Rhino

Heading to my best friends new house tomorrow morning for the weekend. House warming party there tomorrow night.

Wednesday was, to say the least, a very memorable turkey hunt going for the last of my 3 gobbler limit in MS. I didn't get on a cooperative gobbler that morning but a friend of mine bagged his 1st bird of the season. That afternoon me, my buddy Skip, and Paul (killed the bird that morning) decided we'd all go set up in a place near where Paul killed his bird that morning. With a lot of pig sign there from falling water in the Big Black River that had flooded this 70 ac. field, they were looking for an opportunity to cut into the pig problem while I turkey hunted. I set up my DSD decoys and we set out our portable turkey blinds with 3 turkey hunting chairs. After about an hour Paul says "is that a turkey on the other side of the creek". There's another 12 ac. field across a still flooded creek ~400 yards N of the 70 ac. field we're we set up. I glass...yep...2 mature gobblers. Paul and I start calling and to our surprise both birds fly across the creek and slowly start working toward us. In business. As they are working toward our front left side they are suddenly spooked by something SW of us where we can't see. They hit the air and touch down somewhere inside the timber ~80 yards from us. I whisper to Paul & Skip...they didn't spook from us so good chance they'll be back. About 20 minutes passes when they ease out at ~80 yards. Paul and I crank up clucking and purring. Both birds start slowly coming in. When they get to what I that was about 35 yards but behind some thin dead weeds growing though a disk in front of us (you can see it in the pic) I felt like I had a good open shot in a thin spot though the higher part of the dead weeds. It ended up being 43 steps. I roll the thicker bearded gobbler over there. He gets up and hits the air. I knock him back down with my 2nd shot. His partner hits the ground with him and breaks into a strut with my wounded bird that gets back to his feet. When a clear 3rd shot is offered my gun misfires...panic mode now...I reload and it doesn't fire again. Now I slam a new shell in as both birds head toward the timber. The unharmed bird leaves 1st. My wounded bird is slower since he's real sick. When I have a clear shot I knock him down again flopping just inside the timber. Paul and I do a high 5 and then we go over to recover him. Now...what happens next is going to sound unbelievable but I promise it's true and fortunately I have 2 witnesses. When we get to where the bird was flopping inside the wood line, he's not there. This is at the base of an extremely steep ridge. I start climbing the ridge slowly looking for my bird. Suddenly, there he is about 10 yards above me...standing up. I freeze and point. Paul says you found him. I respond...he's still on his feet. Paul...WHAT!!! I point to the bird and Paul eases to his right below me to where he sees my bird. Now...I made the mistake of leaving my shotgun in the blind, convinced my bird is dead. Wrong thing to do. My gobbler has his head up and turns to his left and I can tell he's left eye has been knocked out. Yep blinded on his left side. I opted to do what is probably a bad decision (hindsight) but in the excitement of the moment I figure I can get him right there. I ease up 1 step at a time. With each step the bird turns his blind eye toward me and I freeze after each step until he turns his head away. I finally get within a yard of him...one step at a time. This ridge is so steep he's at eye level now when I'm that close. Now...I know my only chance is to grab both legs of this standing up bird at the same time or he's going to tear me up with the spur on his free leg. I lean forward and quickly snatch hold of both of his legs. Now the bird starts beating me with his wings. Paul's hollering...stomp on his head. I'm trying to but every time I do I start slipping down the side of the ridge off of him. This goes on through several attempts until Paul gets up to me to stomp on his head for me. Paul looks at me and says...if you had told me that story I would have said there's no way that happened but I saw it with my own eyes. Then he said someday I'll be telling my grandkids about this and they're going to look me in the eye and just say...come on pop! My 3rd MS gobbler has a 9 5/8" thick beard and 1" spurs...along with a flattened out head.

