Topic: Opening Day Double

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At 10:45 on opening morning my hopes of bagging a gobbler for myself, let alone my brother were growing weary. After leaving an hour-long stake-out on a series of three gobbles that ceased almost instantly after we began calling, we made a hike to the top of the roost and towards a field. Honestly expecting nothing in return, I gave three blasts on my crow call once we reached the top. Much to my surprise, not one, but two gobblers sounded off, they sounded to be at the bottom of the field. We slowly worked our way to the edge of the field, I peaked over and saw nothing, I crow called again, the were going away great. Chin up, Andrew. There was now only an hour left to hunt, might as well. I crawled out and placed the full strut decoy and the hen and we quickly set up myself, my brother and the camera. Once we got settled in I began calling...and calling...and calling. They were hitting absolutely everything and starting to come back. Ok, maybe this might go better than I thought. Soon enough a group of four jakes came from the opposite direction and checked out our set-up, they moved along to the scrub where the big boys were hanging out. Not long after they made it to the scrub, I saw it. A bright white head furiously chasing the jakes back out into the field, they were still nailing everything I threw at them. Three jakes worked their way back over to us, I called for the first time in several minutes, they were in the field. An island of scrub in the field blocked my view so I couldn't see them. Seconds later, I saw them zero in on the strutter and dead sprint, then they slowed to a walk and at about 25 yards, one was down. My brother however, fired a split-second after me and I don't know if he clipped his bird or missed it entirely. Regardless, the tom ran into a hedgerow, I ran around the opposite side and jumped him out, he took off and my brother dropped him out of the air like a pheasant. At 11:16 am, the 2009 opener was complete.