Got a good bird this morning in Mississippi. Will be shifting my focus to the bow in Oklahoma in mid April Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
a little more than 8.5 inches. Definitely an older bird. I'm super happy with it. There's a big back story to the weekend that I'll type up tomorrow and post
Well, fellas, Florida was a bust. Just a bunch of stuff working against me; didn't even see a bird. Oh well, my season opens Saturday, fingers crossed.
**full story** It’s hard to quantify how much game meat costs. Between the money spent on leases, equipment, fuel, etc., it adds up quickly. However, once you’re out there in the woods, it is all a sunk cost and money spent is the furthest thing from your mind when you have a gobbler on roost answering every owl and goose that makes a noise. This weekend that kind of changed. Not to delve too far away from the story, Saturday morning I fired my shotgun (not at a turkey) and it broke. The bolt flew back and it cracked the cast receiver. I didn't want to let this get me down, I decided to grab my bow and head back into the woods. I make a yelp around 1:00 and I don’t get a gobble, but I get a yelp back. Thinking this could work out in my favor, I find a tree I can hide behind and set up. I cut back at her. She yelps. She yelps again, and angrier. Then comes the gobble! Not 10 seconds later she pops into view and right behind her is a beautiful strutting tom hot on her tail. They’re 50 yards away and looking. Me and her go back and forth. I’m hoping to lure them within 20 yards when ideally I’d be able to draw and get a shot off (which I realize then is going to be highly unlikely). The closest they come is 40ish yards. They make their way out and I make my way to the camp. The encounter was thrilling but super frustrating. With a shotgun, that hunt ends with a flopping long beard. Back at the camp I’m kind of sulking trying to decide what to do. Make a blind and sit on a road all evening or just cut my losses. Between Friday and Saturday at 2:00, I had seen 12 or so turkeys. 1 gobbler hung up at 200 yards on Friday and then a “catch and release” gobbler hours earlier. Thinking back on that was all the motivation I needed. I hopped in the truck and pointed it north for Bass Pro Shops in Jackson. I saw online that they had the Winchester SXP Turkey shotgun on sale for $350 ($375 at the store…) already set up with front and back glow sights, an XF choke, and a 24” barrel. $400 later I am walking out the door with a brand new shotgun and some turkey head paper targets. An hour later I was back at the camp making sure the sights were lined up and the pattern was hitting where it needed to be. Alarm goes off at 4:15. Pot of Community Coffee is ready for 4:25. Dressed and out the camp door for 5:45. I head to the same block of woods I had the encounter with the turkey and my bow. Snuck in and sat in silence and mosquitos for 20 minutes until I hear the first faint gobble. He was much farther away than I had hoped. I stayed and listened for any closer birds. Daylight had come and nothing closer made any noise, so around 6:40 I took off in the far off bird’s direction. As I get closer I am hearing multiple birds gobbling and I set up what I believe is about 200 yards from two birds in different directions. I make a soft tree yelp and no response. An owl moves in and he’s making tons of noise. The bird behind me is answering each hoot. Impatience sets in and I take off. I’m walking 20 yards, stopping, listening, and making a move. I get to where I think is close enough and yelp. He immediately answers back and he’s close. I sit down. But then it hits me, he’s across the big creek. I decide that if it comes to it I will get wet feet if he decided he would be stubborn and not come to my side. I yelp once more after I was set up and he is silent. About a minute later I see him walking on the other side of the creek. I cup my hand over my mouth, pointed away from him and make a soft call. WOOSH-WOOSH-WOOSH. He immediately flew across the creek. I can see his tail in full strut and hear him drumming. He’s snaking his way through brush and headed my way. At 7:15, the big noisy gobbler stepped out at 15 yards and never knew what hit him! New gun purchase, 100% worth it! From purchasing the gun to killing the bird, 13 hours. He didn't flop once. I walked up to him, laid the gun down, and took this picture.
Has anyone reached out to Lung Buster? I've also sent bloodcrick a message to check into the double Trlblzr3/g issue.
Pretty bird. I’m getting jealous of y’all hunting already I still have a month. Thank god I have a week in Florida on lake okeechobe to distract me coming up Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I don't think my PM is working. I've sent messages to Hutch at bow string depot and Bloodcrick and have not received any response from either.
I would think lung buster will show pry just busy. Even if birds are killed before teams are finalized they will still count. Looking around looks like other teams haven’t heard from bloodcrick either. There is still plenty of time Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Congrats on the bird! Season opens up April 18th for me... We just got 8 inches of snow yesterday with a total of about 10 inches on the ground, temp was 2 degrees this morning In the next 10 days the warmest day is 39... Hopefully it starts warming up soon, not sure how the birds will act with the cold and snow.. normally they are gobbling by now but I haven't heard anything yet.
Waiting patiently for turkey season...was supposed to fly to Florida yesterday for a fishing trip but the flight was cancelled. Trying again today anyone have season coming up? Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Ok guys my bad on the dupelicate sign up. Im giving you Drive tacks and Hillbilly Jedi. take out Lung buster and Trlblzrg
Looks like I got in. I see my name on Team 2 now right? Haven’t got a bird yet but I’ll put something down for us!!! Glad to be here!!
Thanks guys! Glad to be here. I usually have a bird down by now but I've been putting in more work trying to get my buddy and his son their first ever hunts and harvests. Both have been successful so far so now it's my turn. Looking to put some points on the board for us!
Beautiful bird and great story man! Now you just need to put an arrow through one. The draw is the hard part, sometimes even in a blind. Best of luck to ya!
