Covehnter

Way to go dog! Glad to see you were able to wrap your fingers behind some hooks and throw one over your shoulder in Iowa. Congrats.

Good job on the brute! Congrats. Now let's get a pic up here with you peekin from behind the fan of a big ole 22 pounder. Good Luck.

If you didn't get any lead in him you have nothing to worry about, he is probably there gobbling his brains out right now. They have survival instincts that are unmatched but can't remember isolated instances like that by any means. Get out there and smoke him!

Unbelievable! You are so so fortunate to have had such an opportunity!! I can only dream. Congratulations on capitalizing on the once in a lifetime draw, what a gorgeous bird. And thank you for taking the time for some good pictures to honor such a beautiful bird.

Wow. That sounds like a bad stroke of luck there. Sorry to hear about that dog. On our trip I was stratchin my head the same way i bet you were until we finally got into the birds, the 3rd day- took 2 complete days to find birds. But once we found them, look out!! Wish things could have gone better for ya. Some of yall fellas that made SD this year need to shoot me a PM next year and lets get'em together. So could use a partner right now!

If there is one thing thats killed more gobblers than any other its persistance/determination! Keep after them, at least dont give them a chance to rest til the season is out. . . .make'em earn there right to survive the spring. Thats what I always tell myself when things arent going in my favor.

And sometimes it just works!! Congrats on the longbeard!!

Just in the nic of time huh?

All I need is for someone to accompany me (help w/ rental) or meet me there and i'd be on my way as soon as I could get a tag in the mailbox!! We could make it happen!!

The Ole Man on Public Land Ever now and then, you're rewarded for doing whats right; not often enough in my opinion but when it does happen it's sure sweet. For those of us who are frequent customers of public land realize that when you are approachin' this ball game you're playin' against two teams- the bird itself and if thats not enough you're dealing with the crowds. The scwalker who's yelps and cackles run together and are all dead rasp and no turkey. These are closely followed by the loud arse crow call blowin' posse- that definately aint a crow. You can "go deep" and "get away from the roads" but eventually when you start getting away from one road, you're always getting closer to another. Sure this MAY leave a few of them behind but lets face it, we've all read the same articles and some of those guys are just hard headed. Either way you slice the cake, you have got to learn to hunt the turkeys while being hunted my the crowd. Sunday morning I was settling into a pine ridge just before daylight. I'd had a close encounter here Friday morning and snuck in what i hoped would be tight if he chose the same roost this morning- he didnt. Soon after daylight once i realized I'd been stood up I moved out to a highline hill top where a bird was speakin' up on the other side. Upon arrival I noticed fresh boot tracks in the road and heard those scratchy sckwalkin' yelps of another customer. He was attempting to convince that bird to leave his hens from what i could hear. . . . yeah, good luck with that. Not wanting to interfere, despite my optimism for this fellas success, I moved on down the woods road in the opposite direction. A half mile later, i snuck out to the highline again just in time to hear what sounded like several birds sounding off a few hundred yards on the other side. I punched in a point on the gps so i'd find my way back out and wouldnt loose their location. Soon I was pushed into the trunk of a pine within 100 yards of the hardest gobbling bird and commenced to tell him how excited i was to hear his good morning story. He was equally excited. He was moving up the open pine hilltop to my location, just like the doctor ordered. Just when you think you've found one of those "easy" birds that actually cooperate I'm was startled by a member of the other posse- the crow caller. He obviously scared me more than the gobblers b/c he was met with silence. Just another quick vent: Why in the he!! was he blowing the call anyways?!?! The bird was gobblin' every 30 seconds!! Why would you need to make him gobble? Let him do it on his own!! Anyways. I turned toward the nitwit and rolled a few of my worst yelps off to make sure he understood this bird was accounted for. . . .that didnt matter. He just hopped over to the other side of the hill and snuck on in behind me and started his hen imitiation. This tripped my switch, tripped it quick. The bird was within 100 yards and closing but I didnt care. I stood up and walked over the pine hill- spooking what ended up being a gobbler with 2 hens that were approaching through a ravine. I wasnt going to have a gobbling turkey moving in between me and this so and so. It spelled trouble and I wanted to make sure this guy wasnt rewarded for his attempt at cutting me off. After making sure that the posse member knew his inconsiderate actions werent appreciated and the hunt was over on this hill, I moved on down toward a pair of birds that were chiming into the earlier conversation. I slipped into an open bottom close to where I anticipated the birds to be and got comfortable. My first announcement was met from just around the corner and the game was on again. The gobblin' pair closed quickly but stuck just outside of eyesight. This left me with my cheek down on the stock and my eyes scanning the bend for their approach. After accepting reality I figured out it wasnt going to be that easy yet again. My hen talk provoked gobbles from the longbeard but they had moved back up the bottom away from my hideout. Another gobble had me pickin' up and moving 30 yards closer, situating, and speaking up again. The move lit another spark with them and they moved in again, and again stopped just out of sight. Dadgum it!! A short time later, their gobbles faded back up the bottom and I repeated the procedure- closed in another 30-40 yards and got comfy. My seductive talk provoked gobbles again, this time from the retreating pair and two other birds from behind me that hadnt added to the conversation thus far. We conversed shortly but all that excitement grew cold. Ten minutes of silence from me is hard to come by but thats what i gave them. Hard cutts and choppy yelps shaved across the top of my diaphram and pulled a gobble from the once fading pair and it seemed like they were closing in again, this caused my heartbeat to escalate like always. I went soft with the boys and this couldnt grab a gobble but it did gather the coarse yelps of jakes in the bottom. I figured the pair of longbeards had company, I engaged the waiting game. A few minutes later I was still scanning the landscape for the outline of glimmering feathers in the open creek bottom, when I heard what I thought was rustling in the pine straw directly to my left- away from the bottom. I cut my eyes but saw nothing- chalked it up to an eager squirrel. When the straw rustling was accompanied by unmistakeable spit-vrrroooooommmm, I knew that was no squirrel. I cut my eyes as far to the left as I could and found what looked like a black 50 gallon drum moving through the open select cut pines. Slightly tweakin' my head I soon made out the other strutter. They had left the birds in the bottom and looped around to what they assumed was a girlfriend, this wasnt their first rodeo. The sun was glistening off their impressive postures but I was only able to enjoy this for a moment. The lead bird moved behind a pine tree and the rear bird I hoped would be shielded by some underbrush. I somehow prayed hard enough and drifted into position to seal the deal. I fixed on the rear bird and delivered some hard cutts, he lifted his head as ordered. I allowed the Hevi 13's to finish the stand off. He piled up without a wiggle and I wish someone would have had a shot of me when I laid eyes on his 1 3/8" stickers- totally unexpected! What a nice surprise. Wouldnt you love to know what this old man has seen and heard in his years of running these public land ridges avoiding the posse and searching for love. Sometimes doing whats right is rewarded- not moving in on a bird you know is being worked by another hunter and avoiding potentially dangerous situations. Knowing the unethical jerk had to hear my death blow also added a smig of satisfaction.

