Great morning with my son on his first hunt with his own gun and tag. First farm was silent, so we watched a deer graze through, and jumped in the truck to hit another spot that often holds birds, but hadn't been scouted yet this year. Silent on the way in again, I think they were cold and quiet this morning. Got the hen and jake deeks out, sat down and got 2 immediate gobblers responding from within 150 yards inside the hardwoods. Worked them in with some opening day rusty calling, and my son got schooled by these 2 longbeards at 12 yards - a valuable lesson on not moving when the birds can see you. Both birds went from gobbling and strutting, to deflated fast escape waddle while alarm putting. Harder than a video game!
They didn't go far, and the commotion pulled in a hen who joined my decoys, and my extended hen fight with her pulled them back to us, until she got wise, flew up into a tree, and scolded those toms out of shotgun range. We watched them retreat a second time, and lost them to their favorite strut zone in the field. Just when we thought it was over, out of nowhere behind us was a much louder, closer, deeper, longer single gobble. I turn to see how we can adjust, and two toms are working their way right to us. No time to get the young lad re-positioned, took the shot at the closest bird, about 8 yards, and got my first turkey with a 20ga.[IMG][/IMG]
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Not an old tom, but a fun start to the season and a beauty of a morning with my son, who is now hooked....
Rem 870 20 ga
Hornady Heavy Magnum 3" #5
Primos Jelly Head Turkey choke
GobbleStalker slate pot call & hat!
Beard - 9-5/16"
Spur - 3/4"
Score - 76.5625
Last edited by Lenny; April 25th, 2020 at 06:10 PM.
Reason: added pics
well it all worked out for me this morning! two birds gobbling on the roost just across the field from me. Once they flew down they went silent for what felt like forever until a hen started yelping in the field behind me with the gobblers in toe, some aggressive calling a a bit of luck got them turned around and running right into my setup.
6:30am
Rem 870 12 Ga
Winchester longbeard xr
10" beard
1-1/8 spurs
total of 95
Our Leaderboard after the first day, only 3 birds entered so far:
1 jw8 - 94
2 Lenny - 76.56
3 GW11 - 37.5
Just a reminder guys that I added a new rule this year. I am asking that all birds be entered the day they are taken (next day allowed if you ask nicely, except for the last day of course!). This allows me to update the leaderboard, and makes for a more interesting season as it develops, and an exciting finish. Don't wait till the last day to post the bird(s) you got in the second week.
Great morning yesterday for the opener...The boy and I both out at a likely spot well before first light....On cue our target starts gobbling, which starts up about 7-8 birds in the neighbourhood, never had them gobble so well on the opener...Talk about getting your blood rolling...So we're sitting waiting for any birds to enter the field...I begin hearing this boom, buzz....over and over again...I asked Wes if his headphones were working ok...they do sometimes short when the batteries are going....As I'm asking him, I look past him through some brush and I see a nice Tom all poofed up working his way to the decoys in front of us....I asked Wes if he could shoot and with the way he was sitting in the chair, he didn't think he could so he asked me to go ahead....Lined up old Mr. Tom and the season is christened with our first bird....
Meanwhile, the birds in the neighbourhood only took a breather right after the shot, but soon we back at it....Not wanting to miss out on any opportunity for Wes, I hustled out as well as a 50+ insurance guy could move, retrieved the bird and settled back into our spot....
Not 20 minutes go by and another Tom is coming in the exact same way to the decoys, we had moved Wes' chair so he was in a better position to shoot...I asked him if he was ready, he said yeah, and let the shot fly........trouble was the shot was high, he tried a second and a third, but Tom 2 just flew away.... I asked Wes what happened, he confessed his head wasn't on the stock and he only lined up the end red sight and not the rear green ones on the waddles and he shot over....Crap...But he took it like a Champ, didn't blame the gun, the shell, the weather or me, it was all on him....
We waited for things to settle down in the woods, the birds had gone quiet, we toted our gear to the Jeep and then went to check another spot and wouldn't you know, 4 hens and a Tom, try as we might, the Tom wouldn't leave the girls, one finally broke off and Mr. Tom left with her, the hens kept moving to us and finally went by Wes at 5 yards, I had moved back to try to call the Tom over....
He was happy with the fact he was able to have them get that close and he said he was checking for beards.....
We went back to the Jeep, a little bittersweet at the missed opportunity to double on an opener, but it means he gets to play another day and boy did Wes take a big step in his career as a hunter, and old Dad couldn't be prouder.....
Stats, 20.5 lbs, 8.5 inch beard, longest spurs 3/4 to 5/8 inch...I'll let Lenny call it.....took him with Remington 870 and Kent Diamond Turkey load...
Here we go...
Perfect turkey hunting morning today. No wind, no bugs...beautiful sunrise. I saw a nice tom on opening day walk by out of range and later checked out a little travel path that looked promising, so I set up there today. lots of birds gobbling in the distance at first light but nothing close. Saw a coyote cruising the field and shortly after a hen walked through clearly heading somewhere with a purpose. Things went quiet for a while and I was considering a move, when a lone gobble close behind sounded off. I turned to see a tom slowly picking his way along the field edge behind me. He spit and drummed so I made my move and got the gun up. When he stopped and periscoped to see where the noise was coming from, I bowled him over at about 15 yds.
21 lbs even. Clean head shot.
Longest strand was at 9 1/2"
Longest spur came in at 1"
My new pup Eisen got to meet his first turkey (that out weighed him by three lbs)
Beretta Extrema 1 with a Pure Gold turkey choke and HiViz "TriViz" sights
Winchester "double X" 3.5" shells on #5
Homemade boxcall and Primos mouthcall
Score TBD
OOD 2020 BIG GOBBLER FUN CONTEST - Leaderboard - Post Scores & Pics here
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