Like to Hunt - Like to Fish - Like to Draw
22lbs - 10" Beard - 1" Spurs
What an awesome hunt! This footage pretty well says it all. Brad had an unusual amount of patience, I thought I was going to have to throw my camera at it!! Believe it or not, I have well over 10minutes of footage of this bird right there at 15 yrds!
Nice shot Brad – very fun hunt!
18 lbs - 11" beard - 1" spurs
11" beard - the highlight of this lightweight!
I’m two for two this year, meaning that my season has went way too fast! That’s not to say that it dislike having two successful hunts, it’s just that this is something I look forward to all year and to have it over in two days of hunting is maybe a bit too fast. My solace is in the fact that I do have some friends who still have birds to kill and I really have just as much fun going along with them as I do shooting the bird myself. Hopefully I’ll be able to get you some more good footage now as I can focus on videoing and not trying to operate both the camera and the gun!
This hunt was a quick one. I had saw 4 toms and some hens out in a pasture I have permission to hunt. It was late Monday afternoon and I was hoping they wouldn’t go too far. I swung back by the property late Monday evening and was happy to see a few of the birds close to the timber getting ready to go up to roost.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to decide where I needed to set up the next morning. I was there bright and early and I set up about 50 yards from where I had saw them the evening before. I sat up against an old rock fence that has been there no telling how long and set the decoys out about twenty yards in front of me. I had next to nothing for cover so I decided pretty quickly that videoing this hunt was going to be next to impossible. It wasn’t long before I heard a thundering gobble not 80 yards away, right up against the edge of the pasture!
I gave very few tree yelps and clucks, all of which were promptly responded to with that precious sound that all us turkey hunters live to hear. He gobbled his head off for roughly ten minutes and then all was quiet. I knew what that meant and I got my gun up and was ready. It wasn’t but a few minutes before he sailed out and lit not 50yrds from me and started for the decoys. Three hens sailed out and landed directly with the decoys and he was in. He was about 7yards to the right of my decoys and about 23yrds from me when he started to go into strut. I would’ve enjoyed the show a bit but I was pretty much in the open so decided I better not take a chance. He stuck his neck out (literally) and I touched the trigger. It was over and it was only 6:30am!
It was a fun hunt even though the hunt was short. I got to hear a lot of gobbling which was a bit surprising as it was a misty nasty morning. Evidently this bird had strutted a few pounds off as he weighed in at a mere 18.5lbs, but his 1″ spurs and 11″ beard weren’t bad at all.
It’s been a great year so far and I’m looking forward to joining some friends and making the most of the spring turkey season here in Missouri! Best of luck to you as well – would love to hear your stories along with pics!
23 lbs - 2 Beards 10" & 3" - 1 1/8" Spurs
Brad put the sneak on a great bird this last Wednesday (20th) here in southwest MO. It was the first day brad was able to get out for himself and he didn’t mess around. He had some birds talking to him early, but that hunt was interrupted by a lazy hunter who decided to drive his pickup truck onto the same hunting ground much too late in the morning.
This bird was talking all morning long so Brad decided to let the other hunter keep scratching away by his first set, and set out to fill his tag in a different direction. The bird was strutting and gobbling but not too interested in working so Brad did some sneaking and was rewarded with a great shot on a great bird.
Congrats Brad!
22lbs - 9.5" beard - 1" spurs
This video pretty much speaks for itself. Bryan, Ryan, and Tim did a great job in getting this hunt to come together. It’s never an easy task to get good footage while turkey hunting and I think they did a great job. Congrats guys!
23lbs - 10.5" Beard - 1 1/8" Spurs
Absolutely Beautiful
April 18th marked the opening day of spring turkey season here in Missouri. For me this is long anticipated so I was a bit perturbed when I woke up at 6am and realized that although I had set my alarm for 5am, I had failed to turn it on!! So now the rush is on. I threw on my clothes, grabbed all my gear and was pulling out of the drive at 6:07 (not bad huh;-). I live just a few minutes from my hunting ground so it was about 6:13 when I rolled by my first choice only to see two other trucks parked on the land. Not a great sign, but as I was driving past a mature Tom ran across the road not 15yrds in front of my jeep. I took that as a sign and quickly parked in the farmers driveway and set up opposite of the other hunters.
It wasn’t long before there were 3 gobbling answering my calling, but that only lasted for about 5min before one of the other hunters cut him off and shot him about 150 yrds from my position. Two gobbles was the only response from the shot, so I stayed put. It wasn’t long before they were closing in their heads bright red in the early morning light. It wasn’t until they reached about 30 yrds that I realized that their beards were a mere 5 inches long. They could gobble and strut just like the big boys, but these were definitely jakes. That’s when I caught movement to my right and there ended up being 10 more jakes come in to about 25 yrds to my right – they had me surrounded! After seeing them gobble I realized that these were the ones that had been talking so I waited til they moved on and I got back to the jeep and headed to another property.
I had just driven through a gate and had crested a hill going to park when I saw this bird in full strut about 300 yrds away across a brushy ditch with a hen. I slammed on the brakes, backed up, and the hunt was on! I just knew I’d have to sneak my way down to that ditch as I didn’t think he’d cross it with that hen over there with him. I got in the brush and quickly closed in the distance to 150 yrds and that’s when I decided to give a few yelps to locate him. His response about blew my socks off! He was across the ditch and it sounded as if he wasn’t more that 70 yrds away! I quickly scrambled through the brush up to the barbed wire fence that separated the brush from the pasture. I gave a few clucks with my mouth call to let him know that all that crashing really was a hen and not a desperate hunter trying to get into position! He gobbled and that’s when I saw him running towards me. The only problem was that my gun was still in my right hand butt to the ground and my camera tripod was still in my left. He blew up into a strut not 15 yrds away from me and began spitting and drumming – beautiful!! I very slowly released my tripod but my gun was still sticking straight up. He closed in to 10 yrds and I decided that I was going to have to resort to the fast draw and that’s what I did.
The gun leapt to my shoulder as twigs snapped from my commotion, he was in full strut so the commotion did startle him but only enough to bring him to half strut and take a few steps. My finger touched the trigger and it was over, there he lay, 12yrds in front of me! What a hunt! To be honest, it happened so fast that there was a touch of disappointment in my heart as I realized that it my month long anticipation had ended in a mere 10 minute hunt! That was soon dissipated as I put my hands on the bird and realized that I’d have friends to tag along with and there was always the next week when we could do this all over again.
It was an awesome morning and once again I’m thankful to God for the opportunity to interact with the amazing animals He created. Great times!
Can’t believe it’s finally here! I tell you, there’s not much that gets me going more than spring turkey season! Here in Missouri the season starts April 18th and runs through May 8th. I’ve taken my kiddos out a couple of times and have had an awesome time videoing and spending quality time.
This season we’re going to do our best to get you some top notch video of some hunts both in north and south Missouri. Enjoy the above video of some great footage from the past and some footage from just this past week.
Stay Tuned!