Beautiful bird, congrats.

The skies never seem more blue than in the Spring. I was able to get this picture of the clear skies on Sunday. :D A public land senior citizen. 11 1/4" beard, 1 3/8" matchin' spurs, and only 16lbs- these ridge runnin' mountain birds slim down alot after a long spring of breeding. I'll try to get the story up later tonight. It was a perfect example of hunting public land the right way.

:D Just a suggestion, I'm tryin' to get out there this year bad. But its about too late to wait on a tag now.

Okay, I will tell you what you need to do. Pick me up at the Rapid City airport and let's go fill a couple Black Hills tags on some full fanned white tips!

Ah yeah, he's almost tolerable now. Seed? naw we aint leavin' nothing for seed!! In all honesty, seen 11 jakes following 2 hens this afternoon on one of my farms that I havent even fired a shot on this year and the neighboring field had 3 jakes all alone. Next year should be loud if about half of those boys hang around.

Ah just the normal scrambled head this time, 43 yard pounding.

Poncho got things lined back up this morning. Crunched gobbler cranium at a few minutes til 7, he said it sure was nice to watch one crumble. Nice 2 year old and we got some pretty good video. Will have pics up when I get in from work, as of now I'm reporting from the road.

You better not have taken all my multi-beardedness with you!!! LoL Nice bird!!

The head smashin' video can been seen in the thread "Last Weekend's Georgia Double" if you missed it.

Unbelieveable. When I called him with the story yesterday he said, "thats makes my stomach turn." HaHa Glad you were able to track him down in time! Congrats on the sharp stickered Rio!!

Just an ole redneck that JB welds his sights to his gun rib and likes $600 boots. :D

Talk about sick, Poncho's still in the dumps about that shot, coupled with his next opportunity which came a few hours later and he still came up empty handed. He had a rough day. Got word from Shane yesterday that he whacked a toad of a double beard. Hopefully we'll see some pics soon, until then. . . . . I aint believin' it!! :D

Saturday's Summary: After havin' a longbeard pull the magic act of disappearing on us at first light, we were making a move toward a trio of hard gobblin' Rios. One lonely gobbler had obviously gobbled at enough of my loud calling without any action though, we caught him running toward us from about 800 yards away as we were making a move around a point in the field to close the distance. Poncho and Shane dumped to the bushes and i was stuck holdin' Scrappy 3 yards off the field edge laying on my stomach. With no where to go, i just put my head in the grass and covered my ears just as I heard the bird's footsteps, which was also just before Poncho sent a load of 6s about a foot in front of his face at 6 steps. Unbelieveable footage, gotta be the closest I've ever been to a longbeard- 4 feet maybe. Later we left Poncho to watch a roost til dark and Shane and I headed for another property that held lots of birds last year. My first series of calls found a hearty response from the adjoining field. Shane and I shifted into place as the gobbling pair raced to the calls after flyin' a creek. Ended up being a longbeard and a jake, so Shane got back to the video camera and captured me turning the lights out on another nice gobbler for the season. Beautiful blond tipped Oklahoma Rio!! I couldnt be more tickled!! I'll have better pics up later when I can get to the portable hard drive. These are from the brick of a digital camera I tote in my vest. 19lbs, 8 3/4" beard, 11/16" spurs

Here's the Rio, I'll make a post with these though.

I'm going to get the pics up tomorrow, cant wait to share!! I do love those gobblin' Rio longbeards!! And ole Poncho just had a rough day, real rough, really really rough. Anyone know of some editing software that I can upload in order to show that clip?