EFH heres your score

Your score is 17.75 + 7.5 + 6.875 + 18 = 50.125

EEEEEE you're driving me dadgum crazy I must say buddy. Congrats man, you're tearin em up this season. I went yesterday and today, and once again I heard nothing and saw nothing. I've come to three possible conclusions: 1. Poachers are coming in during the week and over hunting or shooting birds in my field, 2. The birds are just taking longer than usual to talk this season, or 3. High coyote numbers are affecting them somehow. My gate was unlocked when I got there Friday so I'm leaning towards number 1.

I'm not sure what's going on, but this time last year and pretty much all the years before, I had already heard two or three hundred total gobbles and had 2 birds on the ground. Opening week through about the first of April is historically the best time period for gobbling, and I haven't heard a single bird on my place. I'm still hopeful my place isn't being hunted while I'm gone and that these birds will get fired up soon. If I don't hear any next weekend I'll be looking for a new place for the rest of the season.

EFH, congrats again man!

Nice job everyone! Looks like we are off to a great start. I got my second bird this morning! So awesome! Had my 5 and 7 year old boys with me. They were in the front row for one of my greatest hunts ever! Loading pics now and will have them and the story up soon!

Here is my second bird. He weighed in at 18 1/2 lbs, had a 10 1/2" really thick beard, and 1/2" spurs. Believe it or not, both spurs were broke off at the tip. Not sure what happened, but he lost about 1/4" on each side. Oh well!

Quick story: My wife Shai and my three boys Jacob(7), Lawson(5), and Alex(3) drove up to my place yesterday afternoon after their baseball games. We cooked out and shot guns, rode 4 wheelers, etc. Great time. Woke my two oldest up at 5:30 and headed out.
Got to our listening spot and heard one gobble about 300-400 yards away in the bottom in front of us. My 5 yr. old doesn't get around the woods that well, so I scooped him up and Jacob followed us until we reached a tree on the edge of the bottom where we could see the bottom below and the ridge across from us. Absolutely beautiful spot. The bird was gobbling on his own really well. We all sat on a large pine tree and I got out my slate and gave him a little tree talk. He answered immediately and kept gobbling on his own. I called very little and he finally flew down to our left. We all saw him, but he disappeared behind some brush about 75 yards away on the opposite ridge. He never gobbled on the ground, but he was drumming really loud. My 5 yr. old spotted him first as he strutted down the ridge to our position. I had said a small prayer before we left the truck this morning....."God if you were ever going to shine on a hunt today would be a really good day." I let him get to within about 30 yards below us and just as he started up the hill I gave him the business. The boys got to him pretty quick and I joined them for a great celebration! I literally cried.......I know kinda wimpish, but I was overwhelmed that they got to experience that hunt with me. We grabbed him up and headed back to the truck so we could reunite with my wife and youngest son for pictures. Thank you Lord for such a great time!

Great story and pics!!! What were the stats on your other bird? I didn't see it posted.

18 1/2 lbs., 1/2" spurs, and 10 1/2" beard. Cookie cutter two year old Bama bird!

:confused0024:Nice bird and great story Nauticstar, but I think your posting your pics on the wrong team!! Just a heads up for you.:s13::hit:

Haha! I was wondering about that too!

Went out today trying to get a good friend of mine a bird, he's on team 12. We sat through 2 good thunderstorms but managed to stay on a bird that gobbled till 11:00!! We sat in a cutover and he came to the woodline just out of sight at daylight but the lightening got bad and he eased deeper in the woods. We got on him again at 9 and snuck within 80 yds because of the rain. We couldn't see him, but he was hammerin! I left my buddy and walked away calling hoping to fool him but he ended up gobbling up hens.:s14:
Oh yea, we had 2200 acres to hunt, and wouldn't you know that dang bird was just across the line!!! HAHAHAH!!! Well I was hoping to call him up a bird, but we had a gret hunt anyway. Lots of thunder and lots of gobbling!

Congrats Nauticstar... you're team will be happy!
Nice work EFH!!! that's another nice one...
We can take 2 here in MA and 2 in NY... I think CT is 4... but I don't get there much...
5 toms down the other day... spurring and fighting... Dad said he got some more pics... haven't seen them yet... it's gonna be a long month wait!

I know Western the wait is killin me here...

