mowin

Well, this is a first.. buddy and his son called in a decent tom. He shot and the bird dropped. Within seconds a red fox came out of the brush and pounced on the trukey. He's seen the fox in his barnyard a few times running off with a chicken or duck, so he didn't need any convincing to shoot the fox.

Called in 6 Jake's for buddy of mine. He's 57 and hunted deer all his life, but never hunted turkey, and never shot one in the fall. He was going to pass and hope the Tom's would follow, but one of the Jake's walked within 10’ and didn't quite like what he saw. Alerted the entire clan. At 30 yrds out he decided a Jake was just fine for a first bird.

Taking a new turkey hunter out tomorrow. He's hunted deer for 43 yrs, but never spring turkey hunted. Good luck to everyone. Shoot straight, and be safe.

The key is to call the split second his feet leave that limb. I probably should add that sitting in the direction he normally flys down in helps. If they didn't land within range, they were there moments later. I've killed several using this technique. Doesn't work every time. Nothing does. And yes. I've been sitting under tom's I didn't know were there. Easy to do once the foliage is full. Always wondered what they were thinking looking down at some big lump clucking like a hen. Lol

One of my tricks that I've use many times is to know the limb he's on, and get close.. like 40 yards. Don't call at all, but the second his feet leave the limb, hammer him with a cutting and excited yelps. They will often hit the ground within range, gobbling like crazy. Problem is, it sometimes is before legal shooting. I've taken my share of gobblers, and I now like the challenge of calling them from a reasonable distance or from hens.

While it may be the way mother nature is supposed to work, Tom gobbles and hens come to him, I've only once had a bird stay on roost well after daylight gobbling now and then. If I'm within sight of him but about 80 to 100 yrs out, and foliage comes into play here, I'll tree call to let him know I'm "over here". If he's hot, I'll do a fly down cackle, and call aggressively if I think other hens have flown down already. I want him to pitch down in my direction if possible. If I know he's alone, no hens, I'll soft call until he's down. Then determine how hot he is and call accordingly.

I'm new to this forum, but it sure doesn't take long to figure out those who like to start a topic that's going to generate defensive comments just for fun. I noticed he hasn't been back since getting things stirred up.

Now that you mention it, they maybe Tru Glo sights. Put em on there so long ago, I can't remember what brand they are.

Just finished up some venison pastrami. Gosh I love this stuff.. In the brine for 2 weeks. Rubbed with black pepper, salt, onion and garlic powder Sliced and packaged..

Hell, there probably pissed they woke up...

In my area, last yr was dry and sunny. This yrs it's supposed overcast with little chance of rain.

I don't have any kids, but I've taken 11 youths on there first turkey hunt,(youth season) some relatives of mine, others friends kids, nephews ect. Now, not all were successful, but all heard birds, most got to see birds. I've taken several of those youngsters out the first weekend during the regular season. Some never seen or heard a bird. Unless the season starts on the weekend, it's gets tuff by the first weekend. Last weekend the bugs were very light it not non existent. Which is a great help in keeping a youngster still. Monday May 1st will be a feeding frenzy of bugs. If you choose not to take your kids out on youth weekend, (have you?) that's your choice. But don't criticize those that do.

Letinmfly, Thanks so much for taking your time to put this contest on. Thanks to everyone who helped with judging and prizes. Your dedication to our youth hunters is evident. Congrats to all the youth hunters this yr that we're successful. I'll let Kayden know the good news after school. I don't want to text him while he at school. He did call me before he got on the bus to see if he won.. lol. He's going to be very excited. Thanks to all the mentors who took the time to take a youth hunting. They are the future of our sport.

Hunted bear in Maine a few times. Only once had two bears come in and challenge each other. The noise is something one would imagine two anger bear would make. Only other time I heard a bear, was in the Catskills turkey hunting. I was filming a buddy, and I called in a very large, and possibly hungry, bear. It walked within 15 yards of me, and all I had was a video camera. It caught my scent, and woffed like a dog half assed bark, but it was very loud and deep. Serious pucker factor. Lol

I agree. The ratio of hens to Tom's is very lopsided in my area. Tuff to get one to brake away from a sure thing let alone 10 of them. By mid season the best technique is to ambush them. Don't call at all.

