Tyler Barnes’ big gobbler

April 16, 2022 was an absolutely epic day. Started off listening to multiple birds hammer in the trees before sunrise to have two hens come out first light. The hens milled around until old boy came to claim his women but wanted nothing to do with our decoys so we watched him enjoy his morning to then have a Jake fly in from 150 yards like a B52 bomber that we let walk away to only see he had a injured foot thinking we should have taken him out but gave him hope as we left to scout other areas. We walked a total of 9.7 miles worth of croatan thickets to find a late season area for future hunts and proceeded back to the morning location. Got setup around 2 pm and straight off had 4 Jake’s including the crip walker from the morning take to the feild at 500+ yards and zoned In on something we couldn’t see. Finally old boy strutted back out with his two hens from the morning to get chased 4 different times from the Jake’s trying to make a girlfriend. Finally we see old boy about 300 yards from the Jake’s make a full sprint from 400+ yards straight to us and where he popped out in the morning. Well he didn’t hit the brakes until he met my dads marlin model 50 he purchased at 17 from sears and robuc catalog and I laid him out. I haven’t hunted in about 15 years so this was definitely a earned few weeks to knock the dust off all that old knowledge but you don’t gotta wonder why when you send that shell down the tube. Really wish I could’ve weighed it but my official weigh station Neuse Sport Shop in cedar point refused to do so even though I’ve seen friends weighing their birds there. But oh well……….. No weight but 11 3/4 beard 1 1/8” spur’s and a beautiful fan for the wall never give up the things you love cause those that know me understand how rare you see me smile this big and had to take a minute before I could even find words.

–Tyler Barnes