Turkey Season ReCAP

Turkey season is all but over for me. I am hunting tomorrow morning with my dad, and that is it. I didn't hunt nearly as much as usual. Killed the 2 good birds in FL, then went to TX and only got 1 longbeard. It was really tough hunting with little gobbling and a million jakes. It will be great down there next year. I talked to 20+ people who hunted TX, and everyone had a rough hunt. That bird down there is the first gobbler I have ever killed that I didn't get a photo of. I shot him at 7PM and didn't have my camera with me. It was dark when we got back to camp and we went on and cleaned him.

On the KY opener, I went with my buddy Lee Britt about 30 minutes from home. We had a great hunt from the roost, and an hour and 15 minutes after fly down, this nice 2 year-old came all the way into the dekes. I smoked him with the TC.

We got great footage for Outdoor America, and it was a super way to start the KY season. Thanks to Lee for taking me!

A couple days later, I drove to West KY to hunt at TC's Game Trails. Buddies, Neil Sanders, Gregg Ritz, and Alex Rutledge were in camp, and it was a blast. Jason Kidd a friend from KY was guiding there, and he had located some birds for me. We set up the next morning, and 4 toms and a gaggle of hens flew into the field. It took an hour and a half, but two of the longbeards finally came 250 yards across the field and committed. They beat Bmobile to death. One bred my new DSD decoy, went back and kicked Bmobile again, and then went back and bred the DSD again. We had incredible footage, and I shot him right off the deke's back the second time around. Again, he was a nice 2 year-old.

Everyone had a great hunt at Game Trails as you can see from this group photo. The best bird had 5 beards!

The most special hunt of my career was next. On April 26, it was supposed to storm and be nasty. I hadn't been able to take either of my boys all season, and Drew and I decided to go for a couple of hours. My buddy Steve Hartley had a food plot where they had been seeing 4 jakes regularly, and after 2 unsuccesful seasons trying to get the boys a bird, we would have been very happy with a jake.

We got in the blind before daylight and it hadn't rained yet. We expected no gobbling and hoped to get the jakes into the field in the rain. Drew had a baseball game in the afternoon, so we couldn't hunt long.

Long story short - 3 birds gobbled near us at dawn. The 2 close ones worked away, and the farthest one moved in. Soon he gobbled 100 yards out, then after a little light calling, he was at 60 but over a rise. Then I saw his head, and he strutted off and on into range. I told Drew I would call and get his head up and to shoot when it was up. I called, he shot, and Drew had his first gobbler!!!

It was a 20 pound 2 year-old, and neither of us could have been more excited. He made a great shot, and an hour after fly down with lots of gobbling and strutting, our 3 season quest was over. We said a prayer of thanks to the Good Lord, and took the bird home to surprise mom and WIll. I will never forget those hours that morning. They were some of the most precious of my life.

Hopefully we can get dad on a bird tomorrow. I am off to AB for black bears with a bow on Thursday (May 1). SO I will post again around the 10th.

TH