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Been a tough but fun 2019 turkey season so far.
Took my buddy and his 9yo daughter to our Texas county farm for youth season. Set her up in a blind in a clearing with a Jake and hen decoy near a wood line we’ve been seeing birds frequent. Heard 3 different Toms firing off at dawn, but all went quiet after flydown. Heard a hen a bit later, and after a lengthy back and fourth conversation with her, she came running in to the spread with 7 other hens, and a big old Tom in tow. He came in giving us the whole show, strutting and mad as heck and was posturing for the decoy. She did a great job, lined up the scope and dropped him with the 20 ga. 26lb bird, 11.5” beard and 1” spurs. Local gas station was holding a youth contest sponsored by the Bean Creek Calls fellas. Her bird came in 4th out of 30 and she won a green anodized aluminum pot call. Biggest one was over 30 lbs! Acorns are as big and plentiful as we’ve ever seen, and the birds have been taking advantage. First 2 pics are her bird.
Got my butt kicked first week of season on public land in Warren county.
Headed to Tablerock Lake for vacation with a buddy 23rd-28th to hunt public and fish. Got there Tuesday night around 11:30. Opted to park near where we wanted to hunt and sleep there rather than check in to the resort and dock the boat since it was so late. We split up several hundred yards away, and neither of us heard a thing.
I decided to bounce a few ridges over in the truck, hopped out, snuck into the woods, and a bird fired off at the first call I made down the ridge from me. Some soft calling and a 40 yrd crawl further down the ridge towards him when he hung up was all he could take. He appeared to my hard left and had me busted and was turning to leave, but some hard cuts on the mouth call stopped him enough for a quick swing and shot. The 20ga TSS #9 load flopped him 11 mins after I got out of the truck. Old bird, 10" beard, huge 1 3/8th spurs! To top it off I found a bunch of morels on the way out. Not a bad start to the vacation! Checked in to the resort then went fishing.
Got rained out the following day, and never managed to find a bird close enough to work the rest of the week. Did some fishing on Taneycomo on Saturday, and decided to hit MTNF near Jerome that evening to camp and hunt Sunday. Never heard or saw a bird all day, and packed up and called it a trip. #’s of birds definitely seemed low this year.
Going to hunt private near LoZ this weekend and call for a fella trying to tag his first and possibly tag #2 myself. Then off to Nebraska the last week of the month for Rios and Merriams!
Took my buddy and his 9yo daughter to our Texas county farm for youth season. Set her up in a blind in a clearing with a Jake and hen decoy near a wood line we’ve been seeing birds frequent. Heard 3 different Toms firing off at dawn, but all went quiet after flydown. Heard a hen a bit later, and after a lengthy back and fourth conversation with her, she came running in to the spread with 7 other hens, and a big old Tom in tow. He came in giving us the whole show, strutting and mad as heck and was posturing for the decoy. She did a great job, lined up the scope and dropped him with the 20 ga. 26lb bird, 11.5” beard and 1” spurs. Local gas station was holding a youth contest sponsored by the Bean Creek Calls fellas. Her bird came in 4th out of 30 and she won a green anodized aluminum pot call. Biggest one was over 30 lbs! Acorns are as big and plentiful as we’ve ever seen, and the birds have been taking advantage. First 2 pics are her bird.
Got my butt kicked first week of season on public land in Warren county.
Headed to Tablerock Lake for vacation with a buddy 23rd-28th to hunt public and fish. Got there Tuesday night around 11:30. Opted to park near where we wanted to hunt and sleep there rather than check in to the resort and dock the boat since it was so late. We split up several hundred yards away, and neither of us heard a thing.
I decided to bounce a few ridges over in the truck, hopped out, snuck into the woods, and a bird fired off at the first call I made down the ridge from me. Some soft calling and a 40 yrd crawl further down the ridge towards him when he hung up was all he could take. He appeared to my hard left and had me busted and was turning to leave, but some hard cuts on the mouth call stopped him enough for a quick swing and shot. The 20ga TSS #9 load flopped him 11 mins after I got out of the truck. Old bird, 10" beard, huge 1 3/8th spurs! To top it off I found a bunch of morels on the way out. Not a bad start to the vacation! Checked in to the resort then went fishing.
Got rained out the following day, and never managed to find a bird close enough to work the rest of the week. Did some fishing on Taneycomo on Saturday, and decided to hit MTNF near Jerome that evening to camp and hunt Sunday. Never heard or saw a bird all day, and packed up and called it a trip. #’s of birds definitely seemed low this year.
Going to hunt private near LoZ this weekend and call for a fella trying to tag his first and possibly tag #2 myself. Then off to Nebraska the last week of the month for Rios and Merriams!
