Bob Dombeck
05-24-2025, 04:25 PM
Well I was hunting a new spot in Cadott Wisconsin after our old area by Fall Creek seemed to have dried up the last couple of years. Hunting with my cousin and he shot his opening morning of our season which was the fourth season in Wisconsin. Heard quite a bit of gobbling so it already had good potential. I saw a group of four gobblers several times but they weren't real interested in coming in.
The terrain is real rolling cropland that I was set up on so I put my posturing Jake decoy on one of the high spots which was about probably 40 yards to the crest of the nearest berm. I placed the decoy at about 20 yards hoping that anything from other high ground would be able to see it. I personally limit my shots to 28 yards and I put yardage stakes out so I know the distance.
I will post a few pictures and some of this will make more sense then. I saw this group the third time at about 500 yards and even at that distance I know they could see my Jake decoy but due to the rolling terrain I would only be able to see the birds for possibly 100 yards and at that point I had no idea whether they would travel North and cut across the road or continue to Head East towards me. I knew it would be in my face if they came over the crest and they did and they immediately just started hammering the a jake decoy. All four of them were just beating the heck out of him. It sounded like four guys with baseball bats. I will attach a picture of the bent decoys stake. The stake is 5/16-in steel and they bent it in two places. I have a bunch of video after I shot my bird because the other three did not want to leave. The one kept pecking at the head of the dead bird for 20-25 minutes literally lifting his head off the ground and dropping it back down as if to say, come on, let's go.
Makes you wonder if they were siblings or just a pecking order routine or what because the other two birds didn't really care. I never run right out in pick up the dead bird as I like to see what the other ones are going to do.
I was using my Parker 10 gauge hammer gun with RST 1 1/4oz #6 loads.
The bird wasn't a giant as far as body weight. It weighed 20.17 lb but had a nice full 12-in beard and 1 1/4" spurs. Watching the video I have all the other three birds look to me every bit as nice as this one because you can see the nice long Spurs even on the video.
Hopefully this post works okay with the pictures if not give me time to try and fix it. I am actually sitting in my blind in Minnesota trying to kill a bird here on the last season since my wife and I did not get one on our designated second season so when you have an unused tag in Minnesota you can come back and hunt the final season.
The terrain is real rolling cropland that I was set up on so I put my posturing Jake decoy on one of the high spots which was about probably 40 yards to the crest of the nearest berm. I placed the decoy at about 20 yards hoping that anything from other high ground would be able to see it. I personally limit my shots to 28 yards and I put yardage stakes out so I know the distance.
I will post a few pictures and some of this will make more sense then. I saw this group the third time at about 500 yards and even at that distance I know they could see my Jake decoy but due to the rolling terrain I would only be able to see the birds for possibly 100 yards and at that point I had no idea whether they would travel North and cut across the road or continue to Head East towards me. I knew it would be in my face if they came over the crest and they did and they immediately just started hammering the a jake decoy. All four of them were just beating the heck out of him. It sounded like four guys with baseball bats. I will attach a picture of the bent decoys stake. The stake is 5/16-in steel and they bent it in two places. I have a bunch of video after I shot my bird because the other three did not want to leave. The one kept pecking at the head of the dead bird for 20-25 minutes literally lifting his head off the ground and dropping it back down as if to say, come on, let's go.
Makes you wonder if they were siblings or just a pecking order routine or what because the other two birds didn't really care. I never run right out in pick up the dead bird as I like to see what the other ones are going to do.
I was using my Parker 10 gauge hammer gun with RST 1 1/4oz #6 loads.
The bird wasn't a giant as far as body weight. It weighed 20.17 lb but had a nice full 12-in beard and 1 1/4" spurs. Watching the video I have all the other three birds look to me every bit as nice as this one because you can see the nice long Spurs even on the video.
Hopefully this post works okay with the pictures if not give me time to try and fix it. I am actually sitting in my blind in Minnesota trying to kill a bird here on the last season since my wife and I did not get one on our designated second season so when you have an unused tag in Minnesota you can come back and hunt the final season.