This past Saturday, I was in Northeast Tennessee to hunt opening day of that state's spring gobbler season. I was afield with Larry Proffitt, my long time turkey hunting mentor and friend, of Elizabethton. Larry and I climbed a Sullivan County mountain in the dark, and while we were waiting for dawn, a gobbler began sounding off directly behind us.
Larry motioned for me to slowly scoot around to the other side of the tree, which I did. A while later, I was able to make out the tom in a tree about 50 yards from us. Larry had been making pitting sounds before the tom gobbled, which perhaps made the old boy start up.
Anyway, I felt doom was at hand when I saw that the gobbler was so close. Every time except one during my 32 years of spring gobbler hunting when I have, by chance, set up in the dark within sight of a roosted gobbler, the hunt had turned out badly.
This hunt, too, ended in failure as when dawn came, the tom pitched down and quickly rambled away out of shooting range. All I could do was watch him flee. Is there such a thing as being too close to a roosted tom? I think so.
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