3seasons

I was able to surprise my 10yr old daughter with our first hunting road trip to SW Oklahoma. We met up with a friend of mine from Ft. Worth Friday night. Saturday morning we could hear and see birds strutting in the trees but all had hens. When they hit the ground the hens pitched down to them and off they went. We hunted until around 9am chasing different birds on different ends of the property. We finally got within 100yds of a group of 2 gobblers 2 jakes and 15 hens. We watched them do their thing for a few minutes then we backed out and made a move. My daughter and me eased up to a small mesquite tree and set up with her between my legs. My buddy hung back and started calling. A bird gobbled just out of eyesight and then there they were. Two birds one strutting and the other looking but they are 60yds out. The hens start to take them off away from us, so I eased my 4 track Madhatter pot call out and made a few strokes and the birds gobbled and gobbled. I sat it down and started cranking on them with my mouth call and my buddy started answering me back. Finally we broke a mad hen off of the group and she came to straighten us out. The Gobblers slightly followed. I ranged a small bush and it was 42yds , I told my daughter if they walk in front of that tree you’re going to get a shot. She started shaking so bad(don’t have a clue where she gets that from, lol) that I had to talk to her and calm her down. When the strutting bird walked in front of that bush(38yds) I told her to breathe and squeeze the trigger on the 20ga I had finished building her a couple days before. BANG!!! And I see a bird flopping and I take her gun and tell her to RUN go put your foot on him. As she’s running I see the other gobbler to the side and could have made the shot but I didn’t want to take any of the excitement away from her on her first bird. She makes about 3 steps and gets tripped up and gets up running. As she stands on his head with a huge smile on her face I hit the ground shaking and dry heaving(yes it gets to me). I finally got up and walked up to her and she was just all grins as we all high fived my buddy was telling her how great she did and how he was happy to be a part of the hunt. To say she’s hooked is an understatement. 4/23/16 8.5" beard 1 1\8" real nice spurs

Congrats Al

That's awesome huge congrats

Huge congrats Al this 2016 MS season has been a strange one. Some people are stacking them up like cord wood and others are grasping at straws just to hear one. I've got plenty of straws if anyone needs any. LOL .

Congrats on some great hunts. Good luck this weekend

Been working an outage at our plant for the last month now and the 13hr nights are starting to catch up with me. Been getting off in the morning in time to get a quick listen\hunt in before I have to crash for the day. Haven't heard a bird in the same county since season opened 5 days ago. I've also been hunting some private land with a friend that I know has had 10 birds gobbling up until season started. I just figured its gonna be one of those years, everyone else is laying them down and I cant hear one, just gonna keep grinding it out and sticking with them until they crank up. I arrived at my spot on some public land Monday 3\21 around 6:20am. to my surprise there was no one else in there, as there had been the day before. As day broke I hooted and to my surprise I heard 2 birds in opposite directions gobble. I make my decision based on the terrain and tree cover and head out. After I cross over 5 ridges I stop and hoot again this time sounding like an Owl going through puberty, I started laughing out loud it was so bad, but two owls light above me and start going crazy and this made the gobbler start gobbling more allowing me to move and pinpoint his location.By now its 7am and its good light and I'm thinking he's on the ground so I push a little farther hoping not to bump him. I slipped up to a tree on the end of a huge ridge that fell of into a large creek bottom. There are two finger ridges between me and the huge ridge he is on but I can't move any closer. I let the woods relax and I make a call with a call that I had gotten the day before, for my birthday, from my niece. I called and he answered and it sounded like he was still in the tree and it was now 7:15. I made a few more calls and saw a hen pitch out of a tree up the big ridge and flew to my far left out of site. I said "Ugh O" under my breath. I reach into my vest and pull out my 4 Track MadHatter pot made by Redbeard. I make a soft yelp put pur and he cuts it off. I wait a couple minutes and hit it one more time this time a little more aggressive and he cuts me off again, I just set the call down and got ready. At 7:26 I hear wind and wings and I catch a glimpse of a turkey flying straight to me, he flew over the big ridge a creek adn two finger ridges, when he lands he's 40yds from me at my 11oclock. He half struts and then breaks jumps a creek and runs up my barrel straight to me and stops at 26yds to look around for the hen he had heard. I settled my dot and squeezed the trigger on my 20ga. and he flips. My first bird of the 2016 season is down. I leaned my head back against the tree I was set up on and said a prayer to the Good Lord. I jumped up and walked down to my bird said another prayer and looked at him. He's got thick 9" beard and sharp 7\8"spurs. For a pressured public land bird I couldn't be happier..

