We got up early Tuesday morning to the sound of rain and no lights in the sky.

The DeerCast radar showed spotty rain moving through that could last until 7:30-8:00, but we decided to head to our spot anyway and see how it went.

We sat in the truck for a few minutes to let the rain lighten up, and I stepped out to see if we could hear any birds close by. I heard a gobble after that first owl hoot, and we figured we wouldn't melt if we got a little wet.

After walking about 150 yards away from the truck, we heard how close he really was and decided to backtrack and set up under an old oak tree and try to call him onto the ridgetop.

When I started calling, multiple birds responded. There were 2 (likely) jakes ~100 yards away but would never come out of the woods. Then I saw a big strutter pop out on the ridge in front of me at about 100 yards.

He did exactly what we wanted. He quietly strutted his way across that ridge top, headed toward the AvianX Jake decoy we had set up. After zigzagging to close the gap, I finally took the shot when he was at 27 yards and tagged out in Missouri. I almost hated to end it.

Those 2 jakes kept gobbling, and other birds around us joined in. After waiting them out for about 45 minutes, I was finally able to take a look at the bird. It was such a great morning, and I'm glad we got out of the truck and into the rain.