Birthday Gobbler!

This morning I guided Vinny for his annual birthday turkey hunt that his brother Donald set up for him. I met the guys bright and early and we got to the ranch and set up well before daylight. As legal shooting time came we could hear birds and the hit the ground and went quiet. I knew where the birds were and we closed the distance a few times and set up on them but they had hen's and didn't want to cooperate. We gave up on those birds and went to find some others. As we traveled through the ranch I would stop and call hoping to get a response, on a couple different occasions we got a gobble but as soon as we set up and tried to call again the birds would go silent. At each set we sat patiently for what I deemed long enough and then moved on. On our third attempt we had 2 birds gobble and they sounded HOT so we set up and waited before giving them another call. At the sound of the call the gobblers we nuts and before long I could see them headed down the hill towards us. They would come down the hill to within 100 yards or so and then head back up. I would wait awhile and call again and they would do the same thing!! After the third time I got pissed and decided to make a move(as some of you may know, patience isn't exactly my strong point!). The plan was for Donald to stay put and Vinny and I would make our way up the ravine towards the birds. We closed the first 50 yards fairly quickly but as we got closer I slowed down and we would go 5-10 yards wait 10 minutes and then give quiet clucks and purrs, trying to sound like a couple hens headed up the hill. Each time I called they would answer and we played this game for quite awhile until we finally reached the top of the draw. This time we waited several minutes and I told Vinny to be ready as I thought they would come running at us! As soon as I purred both birds gobbled not 10 yards from us but they stayed but and wouldn't move! I knew right where they were so we crawled up a little higher and I told Vinny to stand up as soon as I started calling. I hit mouth call and we both stood up and watched as one of the toms gobbled not 10 feet from us. All we could see was his big red head and beard when Vinny put the hammer down!! It wasn't exactly how I had imagined it happening, but that seems to be the story of my life when it comes to turkey hunting!!! Either way the results were the same and Vinny headed home with his birthday TOM!!!