First hunt of the year was the week of April 21 in MN, unit 339. I am still amazed I actually pulled a tag! A pal has access to a huge tract of land near Hastings, so he invited me down. Its a beautiful spot on high ridges with a few big plowed fields and grossly thick/steep jungles all over the place.

The weather actually cleared up that night for the first time in a week or so (lucky for us) the birds made a lot of noise. I had 8-12 gobblers within @600 yards of my setup. The old hens actually took over once the birds hit the ground, they were making a pile of noise so I switched from trying to entice a gobbler to trying to annoy the hens enough to come take a look.

I saw about 40 birds before 7am, including a bearded hen (which I could have shot but saw some gobblers coming so did not). A group of about 20 birds, hens, 4 toms and 7-8 jakes came into the field near me (it was hard to tell exactly how many birds they were playing so much grab-ass with each other) Two toms broke off and came right into my decoys. The bird I shot was a 2 year old, not much for spurs but a 9 inch beard, weighed about 18 lbs. Should have brought the bow, would have been a nice 15-20 yard shot.

My pal went stalking birds that were not near where he set up and after playing games with them for an hour or so (which I spent taking a nap and making phone calls to friends who were about to get to work on a Monday morning *evil grin*) he finally scored on a nice tom, 20 lbs, with a 10 inch beard. So we were done by 8:20 that morning. Overall, awesome short, sweet hunt!

Man you layed the smackdown on em this year, are you done yet?

Congratulations on a nice bird

Thanks, I have been very fortunate thus far.

Much to my wife's chagrin, I am not done yet...I am heading to two different areas in WI yet before the season ends.

This weekend (May 9-11) heading down by Tomah, then heading over to the Rhinelander area for the last weekend (Mem. Day). I will be bringing the stick & string with me for these hunts.

I may have mortgaged my soul to do all this, it sure took a lot of effort to get this many "kitchen passes" from her.....my "honey-do" list looks like a reading assignment for law school *grin*

Congrats on your success and Good Luck on your remaining Hunts.

congrats on the tom sounds like you had your pick