This morning is the private land opener in the game zone where I live and hunt in South Carolina. I hunted a relatives farm not far from where I live this AM and didn’t hear a single gobble. It didn’t surprise me, we’ve got a low pressure system moving in so I went to where I had seen a good bit of sign on a power line cut and started calling with a few soft yelps and clucks about every 15 minutes and eventually had a bird come looking. He didn’t like something and eventually left the way he came. I picked up and moved about 200 yds and set up again off an old logging road that cruise the cut along the edge of a swamp. I let everything settle down and let out a few soft yelps and scratched in the leaves beside me with my hand. I set my call down got my gun on my knee and started waiting. About 15-20 minutes later I thought I could hear a bird walking behind me and then a squirrel fired off. I eased my head around and could see a bird coming slowly from about my 7:30-8:00 out of the corner of my eye. When he went behind a big pine I got my gun to my shoulder and twisted to my left. He stepped into a gap I could shoot through at 15 yards and I dumped him. I made a rookie mistake and grabbed him before he was done flopping and he got in a final blow cutting my knuckle to the bone with a spur. He’s a nice bird, triple beard, 6”, 7”, and 10” , 1 1/16”and 1 1/8”spurs and 18 pounds. 