Shaun...the 1st one is always a milestone and the hardest one for most of us to kill...unless you're lucky. I turkey hunted for 4 seasons before I killed my 1st bird. Back in those days there weren't as many birds here as there is now but they weren't hunted much by too many people either. Now turkey hunting is WAYYYYYY more popular.

Here in Mississippi I buy a sportsman's license. I won't break it all down but I include the state duck stamp, freshwater and saltwater fishing, and all big game hunting in my license. That cost me in MS is a little over $78 each year. Now in Missouri, we get hosed pretty good. I buy a gun season deer license (includes 1 any deer tag) and an archery season deer license (includes 2 any deer tags and 2 turkey tags) each year...total cost for those is $450. Then add in a couple of doe tags at $25 each and it's an even $500 each deer season. Then comes spring turkey season...another $225 for that and we get 2 turkey tags. That's just the license part. I won't even go into how much I spend going back and forth to Missouri along with the expense of all the things we have to do to maintain our property.

My heart beat gets faster, along with the hair standing up on the back of my head when they start gobbling close, especially when they are so close it seems like it vibrates across the ground. By the time they show up I'm usually a little more composed...usually...but still excited. That's just part of turkey hunting.

The birds were henned up real bad during my last 2 day hunt. With the forecast calling for 2 clear sunny days I took off again in quest of my milestone gobbler. By that I mean my next gobbler would be my 100th gobbler. Yep...been turkey hunting a lot of years and in a number of different states since I started turkey hunting in my 20's. I'm now 64. OK...on to the hunt. Friday morning I woke up to an unexpected overcast sky and somewhat balmy air. The weatherman was wrong again. I hit the woods and started close to where I'd heard a bird on my last outing. When gobbling time arrived I heard nothing on our property. I heard 2 distant birds to the N and NE on the neighbors that gobbled only a few times. At flydown time I issued my 1st call. Within a few minutes a hen eases in from behind me...then I hear another hen behind me. Heck...I'm in birds so I sat tight but that was the extent of the action. At 9:00 I opted to head to camp and take a break until the clouds cleared and the hens had a chance to leave the gobblers. Thankfully by 11:00 it was clear and sunny so I headed out for a midday hunt. Easing into the same area where I'd killed my opening day bird I'd issue a call every 200 yards or so...never got a response. When I reached the same place where I killed my opening day bird near the SE corner of our property I decided to set up and sit for an hour of so. I issued my 1st call there and a gobbler to the E immediately cut me off that sounded like he was about 150 yards away. Game on! Being that time of day I didn't want to call too much so I tried to space my louder calls out with clucks and purrs between them. Every loud call I made was answered with a gobble. It sounded like he was moving away until I realized there's 2 gobblers that way. About 30 minutes into the action, I dish out a yelp and don't get an answer. Hummm...well I figured he's either coming or he now has hens with him. From that point on I delivered nothing but soft clucks and purrs. About 10 minutes passes and he suddenly appears to my right...in full strut slowly easing in through open timber. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the few moments watching one like that even though he was easily in my kill range. I let him slowly strut about 15 yards enjoying the show before putting my holosight on him. At ~20 yards he raised his head slightly and I dropped him there at 12:15 in the afternoon. My milestone gobbler has a 9" pencil beard and 1" spurs. It was also one of those classic midday hunts when...if you find a bird that will gobble at your calls that time of day, you have a good chance to work him in. The hardest part is finding a gobbling bird during the midday hours. Sorry...thought I had a pic in my iPhone but I can't find it.

Good luck on your road hunts Tim. Hope you bag a limit in both states. Looking forward to seeing some Merriam pics and reading about your hunts.

Started my weekend Friday turkey hunting. Had a great day killing a bird at 12:15. I'll have to post the story in the turkey forum when I upload pics. Scouted a different area at dawn this morning then came home for the rest of the Easter weekend. Nothing else special planned.

Thank you William for taking care of the contest again this year.

Best story...Frank (fly). Also a lesson to learn there too...take enough water.

Best field pic...Marty (pointing_dogs_rule). I'll go back and read the stories.