When I was 13-14, my story would have been... Bird came in. I shot. Got him... Lol. I know Kayden is still on cloud nine. His grandfather called me earlier, saying he couldn't get a word in without Kayden cutting him off. I know these kids are hooked. You can tell how happy and proud they are of their accomplishments.

Thanks Grampy for the kind words. It was very emotional for me sitting by that tree Sunday. It was just like having Adam sitting by me almost 20 yrs ago. Kayden's " little” brother can't wait until this fall when he can hunt. Maybe I can get him his first bird while sitting under that same tree.

I had one guy a few weeks ago call looking for Leon. It wasn't a telemarketer, but some dude looking for Leon. After telling him on 3-4 occasions that there was no one here by that name, I finally had enough and told him Leon died the other day. Never called back.

Remington 1187 NWTF. MAD x-full turkey choke. HIVIZ front and rear sight. Love this gun. It's caused the demise of many turkeys over the yrs.

This Kayden's story. Me, my little brother and my Uncle Hoppy started scouting about a week before opening day. Uncle Hoppy showed us the tree him and my Dad sat under when he called in my Dad's first turkey. I wish my Dad was able to take me out for my first hunt, but he died a couple years ago. I though it would be cool to sit under the same tree as my Dad did for my first turkey. Uncle Hoppy said if we can roost birds near that tree on Friday evening, we will sit there Saturday morning. We saw two toms and a couple hens Thursday afternoon not very far from that tree. That night they roosted about 100 yards from that tree. We were hoping they would roost in the same spot Friday night. But we didn't see or hear them when we scouted for them Friday. So we decided to go somewhere else Saturday morning. Saturday morning me and my brother were so excited. We got to the spot we were going to hunt about 4:45am I couldn't believe I was up so early. It didn't take long before the turkeys started gobbling on roost. There were a bunch off to our left and one way off to our right. We could see some toms to our left fly down. Uncle Hoppy was calling and they were gobbling back but the hens went into another field and the toms followed the hens. The tom off to our right was getting closer. Uncle Hoppy had me move so I was facing the right way. I couldn't believe how loud the gobbles were as he got closer. He was just over the hill when we could hear a hen calling from the same area. His gobbles got farther and farther away as he followed the hen. We checked a few other places but didn't hear anything. I was frustrated but Uncle Hoppy explained we have to be patient and hunt hard and keep focused, and we will try again tomorrow morning. On our way out we drove by the area where my dad's tree is. We were excited to see two toms in strut and a couple hens not far from my Dad's tree. It was almost 11:30am so we were almost out of time for the day. So we were hoping the birds would be roosting nearby that night, and they did. YES! We got under my Dad's tree very early Sunday morning as the toms were roosted about 80 yards away. We saw them on roost strutting and gobbling. Uncle Hoppy used tree yelps to get them excited. They were gobbling their heads off. When they flew down we couldn't see them because they were on the other side of the knoll. I was breathing hard so Uncle Hoppy helped me calm down. I really started shaking when I finally saw him. He was strutting and drumming and gobbling. Uncle Hoppy kept telling me to wait because the tom was still too far out. He finally came in to about 30 yards and Uncle Hoppy told me to shoot....so I did. At the shot, he dropped, but quickly got up and flew down the field. We could see him fall out of the air into the lower field. We walked down and the tom needed a finishing shot. I had gotten my first bird sitting under the same tree as my Dad did many years ago and I used the same shotgun as my Dad used for his first bird.

I mess up some how, and couldn't figure out how to delete the entire post.

I know it's hard to tell with the hoodie on, but she's a he. Lol. It was 30* and he was cold.. well that's why he said he was shivering.

That's fantastic. Congrats Addison...