Got to my spot covering a field just after shooting time. 20min later a couple hens walk out of the bush down 100yds or so to east and head straight to the middle of field then a jake comes out following the hens. They all go about 500yd then turn west past me till they are 500yds past me then start coming to bush. Loss them behind a slight rise, then see them back tracking their previous route, Back past me, I figure they are going to follow same route so I get back in the bush and start keeping up with them. The jake is strutting but hens don't want anything to do with him. They start back to bush so I quickly line up with the jake and move up behind a bush at the edge of the field. He keeps coming and the hens break off. At about 60yds a loss him behind the bush, but figure he is still coming. Taking a long time I'm starting to think he turned back. I finally see him through the bush, took thick to shoot so wait and he steps out bit further and stops. He at 10yds drops right in his tracks. Probably the nicest jake I have gotten. While cleaning him I find 8 copper coloured pellets in his legs and a couple in the back of the breast all just through the skin. Someone must have shot at him at distance and low. I know my pellets wouldn't hit that low from that range and they would have gone through the meat.
last day bird, jake
