Sweet Home Illinois!

After a disappointing turkey hunting trip to Kansas last week I was really looking forward to our opening day here in Illinois!     I was hunting in Southern Pike County, Illinois.   The weather was absolutely horrible on opening day.    The wind was blowing 20-30mph all day & not many people were having much luck.    I decided to skip opening day.....which I don't know if I have ever done in my life, but I had alot of work to catch up on since I had been in Kansas for a few days.     The weather on the 2nd day of the season was supposed to be perfect.    I just hoped that I did not jinx myself by not going opening day.    I went out the night before & set up a ground blind in an area that I knew was good & should have birds pretty close.    I headed out to the blind at about 5:30 this morning with high hopes.    As daylight started breaking I could hear probably half a dozen gobblers in the distance, but none of them were really close to my blind.    After I felt like the turkeys were on the ground I started calling & one gobbler in particular seemed to answer anything I threw at him.    After about 15 minutes of me calling & him responding, but not cutting the distance I decided to give him a little competition & started throwing in some gobbles in with my hen calls.     That was more than he could take!    I could tell he was starting to cut the distance so I stopped calling.    Within a couple of minutes I saw him coming around the bend in the field.    I got my gun ready & enjoyed the show.    Once he saw the decoys he came running in & immediately went into full strut.    I had an inflatable jake decoy in my decoy spread & he went over & "flogged" my jake decoy & ripped about a 1 inch hole in it immediately deflating my decoy.    I figured at that time it was probably best to go ahead & introduce him to my Winchester Xtended Range #5's.      It is not always this easy, but Illinois never disappoints if you put your time in!    I can't wait until 3rd season so I can go chase them around in Calhoun County with a friend of mine.    Good luck to everyone this turkey season & feel free to send pictures if you give one a dirt nap!