Congratulations Scott...I've had a few of those ghost like, devil birds come my way before. Birds like that are hard to kill.

Congratulations again William...yep that buck on the wall now will always be a reminder of the memories you had pursuing him. BTW...I agree with Frank. The buck has more of a roman nose than the form your taxidermist used. Next time you go to your taxidermist, have him show you the forms he can order for your mount from his book. Sometimes it's best to look at the form yourself and then decide.

Congratulations Scott...sounds like that terrain is tough to hunt.

Rain here again so staying indoors. I picked up my son's 2 shoulder mounts Friday afternoon (Kudu and Gemsbok) from out 2016 Africa hunt. I'm driving to Memphis, TN this afternoon to deliver them to him. Returning home Monday morning. Since the weather looks favorable for turkey hunting Wednesday & Thursday, I'll go for my 2nd MS gobbler. Killed my 1st one on opening day this past Thursday (turkey tale in turkey hunting forum).

2 yr. old MS gobblers typically weigh somewhere around 16.5 to 17 lbs. Light weights compared to Midwestern birds. The MS state record weight is only 25.25 lbs.

With the Mississippi season opening yesterday, I went down to try to roost a bird the afternoon before the opener. For the 1st time in over 30 years I hadn't had favorable weather to do any preseason listing for gobbling birds. I went to the area where I called in some birds for my son last year. Heard some hens sound off and a bird gobble twice at them maybe 200 yards away. The next morning before dawn I was there setting up the DSD decoys when an owl cranked up. The bird gobbled twice at him and it was still real dark. As dawn broke I hear him crank up his gobbling real good (SE of me). 3 more birds gobble to my west that sound weak (assume they are jakes) and a bird gobbles behind me loud that's real close (N of me). The bird to the N only gobbled once on the roost. The bird to the SE was real hot with his gobbling. When they hit the ground I began calling. The SE bird answered almost all my calls but that's also where I heard the hens. Could be a problem. The bird to the N circled around my eastern side out of sight heading toward the SE bird and the hens. He quit gobbling when he got over there. Suddenly, I see 2 birds to the SW coming in...2 jakes. They proceed to the decoys beating up on the jake decoy and spinning him around. Then the bigger jake jumps on top of my submissive hen decoy. Apparently the gobbler that had been answering me to the SE and stayed out of my sight could see the jakes because he came running in all puffed up. Very cool! He runs the 2 jakes around in circles around my jake and submissive hen decoy. Finally I get a clear shot and drop him. Now with him flopping around, the jakes gang up and beat on him for a while. I had to watch that show. My 1st bird of the season has am 8 5/8" beard and 3/4" spurs.

Congratulations to you and your daughter on a great Osceola bird and her slam.

Congratulations Scott!

Well...we haven't had a turkey contest in several years now. Our season opens next Thursday so if the weather is OK, I'll be in the woods after them here in MS.

Can't say yet William. It's been raining every weekend since the end of January, except for this past weekend when I was in Memphis, TN visiting my son & daughter-in-law. My cams are still out in MS but it doesn't look like I'll get a dry day to check them until turkey season opens next Thursday (3/15). I still have a few cams out in MO too but I haven't been there since a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

It's going to be another rainy weekend here so I'll be indoors. Spring turkey season opens next Thursday so I hope it's a clear, cool, and calm day for the opener. Long range forecast looks good for the opener but it's supposed to rain the weekend after the opener.

I'm like Strut...no vest at all. I have a small fanny pack for a few items and water. Other than that, my old Ol Tom turkey hunting outfits have more than enough pockets for what I need. If I were to get a turkey vest, it would be an Ol Tom vest.

Season opens in 7 days (3/15). As usual, there's rain in the forecast for this weekend...again so I won't be listening for gobbling action. Long range shows rain in the forecast for opening weekend too but clear & cool for the opener next Thursday.

Congratulations to you and the whole team. It took all of us to do it.