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Turkey #2 for 2012

May 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment

April 24th was going to be a good day. I had hunted this particular property twice and both times I’d heard a big Tom cutting loose from this one patch of timber at the southeast corner of the property. My good friend Brad had just shot his bird the day before and decided to come along, something we’ve done for the past several years now with great success and enjoyment. My 4yr old (aka my huntin buddy), was also coming along which always makes for a proud daddy!

We hiked down through a valley then up a huge hill (not an easy task with a kid on your shoulders) and set up in the “perfect” spot, where I KNEW the bird would be. Ha, if you’ve been turkey hunting long, you know where this is going! You guessed it, the birds were a good 200yrds away. They didn’t talk the greatest early on so we gave this spot some time thinking that the old bird just might not be talking. I can only handle listening to birds rip it up 200yrds away for so long without making a move on them so that’s exactly what we did.

Long story short, we circled a couple of different times and were making our last attempt when Brad happen to spot the tom over on the next hill in the pasture. Fortunately, the bird hadn’t saw us and we were able to slowly duck down out of sight and make for one last hurrah. We circled back around (from where we’d just come) and got over the crest of the hill from where we’d last saw the bird. Brad and the big man stayed back while I crawled up a fenceline to get closer to the crest of the hill. Many times a bird will crest a hill so the hen can see him, but will come no farther so it’s always a good idea to be able to shoot the crest of the hill.

Brad did a great job calling back behind me 50yrds or so and it wasn’t anytime before the bird let out a thunderous gobble and he was close! It was mere seconds before I saw that white and red head crest the hill and the bird was coming. I let him get into full view and in to about 35 yards before I let the hammer fall. The new BPS did the job as the bird went straight down! Suddenly all the walking we’d done that morning seemed justified as I stood over the beautiful bird. This was yet another great hunt that I won’t soon forget both for the turkey shot, but more importantly for the great time spent with a friend and my very best lil hunting buddy!

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Great Hunt with Dad

April 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

21.5 lbs - 10" Beard - 1" Spurs

Saturday April the 27th was a great day to be in the turkey woods. It started being pretty dead at the 1st property even though the weather was perfect. For whatever reason the birds there wouldn’t talk and I didn’t have much time this morning so we moved on. As we passed by a property I have permission to hunt I spotted a majestic Tom strutting his stuff! I drove past next woodline before I could pull in to park. Dad and I called a few times to get his location and decided our best course of action was to circle him.

We walked several hundred yards to be able to get around the bird and begin calling. He was stubborn. We got another bird fired up way in the distance but the tom we were after wouldn’t say a word. That is, until he got about 40 yrds away from us in the timber we were in! He then began to hammer away at the soft purrs emitting from my pot call. Dad and I were caught in the standing position, so dad just kept his gun at the ready waiting for the bird to come around some very thick underbrush the bird was behind.

All of a sudden I caught movement and watched as the tom ran out of the woods into a cut hayfield approx. 65 yards awway. A jake followed closely behind, but he stayed within approx 25yrds of us the entire time. The tom wasn’t about to come around the blind corner there in the woods, he was going to get out in the open away from any possible danger, out where the hen (me) could see him. As soon as I hit the call again the mature tom dropped the landing gear and began spitting, strutting and gobbling – it was beautiful!

This went on for several minutes as we watched the tom strut back and forth gobbling his head off while the jake was eyeballing us not 20 yrds away and was beginning to get suspicious! The jake began putting and purring and I imitated him, driving the poor tom crazy! The tom finally ventured in to about 50 yrds and it became apparent that that was as close as he was coming. I gave dad the green light and he did a great job of putting the hammer down and dropping the bird in his tracks!

This would be a great hunt with anyone but doing this with dad made this hunt all the more memorable. Thanks dad for another great memory!

I also killed my second bird this past Tuesday but have yet to have time to post pics and the story. I’ll be giving some more details on that hunt soon!

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First 2012 Tom Down

April 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Beautiful Bird

20 lbs - 1" spurs - 11" beard

Had an excellent hunt this morning down in SW Missouri! The birds were making up for the dead Monday in my area by gobbling their heads off! The first bird I went after flew off the roost landing about 150 yards out in the middle of a pasture. He was very content to gobble all morning, but he expected the hen to come to him – he wasn’t moving! I ended up leaving him and went to a neighboring property that I’d heard some gobbling coming from earlier in the morning.

After giving some sharp cutts I got the response I was looking for which was a thundering gobble. I snuck to the edge of a pasture and saw this strutter out at about 200 yards with a group of hens. I was able to craw and stick a couple decoys in the edge of the field and slip back into cover. The bird answered to any and all sounds my call made – he was hot! He began to slowly strut my way but started to hang up at about 100yrds. When this happens the best thing to do is to shut up and play hard to get which is exactly what I did. He began gobbling his head off wanting a response from me which I would not give. It didn’t take long before he gave in and began walking straight for me. He gobbled the whole way and began strutting at about 50yrds when he spotted the decoys. I gave a couple very soft purrs to which he spat and drummed all the harder!