Giving it another shot at my place this weekend. If it's still silent on Friday I'm going somewhere else Saturday and Sunday, probably choccolocco mgt area or a buddy's hunting club. Maybe they'll play this time. Having the worst year I've had in about 5 years, but I guess it happens. I'll be at a job interview Thursday for a job that will put me about 45 minutes from my land so I'm more concerned about that right now, that would be huge for my wife and me.

Hopefully Ethan and the rest of you boys will keep smackin em to make up for my crappy season! Good luck guys

Went with my ole team 12 bud again this morning, trying to get his first bird. Got one of those dang birds in a huge cutover, that whenever you think you've got him pegged he pitches out were you sat up yesterday!:rant:
Once he's out there, he ain't coming back! I called him to within about 45-50 yds of the woodline today, after a 400yd trot through the woods to get back were we sat up Sunday! LOL!! Well there was a rise at the edge of the woods and he was just over it......and stayed there gobbling for about 15min.! Can't believe this bird is still alone and he's woopin me!!! Hahaha! My buddy's going back in the morn, we figured were he needed to setup (again) and hopefully it will all work out.
I'm going back to my honeyhole Friday and hope all this rain has got the river back up and more birds pushed in the fields!

WesternMA, I know you gotta be fired up! Haha!

SouthernStrut, man this is your weekend, I can feel it bro!

Whats the word on them birds Ray?

I have been informed the stickers have been sent out to me. PM me your address so I can get the stickers sent out to you. SS I got your address so no need to send it to me. :)

Dang I wanna hunt. Come on April 18th. I love turkey hunting. I think the wife is ready for me to hunt as well and get me out of the house hahahaha :)

I'm with you arrow...
gonna try to get my 6 year old her first bird this year too.. I will get one on the board for sure... but may have to share some of my "stock" with the youth hunter and my daughter this year... I'll be happier seeing them shoot than me anyway!

pm sent Arrow...

Getting skunked down here in Florida. Public land sure is tough! Going back out starting this Friday.

Just got back from one of my spots looking around found a few tracks!! now I just need to get some new batteries for the trail cam and get it out so I can get some pics of some turkey's!!!

just watched 4 jakes at my fathers... big birds... 3-4" beards...

Come on Ray, I got faith in ya! It's fixin to all come together. Have you been hearing many gobble?

IBHUN10, can't wait to see some pics! Hope them boys got some pipes on em!! Haha

Western MA, hope you and your daughter get some birds! I have a 5 and 2 year old daughter. My oldest is so ready to go but needs another year, don't want her to have a bad time and not want to go back. She's sat with me in a deer stand and liked it. She asks me if we can wear camo so the turkeys won't recognise us! LOL!

Keep after em RPD.

Sorry guys. I have been swamped and was trying to get this up fast and put it on the wrong thread. Promise it won't happen again! LOL!

I hear ya EFH... my oldest will be 7 in June... the other 5 in July.
I bought my oldest a Remington 870 youth last year... still a bit to big for her... She comes deer hutning with me a couple times of year... just to get out.
I at least want her to be with me when I shoot one this year.

Ya!! EFH I'm hoping to get some pics of some turkeys!! Hopefully there will be a monster tom roaming the area with a sign on him "reserved" for IBHUN10!!!!:rolleyes::happy0001:

LOL! That sounds good! Don't worry, if he ain't got a sign you can tattoo it on his head with a load of #6's!!!!

Ok team I got stickers today. I will get them sent out. I have addresses but not everyones. Whoever hasnt sent me their address please do so. PM me and I'll get them out. The stickers look awesome. :)

I finally had a little excitement today guys, but I got April fooled. Had one gobbling pretty good around 6:30 this morning. I rushed down the road to set up on him, all the while trying to think of the perfect ambush spot to get him. I got within about 200 - 250 yards of him and picked my spot on a little ledge overlooking the road. In front and to the left of me over a drop off was the hollow I was gonna try and call him to the top of. We talked back and forth a good bit and I could tell pretty quickly he was gonna come see me. The sun was just starting to peek through the clouds and hit the leaves, and each gobble he let out was a little closer than the last. After about the 15th gobble, he sounded like he was 100 yards or so away. Not even a minute after that gobble I hit him hard with some quick excited cuts. Before I finished my series he cut me off and hammered about 20 yards to my left just over that drop off outta sight. He must have just been shock gobbling at that bc right after he gobbled he started puttin' and eased back down into that bottom. My guess is he realized he gobbled at a hen sound and there was no hen around him. It just happened to be bad timing I guess. I never saw him, and never heard him walking my way bc of the wet ground, but I called him right where I wanted him, it just didn't work out.

