Tina with her 16-1/2 pound turkey with a 8-1/4" long beard and 3/4" long spurs.

We got up the next morning at 3:00am and assembled our gear before heading out into the field trying to avoid the full moon. The moon light caused us to take a very long route to set-up on a point in a large field.

Jerome used a breeding hen and Jake set-up with another lone hen close by attached to a string to provide movement. We were about twenty yards away from the set-up located in some swell grass. Jerome pulled out his vast array of calls including a “gobble” call which turned out to be the key call for my hunt.

My husband had provided me with a Remington 870 pump shotgun with a Super Full Turkey Choke with 3” magnum, copper plated #4 shot. One thing that saved my hunt was a 4 power shotgun scope.

We managed to be set up by 4:30 in the morning and this allowed us about 30 minutes before the first turkey started gobbling around 5:00am about 150 yards away and across the field from us.

Jerome responded with a few hen yelps which caused the Toms to gobble a lot, but they flew down and stayed with their “real” hens. He used his string to make the lone hen move which seemed to keep their interest. Then suddenly the big Tom went off into the woods with the hens and left the small Tom standing on the edge of the field. That's when Jerome changed tactics and started gobbling to the Tom and that caused the young Tom to get upset and run across the field from about 200 yards away. Every time the Tom gobbled, Jerome gobbled back and used his hen yelp to let the Tom know “a new guy is in town with his girlfriend”!

I got so excited that I shot the Tom before Jerome gave the OK. The shotgun scope made the turkey seem a lot closer and it turned out I dropped the turkey dead at 50 yards!

The turkey only weighed 16-1/2 lbs. with a 8-1/4” long bread and ¾” long spurs. It was smaller than last years turkey, but it was more exciting to watch the game play out with my husband calling and watching the turkey's actions. It was great to be by my husband's side and sharing a great time hunting together.