! Our season has opened!!! Went out yesterday morning around the ranch to locate some birds. Found 4 different groups gobbling pretty hot and heavy, I had to make a quick exit twice after calling because the birds were running in. Felt really good about my chances this morning. Rained a good part of the night last night and when I woke up this morning I could hear rain pounding away. Looked at the radar and calculated that the storm should be moving out right at first light. Went ahead and got dressed and got coffee and was at the gate just as the rain was coming to an end. Crept through to where I heard birds yesterday about 9, which I intended on being a strut zone and not their roost. Just as I was about to step out into the hay meadow to throw out a decoy, I heard one gobble about a hundred yards from me. I had expected them to be further back in the timber, but they were roosted right on the edge of the hay meadow. Got to looking out in the hay meadow and a longbeard had already flown down. Crap! Sat there for about a minute and heard one still gobbling on the roost, then spotted a jake out in the meadow also. Third one flew down and it was another longbeard, no hens in sight, so I started getting a little excited. Sloooooowly crept to a decent shooting spot and sat on a rock in the shadows of a cedar tree. Birds were about 100 yards in front of me and started moving further out, so I made a soft yelp with diaphragm and they froze. No gobbles, no nothing. I puckered a bit as they kept on getting further out. Pretty much only had one option, so I cranked up the excitement level and was acknowledged with a double gobble from everyone. The jake made a turn in my direction and the two longbeards followed, strutting all the way in. I stayed silent, then the birds started to veer off to my right a little and were about to be behind a cedar tree and completely out of sight for good. It was now or never, so I pulled up on the last one and let er rip. Knocked him down at 45 steps. Once he went down, his buddy proceeded to come over and stomp a mud hole in his ass. Went and retrieved my bird and walked back to the truck, my coffee was still hot. Season opened and closed for me in 10 minutes, a little bittersweet. Nice bird though, 10 1/2" beard, 1 inch spurs. Missing two feathers right in the middle of his fan, which sucked, and he was soaking wet, so he wasn't the prettiest of all birds, but I couldn't be happier with him.
