BY FREDDIE MCKNIGHT This morning played out like the previous three. Several toms greeted dawn with rowdy gobbling, flew down, then walked directly away from me and my calling. Figuring they had hens with them, I decided to try a new approach and leave the birds until later in the morning. I stopped at a convenience store, then tried striking a gobbler elsewhere before returning to my original spot. Climbing high to listen, I heard a gobble in the distance and immediately moved toward it. Closing in, I hit the call and was rewarded right away with a response - from closer than I anticipated. I set up against a small pine tree and prepared for another battle of wits. Given the surrounding cover, any gobbler that came my way would be in range as soon as I saw him. A string of yelps brought responses from several gobblers, some so close their calls seemed to reverberate off my chest. But a stalemate ensued, with the birds TIPS FOR HUNTING COMP 2