Great opening week to MO season

[Rhino]

Got back from my 1st trip to Missouri for the opening week. As some of you may know, hunters can only kill 1 of their 2 birds during the 1st week. Since my buddy's son and his friend (Blaine) were coming in Friday afternoon I was committed to stay & play guide for Blaine when they arrived.

Opening day was tough. Birds gobbled good on the roost but shut up when they hit the ground. Got on a bird gobbling ~10:00 (actually 2 traveling together) but when a hen cranked up with them at 11:15 I backed off to wait till Tuesday morning. I did have a cool experience that morning though. I had 2 bald eagles fly right over me and land in a tree close by. I managed to get this pic with my iPhone looking through my binocs.

Back to turkey hunting. Tuesday morning I wake up at 4:30 and it's raining...bummer. Around 6:15 the rain quit so I high tailed it to the woods. As I'm going in one of the birds I tried working late morning Monday is gobbling good. I get set up and start working him. Got him going back and forth on the wrong side of a creek but he wouldn't cross. Thanks to the rain, the water was way to deep for me to cross too. He finally gobbled his way south on the other side of the creek when another bird cranks up his gobble behind me answering my call. He's not far away at all either. Game on again! I answer him with a soft yelp then some light purring. Maybe a minute goes by when I start hearing drumming. The drumming gets louder and louder but with him behind me I can't move. Within another minute or so (seemed like forever) with him steady drumming he passes by my left side at ~15 yards. When he walks out to ~25 yards I drop the hammer on him at ~8:10 a.m. My 1st MO gobbler weighed 22 lbs., 14 oz., carries a 10 3/4" beard with both sours 1 1/4" long.

Saturday morning I'm back in the woods playing guide for Blaine. 1st we got a bit of a late start because the guide overslept...my bad! As we are heading toward where I wanted to start, a bird is gobbling his head off in the opposite direction. Way too hot to pass by. I whisper to Blaine we are switching plans. The bird is roosted on the side of a ridge close to a field that's ~600 yards long & ~100 yards wide at it's widest point. The bird is roosted near the middle area. We set up ~50 yards south of the N end while the bird continues gobbling. The bird I had planned to go after cranks up gobbling in the distance to the north now too. About 6:00 the target bird sails down toward the southern end of the field & cranks up gobbling again. I dish out some yelping and throw out a gobble of my own. He answers right back. I answer him with another gobble with him responding right back again. Then he moves to where we can see him at ~300 yards. From that point on I stuck with light hen yelping along with clucking & purring. He walks in on a string gobbling the whole way. Very cool show. At ~60 yards he pauses to strut for maybe 10 seconds before gobbling again & walking into my jake decoy that's just inside the 20 yard line. Suddenly a hen sails into the field on the opposite side. I quickly give Blaine the shoot signal and he sends puts his bird down flopping around on the ground. Blaine's 1st ever turkey hunt results in not just a trophy turkey hunting experience but a big gobbler too. His gobbler has an 11 3/4" beard along with spurs that are 1 5/16" and 1 1/4".

As for my buddy...well...although he hunted every morning since the opener except Saturday morning, he got close a few times but the birds got the better of him.

[colorado bob]

Al, a couple of nice gobblers there. Missed you in KS. I doubled on a couple of birds. Not as nice as yours but plenty good in my book. 1" spurs & 9" beards.

[Rhino]

Congrats on the KS birds Bob. Couldn't make KS this year. Tax season was way more complicated than usual for me.

[3seasons]

Congrats Al