If that wasn't exciting enough, about 5 minutes after this I had another hot one hammer off for the first time all morning about 50 yards to my right down a steep road outta sight. I didn't make a sound, hoping he'd come on up the road right in front of me, but that would have been too easy. Of course he cut straight up the hill just out of sight to my right on the same ridge I was on. He worked his way around the side of the hill directly behind me heading towards the fork in the road at the top of the hill. I still kept quiet, and right as he got out by the road, out of sight still, I heard him start puttin and slip outta there. He gobbled one time, a really loud and powerful gobble too. I imagine he's a nice 3 year old with some dang nice hooks on him. But today ended up being an April fools on me. I'll admit, it wasn't the best setup for that spot and I could've done better. These hollows and ledges and dropoffs kill me sometimes! At least they never actually saw me. Weather should be great in the morning. My buddy and I are heading straight for this spot in the morning and I've got a better setup in mind for us. Maybe they'll play nice for us. Very fun day today though, finally got the blood pumping and chills up my spine from a gobble right in my ear. I absolutely love it.

Go get em SouthernStrut!! Hopefully we will see a bird posted for the team soon!!

Come on SS and RPD

Come on guy's!!!! Get em!!!

It's been a week since my last bird and hunt on my private land. Went yesterday and not feeling good about the rest of season there, hopefully I'll get to go to Lauderdale Co. before seasons out. Found no gobbler sigh what so ever! My place is muddy, and everything leaves a track or some kind of sign. No gobbling in ear shot, or any shots. Also I walk out of my land through about 250 acres of 5 year old pines, and I jumpped 3 hens. They're on their nests and theres no gobbling!!! Dang, is it over already in this area? They were hammerin 3 weeks before season started! You would think that would make a easy kill if they're not with hen's, but were the heck are they? LOL! Anyways, far from giving up, it's just going to be tuff now! Good luck every one, let's put some birds on the ground!!!!!!!

Just fried up some turkey nuggets from last years turkey. Its so good. Need another turkey now to put in the freezer. Come on season.

:confused0024:Well guys nothing to get a guy excited yet, it's SNOWING here again!!:eek2: Got the camera out but it doesn't appear that there are any fresh tracks in the sand were it's set up. I'll give it a week and then go check the card and see if any action. If not I have to find another spot to set the camera up!!:bash:

Still nothing guys. Worst turkey season of my life so far and I hate I'm not pitching in some points this year. I usually got two or three down by now. I went with a buddy to his club today and heard zero birds. I'm starting to think we had a bad hatch around here a few years ago or something. There just seems like there's not as many birds around this season. I'm frustrated and bout ready to quit honestly. I think I'm getting so tired of it because I got a bunch of other stuff on my mind that are just a little more important at this point in my life. I had a job interview last Thursday in Georgia and it's looking like me and wifey will be moving in the next few weeks, we hope so at least. If that happens I probably won't be able to hunt but two or three more times. Just a bad season for me with all this other stuff going on. I started off hoping for 3 or 4 birds, now I'm praying to luck up and get just 1.

We have a late season up here SS. Maybe we can squeeze a weekend in up here.

Hey SS, I went again this afternoon hoping for a late bird, and I ran hens out of the young pines again. They're looking like it's the end of April! I'm getting worried too, now that you've mentioned it I haven't seen a Jake and not many hens! I posted this a while back, but I found a hen setting in late Aug. when I was cutting greenfields! She had a bunch of eggs, you think maybe all the rain right after season last year ruined nests?

Stick with it SS... i remember feeling that way a few years ago and wound up scoring on the last day of a 4 week season.
Good luck with the job... sometimes reality has a cruel way of interfering with our priorities!!! :)

tried "pimping" out my turkey gun this year. I have a remington 870 Express SuperMag. I put on the new SureShot forend and grip half way through last season and then added the red dot last week. I put on the TruGlo that has the integrated saddle mount made just for 870s. I also took my stock remington Super full turkey choke out and switched to a Primos Tight Wad... it is a bazooka now!
If I miss, I know it ain't the gun's fault!

tried "pimping" out my turkey gun this year. I have a remington 870 Express SuperMag. I put on the new SureShot forend and grip half way through last season and then added the red dot last week. I put on the TruGlo that has the integrated saddle mount made just for 870s. I also took my stock remington Super full turkey choke out and switched to a Primos Tight Wad... it is a bazooka now!
If I miss, I know it ain't the gun's fault!