Dang nice, hope to see some closer pics soon. good luck this season

Cool video, congrats. Those hens were close, its fun when they get in tight like that Well done.

congrats

Thats awesome congrats on a great roadtrip

Congrats Al great way to end it. Hope those eggs hatch out.

That’s a wrap for the 2015 Mississippi turkey season and it was one of the toughest I can remember. Little to no gobbling and birds just didn’t act interested at all, until today. This hunt actually started yesterday morning on my 6 th stop. I was just out looking at new spots for next year and happened to hear a bird as far off as I could hear. Once I figured out what direction to head I took off, after covering about 500yds I could tell he was on the next ridge and he was gobbling at a group of crows that were apparently driving him nuts. He was gobbling every 10-15seconds. I made a few call and I honestly don’t think he could hear me because of the crows. Well about the time the crows let up a dog basically bays him and that was the last I heard of him. I was sick but at least I knew there was a bird in the area. This morning I get to the ridge where the gobbler was at yesterday morning and wait for the woods to come alive. It was a perfect morning except I didn’t hear a single bird anywhere around. I sat till about 7:15 and still nothing. I got up and started my long walk back to my truck. About 100yds from my truck I stopped and looked up at the blue sky and asked if I could please at least hear a bird gobble once so I don’t get skunked on the last day of season. I no more got that out of my mouth and I hear a faint gobble. I couldn’t even tell what direction it was but my little prayer was answered. I smiled, said thanks and gave a big thumbs up to the Man in the sky and continued on to my truck. When I got to my truck the bird gobbled again and I could tell the direction this time which meant he was a little closer. He gobbles again and I decide I’ve got to give him a try so off I go. I cover about 500yds and stop and listen and I hear him again so I cover another 100yds or so and now I’m once again one ridge away. I set down and make a light call and he gobbles. I see a hen moving from right to left and I can now see him and another bird strutting on the top of the ridge about 175yds away. After about 30min of calling another hen starts my way and she’s bringing them with her strutting drumming and gobbling. They move out of view to my left about 125yds away but I can still hear drumming and I just wait and wait. And then to my right I see a head, it’s a satellite bird and he walks by me at about 35yds but I didn’t want to move because he was in a lot better positon to get away if I moved so I let him walk off to the right and my heart just sunk, I had missed my chance. Well he goes up on the ridge and gobbles at my calls and the other two birds come back into view strutting straight towards him and then you can hear them fighting. I said ok I can play that to so I pulled out my gobble tube and gobbled once and they gobbled but farther away. I called and gobbled and they gobbled but farther away, typical MS public land birds. I sat for a little while and then made a move, I moved up on the ridge where they had been strutting and fighting, the big pines merged with some big open hardwoods. I set up on a big oak tree and got ready, I hit them with my Madhatter 4track, my mouth call and my gobble tube I was like a one man band and was scratching leaves with my feet. I hear a bird gobble down a ridge to my left and then all of a sudden I don’t know what happened but I almost died. I either sucked down a bug or a huge chuck of pollen that was in the air. I start coughing and basically choking but I’m trying not to make any noise and finally I had to let it go. I hacked and dry heaved and had tears streaming down my face, all the while I would gobble every time I could. After I finally got whatever it was out and caught my breath and regained my composure I made another call and a bird gobbles to my left and to my right. The one to the right is closer so I move my gun and get ready. After a few minutes I can see a black spot in the distance , then two spots. It’s the two birds from earlier and they are coming my way. They are moving slightly from right to left and disappear in a small dip on the ridge about 60yds out so I know when they emerge out on the left side of the dip they will be well with my range. I fix my gun to the left of a big oak tree in an opening where the two birds should step out from. They gobble behind the big oak and I get locked into place, then I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I was so fixed on that spot and having my head down on my gun concentrating on my red dot I never saw the gobbler walk out to the right of the tree. He is now standing a mere 4 steps from me looking around, he’s got about a 10†beard, and I never blinked or moved my eyes. I just stayed fixed on my gun. Then the second bird emerges from the dip to the right of the big tree and he’s strutting. Now they are at my 2o’clock and my gun is pointing at 11o’clock so I go from heart beating excitement to controlled panic mode. I stayed calm never moved or blinked and decided when the strutting bird walked behind a small sapling at 10 steps I would attempt to make my move. I figured that if the other bird busted me the stutter would give me enough time to get on him. As he stepped behind the small tree I slowly and smoothly moved my gun over without either bird busting me. He takes a step then starts pecking the grass as he’s walking, of course now I’m a nervous wreck and I put my dot on his head and as I squeeze the trigger he starts to go back into strut and I shot his beard smooth off. At 11 steps my lil 20ga rocked him. There was a beam of sunlight hitting him through the trees and it was like you blew up a pillow. The wad bounced off of him, it was so awesome. The other bird lit in a tree about 30yds off and just looked around. Once he flew off I walked over to my bird and saw that I had shot a little low and that he had no spurs at all. Crazy thing though he had whipped the two other birds just hours before. I was able to find what was left of his beard and measured out 10†on the strands I found, I remember it being real thick too, before the shot lol. I knelt down beside him and said my prayer and thanked the Good Lord above for all of his blessings and for allowing me the opportunity to experience and enjoy His most awesome creation. It was a last day bird I will never forget.

