I love the day before opening of a season. Tomorrow cranks up the turkey season here in Ok. I love getting everything re-prepared for an opening day. Getting all of my calls and strikers in order, ground blind is by the door ready to go. Quiver full of broadhead tipped arrows. Wax string. Get my little camera and tripod ready. Lay out the clothes for tomorrow morning. Clean the lenses on my binocs and rangefinder, Go shoot for a while. Recheck everything once again. I just love the day before opening day, always a stench of excitement in the air. I dont think I will get good sleep tonight, its gonna be my wife's first hunt and I am nervous as heck for her.
Yep, great feeling! We have been getting ready for next weekends turkey hunt, got some scouting done, Dominic's gun is patterned, we have about 4 spots that I know birds are there, we checked them all yesterday! I'm fired up and I'm not even hunting!
Depending on how your week goes you might have to come out to the ranch and help me chase these suckers down.
That sounds great man, I'd enjoy that. Shoot me a text and we'll see if we have any common free time.
Good Luck Zach! And do take care of brother Will! We're teammates ya know. Will, I was snowed out of Nebraska this weekend. I may have to swallow a $107 tag now. That blows!
Well as they say "there is no better compeditor than mother nature herself" We got on a gobbler this morning in his roost. He was ridiculous loud. We set up about 100 yrds from him and I staked out the dekes where I thought he would fly down and be able to see them. As daylight approached he flew down and then my worst nightmare happened. A dang hen flew down with him. I gave him my best love talk with some nice clucks and purrs mixed with a few yelps. He was strutted up to beat the band and calling back. I thought he was for sure going to check out his potential lover but he couldnt resist the ole gal he was already with. As he came into the clearing I relized that he probably wouldnt be able to see the dekes unless he came towards us another 50 yrds. She took him down away from us and he was gobbling the whole way out. We tried to circle them but just couldnt find a good setup to get back on him. I searched around a pretty good piece of the ranch but the dang wind got up and I couldnt hear any if they were answering. Oh well she had a blast. It was her first time to ever see a strutting tom and she was awful excited. She held up like a trooper this morning as it was pretty chilly with the wind and all. I am awful proud of her and I know we will get her one before the season is over. A great opening morning regardless of the turnout.
FORGET THE WIND JUST HUNT- thats my new slogan after today!!!!!!!!! Well despite the windy conditions here, somehow I got it done on opening day. After the morning hunt w/ my wife she went back to bed. I went back to the woods to see what I could scare up. I had a gobble and went to work on him. I got alot of response from him but couldnt get him to commit. I went home and ate some lunch took a little nap. At about noon I went back out for one last hoorah for opening day. I went to the edge of a creek and gave a soft call. BAM he was right in my lap. I quickly set up my little hen decoy and set down in some brush on the side of a hill. GOBBLE GOBBLE, there he was right behind me. The adrenaline was starting to flow by now. I gave a few soft clucks and purred to him a little. When I first saw him he was walking down the hill about 10 yrds to the side of me. Thank God for the brush I was in. As soon as he saw the decoy he was struttin and drummin like crazy right there beside me. My heart was coming out of my dang chest now and I was beginning the shakes real bad. It was at this point that I realized he was just a jake but you know, I never thought twice about it. I had my decoy ranged at 30 yrds and when he went behind a cedar I set up and drew my bow. Now he was giving my decoy a love song and strutting up bigtime. The next time he stopped I sent my arrow on its way. Heard the smack and watched him trot about 10 yrds and died right there. I had a blast, regardless of wether he is a jake or not I got him runnin and gunning w/ my bow. No blind just natural brush and the show he put on was great. Here are some pics for yall to enjoy. Oh yea and if the deke looks a little wierd its because its a foam jake I got on sale for 5 bucks. Painted the head and popped the beard back into the body. It looks good enough for me and the turkeys I guess.