Almost Turkey Season

Help Support CattleToday:

They must be on the right side of the pic. I can't see the whole picture on my phone
 
Getting pretty excited, opening day is a week away. Today was a youth day, where kids get to hunt before season. Have heard some good reports.
 
Opened yesterday. Got one this morning. Two strutters come in together but the woods was to thick to see them from where I was sitting so I let them walk off. I eased over to a different tree where I could see and called them back.
IMAG0492.jpg

He was a two year old with a 9 1/2 inch beard.
 
Our youth season opens soon. I'll be looking forward to taking my son. It's his first season to really hunt one.
 
How old is your son Bigfoot? Are ya'll having an early spring in Kentucky? We sure are down here, our green up is about 2 - 3 weeks early. It was 61 degree before daylight for opening day and 56 this morning. It's usually in the 40's or 30's opening week. But the turkeys are gobbling good. Good luck with your son, hope he gets one and gets hooked on hunting with his dad. I'm 48 and I still turkey hunt with my daddy.
 
He is seven. He managed to shoot a little buck this fall. I am afraid he thinks a turkey will be just as easy. I have been having him practice with some light trap loads. I am going to sneak a heavy load in on him opening morning. I'm afraid he will flinch before he shoots if he knows how hard it kicks. Spring has come so early it actually is kind of concerning. These definatly are not the winters of my childhood.
 
Deepsouth, congrats on the bird. Getting ready here for the morning. Seen a decent one this evening so, we should have fun in the morning.

Bigfoot, A friend and I hauled his son (started at 5 years old) around the woods for 3 seasons before he got one. We came close many times, try and keep it fun and he will enjoy it. A tent blind is a very good tool for kids. My friend runs a guide buisness and we deal with several kid hunts. Below is a video link to a clients hunt with a small child.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news ... ay-10-2010
 
Nice bird Deepsouth. Our season starts at the end of the month. I got permission to hunt some land a couple of miles from my farm that has a severe problem with crop depredation from turkeys. I am expecting good things. I got a real nice bird last spring off of my place.
 
Got one this morning that I've been hunting for 3 years.
IMAG0506.jpg

IMAG0507.jpg

I have a lot of history with this bird. He stays on my place all winter then moves to a creek bottom on the land line in the spring and goes to some fields on the neighbors horse ranch. This morning he was roosted on my side of the creek but he flew down across the creek I figured he was headed to the horse pasture. I moved down between the creek and where he roosted and called to him a few times he got fired up so I didn't call to him anymore. After about 25 minutes he couldn't stand it any more I heard him fly the creek. I stayed quite and he came in quite. 11 inch bread and 1.1/16 spurs. I killed better turkeys but i've never been prouder to kill one.
 
Very nice Deepsouth, I have 3 toms that stay on our land and always seem to stay out of range.
10 more days till are opeaning day! I'm shooting for a bird on the first day.
 
Youth season came in today in Kentucky. My 7 year old son killed his first gobbler. A really heavy bird with a 9 inch beard. I think were both hooked. They were really moving all day. I could have sat there all day just looking and listening.
 
That's great bigfoot! Hope you get one too. I had a good hunt this morning even though I did not kill one. Had one gobble up a storm just behind a thicket from me when he finally showed himself he stayed just out of gun range. That's why they're fun to hunt. It was a beautiful morning and he gave me a good show and if I would have killed him my season would be over so now I can hunt him again. Sim. AK I hope you get one of those birds when season opens, are they gobbling?
 
I finally got a chance to go Friday afternoon for a couple hours before the weather turned bad all weekend. When I got out of the truck the Turkeys were already gobbling at banging from a county truck at the top of the hill. That seemed like a pretty good omen. So I found a place on the canyon wall and started calling. About 15 minutes in, I had a nice tom come across, from behind me. He strutted at about 40 yards but needed to take 2 more steps to be in the clear. For them to be supposedly so dumb, some of those old birds are pretty witty. After several minutes of stale mate, and a conversation that reminds me of home (Baby, come over here. No Honey, I'm busy- You come over here. Well, but I asked you first) he went back across. After a few moments, I started calling again and whole place lit up from one end to the other. I felt surrounded. There were toms up the creek, across the creek and down the creek. I would call and I would hear a minute of solid gobbling. Anyway, that first old tom came back out, out of range of course, and crossed over to my side in stealth mode. I was watching for him to sneak up the side behind me again so I turned positions. This allowed a whole group of toms to flank me, from behind and the original direction I was facing. How do they freaking know?

Their decoys were still across the creek just inching their way in acting like they were interested, but not too interested. You know, playing it cool. I dang near jumped when these 4 turkeys started in about 5 yards behind me. I was finally able to find them out of the corner of my eye. It seemed like an eternity and they weren't moving. So I hatched a plan to roll and shoot. I however, didn't appropriately calculate the length of my gun, angle of desired path of movement, and the distance of the overhanging limbs. As my upper torso rolled to my left, my arms and shotgun didn't follow. It resulted in me finding myself momentarily starring around the side of a tree at 4 bewildered turkeys, and trying to figure out where my arms went. It was contorted to a point that I think I almost found my Zen. When it all registered in my brain, I recalculated a desired path of movement for my shotgun, but the turkeys had executed a well devised escape to the top of the canyon wall. I was then glad that no one else was with me to witness this humiliation. It had been the most sure thing in turkey hunting I have experienced, and I blew it. I had just whiffed a tee ball.

Apparently the turkey gods looked down and felt compassion on me. Not a lot of compassion, but a little compassion. The wise older tom in this bunch was touching down in the neighboring county, but the three young ones with him decided they still wanted to find the girl that was willing. They started gobbling again. I called and they came back to the rim and would peak over the edge. They would go to the left or to the right and peak down, but never walk back down. After many minutes of this, I decided it was time I went into stealth mode. I crawled up the canyon wall at the moments all 3 of them were behind vegetation. When I reached a point that was in range I let the first dude have it that came and stretched his neck out over the edge. When I went up to get him, the remaining two had only ran about 40 yards and stopped again. I could only figure, they were each thinking now their odds of getting the chick were even better.

He was young but seemed to have a pretty full beard.
greybeard2.jpg
 
Yeah, its a Rio with some after market modifications. I tried to have a little fun with photoshop. But the picture wasn't good enough quality to blow it up very big. His real beard is that almost distinguishable black dot midway down. But he did taste good. :D. The fun part for me, is that I learned to call em without a call, just using my mouth and hand. I was pretty excited that so many were responding. But I still have to get better at putting.

You have some great birds on here and I really like their coloration.
 

Latest posts

Top