Congrats. Cool video. Beautiful country up there

Talk about a spur of the moment trip. Reid and myself decided to make a trip to Kentucky for their opener about a week before season opened. Neither of us knew anything about the Blue Grass State so I started researching the opportunities the state had to offer and asked a few forum members for some insight and I got some valuable insight on some places to look and I thank you for your help. We made our decision to go on Thursday because the weather here in MS look bad and it looked like we would have at least one of good weather up there. We hit the road Friday morning and we found ourselves talking to guy from Indiana that was camping for the week. He told us he had been coming down hunting since the mid 80’s and that this was the worst year he had seen. He had been there for two days and had not heard a bird. This was not what we needed to hear since our season has been so tough here in MS this year. We were still optimistic and started scouting for ourselves and we didn't find anything so we decided to make a move and look in another place. We found some better sign and then on our last stop we saw another guy from Indiana parked. We stopped and talked with him and he told us he had just roosted one for the next morning. We were relived that at lease he had seen something and while talking to him we heard another bird gobble in the distance. After a few gobbles I finally asked where he would be going in the morning and if he would mind if we went after the other bird gobbling. He said its public land and I told him that’s true but we’re not going to impose on a place he had already scouted out and take a chance of messing him up. He thanked us and assured us that if we went after that bird it wouldn't mess him up. So we had a plan and a roosted bird. Saturday morning we arrived at 4:45 only to find we were the 6th truck on that small rd. Looked a lot like MS. Well no one was parked close to where we needed to be so we set out towards our roosted bird. About a quarter mile in we walked up on a huge bottom that was flooded from all the rain and of course there was no way around it. And at day light the bird we roosted was gobbling on the other side. We were trying to figure out how to get across when we had a guy walk up on us trying to get to the gobbling bird too. We whistled and motioned to him and he just stopped and stood there watching us. With no way around we beat feet back to the truck and drove around to a place where we could possibly cross to get to the birds. We started in the woods and made it about a hundred yards and we could hear the bird gobbling on the next ridge. While making our way towards him we heard another bird goggle close so we sat down, the close bird would up being a jake but we couldn't move because he was so close and we didn't want to bump him with the other bird so close. Reid got set up and I started calling using my Madhatter slate and after about 30min Reid eased up to see water everywhere in the bottom in front of us again. He was looking to see if there was a way around the water when he dropped down and said they are coming around the far end of the water and headed this way. I started calling again and in just a couple minutes I see a huge bird running right at us with his beard swinging back and forth. I thought oh my gosh what a beard and when he ran up to about 10 steps Reid rolled him while he was still running. We are checking out his bird and a guy walks up and said that was pretty cool I watched the whole thing, and could have shot him at 30yds when he was coming to yall. He said he had run into some guys on the other side of the water (we said that was us) so he came over here. He parked by my truck and walked in and set up on the gobbling bird and when he heard us calling he let him walk by after he said he watched him strut and breed a hen then took off towards us. We shook his hand a second time and told him that was unheard of on our part of the woods but thank you so much for letting him walk. I've never parked beside someone and walked in on them knowing they were in there. But that's part of hunting public land. We left that spot to look for me a bird and we found ourselves climbing a small mountain, may have been why no one was hunting there also. Once we crested the top it broke off into long slivers of old strip mining terrain and long ridges. We walked about a 1\2mile in and I hit my call and we heard a distant gobble. We took off in his direction cutting ridges as we went. We cut the distance in half and picked the cutout we thought he was on. I set up and Reid sat about 20yds behind me and started soft calling and scratching the leaves. Some time went by with him gobbling at his calls and slowly but surely he finally showed himself and of course he was on the next cut over. I watched him cautiously work his way closer and closer gobbling and strutting and looking. Needless to say I was a wreck when he finally made to the tree I had picked out to be my max yardage shot. He strutted into that opening and I waited for him to do his look around and when he was totally stretched out I squeezed my trigger on my lil™ 20ga. and to my relief I watched my gobbler flip over backwards. It was a great day for sure, the Good Lord blessed us with good weather and a couple great hunts.

