Well my daughter and I went turkey hunting this morning. We had planned on getting up this morning at 5:00 am however, we slept in , went for breakfast and ran a couple of errands with Mom. After completing the errands we got ready for the hunt and went to a nearby farm that I have permission to hunt. We got into place about 10:55 am. I called for a while and didn't hear anything so we decided to move. While we were moving back to the truck we would occasionally stop to call some. Well about halfway back to the truck a bird started gobbling real hard. We got setup and I started calling. This bird was HOT!! I got him across an open field and a creek before he got close enough to shoot. She shot him at 29 yards and the time was 11:55 am. This is her first turkey she has ever harvested. This bird put on a show before his demise. He really gobbled his head off and strutted most of the way to his resting place. This was good for her for several reasons one being it was her first and two it makes up for the huge long beard she missed last year.
She was using her Remington 11-87 Sportsman Youth Compact 20 gauge with Winchester Supreme #5 Turkey loads with a Primos Jelly Head Choke.
10" beard
1 1/4" spurs
19 lbs
Well I started my opening day on a farm I had never turkey hunted. I rode in the day before, scouted a little and decided where I would give it a try on Saturday morning. Got out to the farm a little before light and walked in to my starting point. As the sun came up the air filled with gobbling everywhere. I picked another spot ahead of me and planted my rear under a large pine. I got situated and started lightly yelping on my Cody slate call which the gobblers quickly answered. I noticed two gobblers moving quietly off to my left and then noticed a hen moving very fast to them. These two never gobbled after hitting the ground. A few minutes later a bird thundered off to my right just over a knoll. I pointed my SG in his direction and waited. What seemed like ten minutes he finally showed himself at 35 yards and the Benelli Super Black Eagle thundered at about 7:00 am. The best part about it was that it was still early enough for a morning biscuit run.
He had a 10" beard, one spur was an inch with the other broken even at the leg and he weighed in at 22 lbs.
Long story short is I didn't have a lot of time that morning to hunt because I needed to visit a distant relative in the hospital, so I started out before sunrise in what I thought would be a great spot. After setting up the decoys I set back for about an hour or so and did some light calling. I never heard a gobble. I decided to head back to the truck and get ready to head to the hospital so I collected my decoys and started the mile walk. About half way back I heard a distant gobble so I stashed my decoy bag and headed his way. Not knowing the terrain that well I ended up having to move on this bird several times before I felt comfortable with the setup. When I finally got settled I could barely see him above me in a broom straw field strutting and gobbling. Every time a crow flew over he gobbled and he also gobbled at a few geese.I started working him with some mouth calling along with my old faithful Cody II slate and he gobbled back with every note I sent his way. I ended up working him for about twenty minutes before I got him where I felt comfortable taking a shot. When the hammer dropped he was on the edge of the field near the wood line while I was about 28 yards in the woods. This was only the second time I hunted this farm and the first time I have harvested a bird from it.
10" Beard
1" spurs
21 lbs
keep it up
