That sounds like a crazy hunt. At least you were able to harvest a bird, congrats!

so my friend and i planned our first out of state turkey hunting trip to Maryland to try and extend our turkey hunting season a little bit more. so we head doen there and on day one we had spotted a couple of jakes with a long beard in the afternoon. we watched them head in to the swampy timber late afternoon and decided we would try and riost them that evening to pin point there location for the next morning. we came back later that evening and we weren't having any luck getting them to gobble and time was running out. on our way back to the car we peaked over a knoll to give and owl hoot when some deer on the other side of the field had spotted us. they started to blow at us which set off the gobblers. bingo we had a starting point for the morning. we got up bright and early and walked across the sandy field and ducked into the woods to try and find a set up close to the roosted bird. we finally got into position and the gobbling began. they were slightly behind us but we were confident that they would come up the trail in front of us to head towards the field. well we were wrong as the gobbling continued behind us @Colton turned and said dont move the jakes are right behind us. the jakes popped up on a little knoll behind us to check out where the hen noises were coming from. at the same time a hen worked around and walked right down the trail like we had drawn up in the plan that morning. she walked right to our single hen decoy and i thought it was a sealed deal as i waited for a tom to follow behind her, but that never happened she turned clucked and went right back over the hill where the gobblers continued to gobble and carry on. as we thought the birds were moving off we sat up on our knees and got together to try and plan our next moves. thats when the jakes popped back up on the hill in the thick brush in a single file line. i quickly raised my shotgun and beared down on the sights all i could see were jake through the small windows through the brush. then here he came the strutter, my eyes were locked on him through the brush but i couldn't get a clear shot. i was losing hope at getting a shot when he took a few steps and stopped to strut with his head in a perfect open window in the brush. this was my chance, i beared down on the gun and squeezed off the the trigger and sent that 3½ " full of #9s his way. boom turkeys scattered everywhere, but there was no bird flopping around. dang i had thought i missed. quickly i got on the mouth call trying to calm the situation down so maybe colton could get a shot. but the birds scrambled off and we slowly creeped to the edge of the knoll and there laid that beautiful strutter. deader than a doornail, the tss knocked him flat not even a twitch  from this bird. as i walked up to claim my trophy i look and he had the tiniest bead sticking out of his feathers. so i go to look at the spurs, and they were just little nubs. what in the world its a jake, this was not the big strutter we had seen with 

The Strutter: A Maryland Turkey Tale

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The Strutter: A Maryland Turkey Tale

Lynden N

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Turkey

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Joe J