Dang thats a toad. Congrats on a huge bird. Id hate to tote him out of the places I hunt, But i would with a huge smile on my face.

Heck of a bird Al huge congrats.

Whew it's been a tough but fun season. Between my dad and myself we've hunted this bird for 23 days this season alone. It's was looking like it was going to be one of those birds that you really should just forget and move on to another one but being hardheaded and determined I was either going to make or break my season on him. Being a public land bird he only gobbled 3-5 times and that's all you'd get, if you made a call to him it was game over. We've fought weather and people and not to mention the 45min hard walk to get to him. Well this morning I decided to try again so I was where I wanted to be an hour before first light. Well of coarse he wasn't anywhere close to where I was hoping he would be(he had 4 different roost spots). When he finally gobbled and I realized where he was I picked up and took off. I got kinda close to where I thought he was roosted and he gobbled again. So once I finally tiptoed to the right finger ridge I eased down to the tree I wanted and he gobbled for the 4th time. I relaxed looked around and made the slightest softest purr I could on my Madhatter 4track copper pot and then I set it down and used my wing to do a couple fly downs and scratched the leaves. It's got eerily quiet and finally after about 15 min passed and I see a hen coming towards me and I think I can hear drumming every now and then. She mills around and walks past me walking up the hollow to my left going up into so pines. 10 minutes passes and I can still hear drumming and then a crow caws over my head and he gobbles 75yds away and now I can see him strutting and walking my way. He struts up the hollow to my left and I have one good opening to shoot through. When he struts into it I yelp softly and he broke strut like nobodies business and that's all I needed. I let my little 20ga work. After a very gracious prayer to the Man upstairs for his awesome creation I looked at a bird that has had me humbled and kinda depressed the last few weeks. I couldn't be happier with this year's season. I've called in a few for friends and my dad and now I finally got this old bird. He's got a 10" beard and 1 1/16" spurs.

That's awesome. I know you're dad is on cloud 9. Congrats to all of you

Congrats Al I know the season has been tough so far. Hoping it will start to pick up soon. Heck of a bird.

Awesome cograts

Got to help a good friend of mine coax this old boss bird in. He whipped two other nice gobblers before we were able to close the deal. It took a while and a lot of calling but we finally got him to break off his hens and come charging in to us. I broke in my new Madhatter 4track, cant thank Redbeard enough. I was able to get most all of it on video too so it was pretty cool. 11.25"beard with 1 3\16" spurs Our birds are still all hen'ed up and aren't gobbling much at all. Hopefully the hens will start laying soon and things will heat up.

Depends on what part of the country you are in. Down here in MS Owl, crow, Woodhen(pileated woodpecker), and yes the one that will make you laugh outloud when someone does it, the old rooster crow. These all work well down here but out west in places we've hunted a crow or coyote call worked best and yes even the ol rooster would ligh them off. I just use natural voice but there are some good calls out there. When i was starting out i used a HS hoot floot was an easy reliable call. knight and hale makes a good owl call too. Crow calls- good old wood call sounds best, I have an old mallardtone I use for crows, its work for tukeys but i just use my voice. Primos makes a strong line of calls for all these aplications except for the rooster, havent seen anyone try to corner that market. lol Hope this helps

