u/whimsicalwalnut11

I was finally able to get a couple nights in the Naturnest & loved every bit of it.

Tagged out in western NY this morning on this beautiful bird. Electric morning gobbling his head off in the hardwoods & pissing his hens off. Always grateful for another

I sit here in the eastern hardwoods humbled yet again by the 20lb bird… you can seemingly do everything right & it still just doesn’t happen. I knew they were roosted somewhere in here so I got in & set up at 4:45am. They love this piece of woods. It’s filled with hickory & beech stands. I got lucky when I set up less than 100 yards from their fly down. Got them gobbling on the roost at sun up with a crow call. I watched them all fly down & start strutting around their hens and a herd of deer. The biggest tom of the bunch sprinted in to about 45 or 50 yards and stopped completely flush and silhouetted with a doe behind him. I didn’t take the shot. They turned away and meandered off so I got up and moved hoping to cut them off. They were walking the wood line of a cornfield just over that ridge right in front of me in the picture. I set up at 40 or so yards in the woods in front of them and they came foraging in the field. A couple Jake’s came a few yards inside the wood line but that was all. They wandered onto the abutting property and I sat there heartbroken as I tend to do. I’m sitting here replaying it over and over in my mind so I figured I’d write it down. Thanks for listening 🍻