Saturday morning when I got out of the truck I had every intention of going to the back side of a field I had hunted the morning before where two jakes had strutted their stuff 15 yards from me.  I could hear a lone gobbler in the area I had set up the evening before which was on the side I got out of the truck.  The sun was rising so I decided to high tail it there first.  Figured the jakes would be easier to call in later in the morning.

I slipped out there and set up my decoy then put myself between it and HIM.  He came off the roost 60-70 yards away from me- just out of range.  I knew the second I saw him that he was a big boy.  I yelped at him a few times.  He looked, gobbled, gobbled some more, strutted, then gobbled some more.  I was about to come out of my skin.  Then he proceeded to walk further out into the field stopping every thirty seconds to gobble our do some more strutting.  When he got about 200 yards away he stopped and stood there gobbling for 20 plus minutes.  After a few more attempts of yelping at him I gave him a few purrs and put the call down, hoping he would give up on thinking my decoy would come to him.  I eased my gun up.  Probably took me 15 minutes to get it to my shoulder, the whole time I was telling myself "go slow, don't screw this up."  Another gobble, this time behind me, then another.  That was all it took.  Big boy had no intention of standing out in that field while another tom got this hen (my decoy), and here he came.  I was shaking so bad I could hardly breath.  He zig zagged across the field until he was right in front of me.  At about 50 yards away he let out a gobble that shook me all over.  I just knew I had spooked him.  Apparently not because he came right on in and at 30 yards I pulled the trigger. It's amazing how fast you can come up off the ground when you are on a major adrenaline rush.  I was on him in less than a second- or so it seemed.  Think I even did a little dance on my way out there.  I know I was making some kind of victory squeal, because it dawned on me that I didn't know where my dad was and I should shut up. Anyway- He weighed in at 22.2 lbs., had a 10 1/2" beard, and 1 1/4" hooked spurs.  They said he was probably a 4 year old bird.  Spencer is supposed to fill out some form to get me a Kansas Trophy Bird certificate.  
 
The entire trip was wonderful.  I saw more turkeys than I have seen in my life (combined).  From the first morning it was total excitement.  You had so many birds gobbling around you that you didn't know which one to go after.  Really, within 200 yards of anyplace you sat down there were 5-10 toms gobbling off the roost, and you could hear 3 times that many in the distance.  It was unbelievable.
 
Two friends of mine from here came up on Friday.  One of them took a jake Saturday evening.  The other had not gotten one when I left yesterday.  And unfortunately my dad didn't get one, but he had a good time and had a lot of birds on him at numerous times- just always had one thing or another not working for him.