The crazy bird ended up coming up tight to the timber in which I was hiding to go around a curious cow that wandered into the scene. The problem with that was that I was in a mess of brush that was taller than me (I was still standing) and I now wasn’t going to have a shot until he came around the brush which would put the bird at a mere 10 feet! Not a good scenario, but that’s what happens when you’re running a gunning. He did end up staying tight to the brush keeping me from having the 20 yard shot I was expecting. I shot the bird in full strut at 10 feet, the closest shot I’ve taken to date! It was pretty awesome being able to see the bird through the brush for those last 30 seconds just mere feet in front of me in full strut! I tell you what, you just can’t hardly beat spring turkey hunting!!

I’ll be posting a vid here in the next day or two that I shot just after I took the bird. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the shot on tape due to my quick set up on this bird. Good luck to the rest of you turkey hunters out there and feel free to share your stories as well along with pics – I’m always up for a good hunting story!

God Bless!

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Blood Pressure Rising

March 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If this doesn’t get your blood pumping I don’t know what will!! Did a little scouting with the kiddos the other morning on a few properties I hunt on and was pleasantly surprised.

We’ve got a week and a half before youth season and I’m chomping at the bit. What a great way to enjoy these beautiful spring days – get out there and get some pics – I’d love to see em!!

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Youth Hunters

March 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Mossberg Model 510 Mini - 20 ga

15 yrds - 2 3/4" shells - 8 1/2" min recoil load (Held 3" low cntr mass on top right target)

25 yrds - Held center mass

Cricket .22 cal

Tripod Coverted to Adjustable Brace

Over the last few years I have had the priviledge to take part in a local NWTF Chapter youth hunt. The chapter does a great job of working to get youth out into the woods and intense focus is put on selecting great land to up the percentage of success among the hunters. I have to say that I get just as much or more pleasure from watching a 13 year old bag his or her 1st Tom as I do smoking an ol long spur of my own.

While taking any youth is great, little compares to the joy that a hunting dad feels when his son or daughter begins to express interest in getting out into the woods hoping to bag a Tom. My daughter has expressed such interest this year and we are hard at work preparing for the youth hunt which is the last weekend in March for us in MO.

Let me just say to all you hunting dads out there that it’s never too early to engage your kids in the sport of hunting. My son has been going hunting with me since he was two years old and my daughter since she was 5. My son saw his first turkey kill from dad’s gun at age 2 and has seen countless ducks and geese fall from the sky over the past few years. Hunting is not something that is pushed on your kids, rather it is an activity that they do with dad and it MUST be made fun for them! I’ve saw many diehards like myself turn their youngster away from the sport simply because they didn’t have the foresight to let the kid have fun while hunting. Yes, they might spook a few deer/turkeys, but make sure they’re having a good time and pretty soon they figure it out and become amazing little hunting buddies!!

Back to the youth hunt with my daughter. We recently purchased her a Mossberg 510 mini in the 20ga. model. This is a sweet little gun and I’d highly recommend it for youth hunting. I did put some lead shot in the butt stock to help reduce recoil. I’m also only having her shoot reduced recoil 8 1/2 shot as this little gun is a bit light at 5lbs for a 20ga. We went out today as a family: son, daughter and lovely wife, to pattern the gun and well as have some fun shooting my son’s new .22 cal cricket. The pics attached to this post give a glimpse of the capabilities of the little mossberg. Keep in mind that this was 2 3/4″ reduced recoil 8 1/2 shot, but to be honest, this is all the recoil that most youth under 10 years old are going to want. The gun seems to pattern a bit high – on the pics shown I actually was holding closer to the base of the neck than center mass. Long story short on lethality for turkeys – 25yrds is pushing it with this gun/shell combo but very doable. 20yrds and in it is golden keeping in mind that it’s necessary to hold about 3 inches low from where you want the bulk of your shot to hit. FYI – the little cricket is a nail driver – great little starter gun – highly recommend!

Hope this info was helpful and do all us hunters a favor and find a youth to take hunting with you this youth season and keep our sport alive, but most importantly make some youngster’s dream come true!

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Great Turkey Vid/Hunt 2011

April 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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!

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Opening Day of Spring Turkey Season – VIDEO

April 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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!

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Season Opens With a Bang!

April 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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!

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Antler Plaque with a Twist

March 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment


Hello fellow outdoorsmen! I hate that I haven’t been able to get you more content lately, as for me that means that I’m not spending enough time out in the great outdoors! I thought I’d go ahead and show you my antler plaque I made for this last fall’s bowkill buck. This might interest a few of you anyway.

The wood plaque part was a cinch with my pattern and my router, but the skull covering was a different story! I tell you, the year before last it was really easy cutting the leather to cover the skull and it really turned out great. Evidently I was lucky, because this year it wasn’t so easy. For the life of me I couldn’t get the leather skull cover cut right to fit so I finally surrendered and tried something a bit creative. I used crayola air dry clay from hobby lobby and filled out the skull. I let that dry and then I hot glued rustic twine in a sort of wrap around the skull area. This went much easier and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the results!

Hopefully I’ll have some hunting/fishing stories and/or vid for you here real soon. If not before, you’ll definitely be seeing some footage from this spring as I’m going to try and ramp this site up a bit with the turkey season here in Missouri.

I’ll keep you posted.

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Talkin Turkey Video

April 16, 2009 by 1 Comment

Here is a small compilation of video clips.  Enjoy!

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