I was 2 weeks old when I took my first pic with a big gobbler and my dad(my mom wasn't very happy) There is just something about the spring woods and thunderous gobble of a mature bird. I learned my way around the woods, stepping of every leaf and stick I could find (or so my dad says anyway), following my dad's every step. I tried to mimic his calls, I tried to watch how he acted with every situation those old wary gobblers could throw at him. I learned a lot hunting over years with him. I also learned that it’s not about the kill. It’s about the experience in Gods great creation, and it’s about the fellowship with good friends. I took my first bird when I was 8 and have been hooked ever since. He always let me shoot first(unless I was asleep), and I've taken a many a bird sitting in front of him. Ove the years we started hunting apart but try our best to make a few together each year. Most of the time it turns out pretty good. We've doubled a few times and went to Texas a few years too. The last couple years he's had trouble hearing and pinpointing birds. And it really aggravates him. Its cost him a few birds over the last 2 years and this year I could tell he wasn’t even showing any interest. He's not hard of hearing by any means but whatever frequency their gobble is, that’s where he’s having trouble. He uses game ears now and they are helping. I asked him Friday night if he was going and he said “I doubt it, I haven’t even got my vest out." I told him to dig it out and where to go(same public land he's hunted hard the last 2 years), and he said he may. Needless to say he went and heard a bird finally and he was pumped, it hung up on a creek and never came within 90yds. Needless to say that put a little spark back in him. Monday he got on another bird and he hung up about 100yds out. I called him Monday morning and asked how he did and told him I'd try to help out with him Tuesday. Well this morning we got in the woods real early and made it to where the bird had hung up the morning before. It was still real dark when he gobbled about 70yds from us so we just hit the ground and set up in an old pine thicket. We heard him fly down and started drumming. We hit him with a few calls and he would gobble and drum. He wasn’t moving and then my heart sunk because I thought I could hear another hunter calling. I got a little louder with my calls and so did the other caller. Finally I realized it was a hen and she had gotten all railed up so I laid into her and she puffed her feathers up and came in on a string calling like crazy. Perfect set up but the old gobbler wouldn’t budge. Finally he started moving our way and when he got to about 80yds another bird come up the ridge out of nowhere right in our face. I said to myself please don’t be a jake and bust us, but when he hit about 20yds he hit an opening and I saw his beard swing, then I said to myself well that other bird will never make it here now and then BOOOOM the gobbler at 15yds rolls backwards. I was ecstatic that my dad had gotten a bird and one that I call into his lap. Well the ol bird flops around and then falls off the ridge we are on and it was straight down, seems to be like that with deer and turkeys. We shook hands, he prayed for all we are grateful for, measured him( 1 1\8â€spurs and 9.5â€beard) and then we made the long walk back to the truck reliving the hunt over and over. It was a great morning and one hunt I am proud to have been a part of. So glad I listened and soaked up all I could all those years hunting with him and now it’s even more fun calling for him. http://s465.photobucket.com/user/smmsstate/media/Mobile Uploads/6D0B3ED7-21D5-4CFB-9C35-675376B09725.jpg.html][/url] http://s465.photobucket.com/user/smmsstate/media/Mobile Uploads/6D118AB8-F093-461C-B2C6-F8FA241F1A8E.jpg.html][/url] http://s465.photobucket.com/user/smmsstate/media/Mobile Uploads/A804C574-B97C-4605-BAD4-E7592F2BD368.png.html][/url]

Ive got my fingers crossed, this year has potential but not counting any eggs yet.

If she’s a first time turkey hunter you want to think a lot about pattern size. You may want a little more open pattern for her because when she has a bird in front of her strutting and gobbling it can be a little(a lot) nerve racking. Either shells will work great in 5' or 6's. I always try to shoot as many different combos as i can to get what shoots best. I had a youth wanting to borrow my lil' 20 this past weekend for a youth hunt so I changed my choke out to the truglo ssx (it loves the federal heavy weights #7's) and patterned a Federal highbrass 2 3\4" #8 heavy dove load. At 30yds its was impressive, it was open enough for a young kid but dense enough with no holes in the pattern. Yes the 8's are small but for 25yds and closer I wouldn’t hesitate to let them drop the hammer. If she’s shot some before try the Fed heavyweights, I bought a case for $15 a box. And like Rhino stated the Nitros are high but wow do they perform. I shoot them in my 12ga. I personally shoot reloads in my 20ga Hope this helps and keep us updated, hopefully we will get to see a pic of her first bird.