i smoked a big gobbler this afternoon around 2:30. me and my old set up on the edge of a hay and corn field around 1 after we got done with lunch. around 2 a group of 8 toms and 5 hens stepped out around 200 yards away. around 2:15 they wouldn't come any closer than 150 yards so i decided to get up and circle through the woods and try to sneak up on them. i got within 100 feet of them and i had to get on my hands and knees and crawl within 20 yards of him. as i pulled up he took off running and i just pulled the trigger and BANG. he did a back flip and flopped around for a little bit before he expired. it was a crappy day of hunting. it was raining hard off and on and the turkeys were not gobbling at all. i called and called and none of them would gobble. when it thundered they still wouldn't gobble so i didn't know what was going on. hes not bad for a first turkey i don't think. NWTF score-24 + 12.5 + 12.5 + 20 = 69

Awesome job! You did what any experienced hunter would do, You did what you had to do to close the deal. I did something similar on my bird this year. Doing what it takes, and going after that bird is the differance of going home with some spurs, or going home empty handed! Good Job!!!!

Jeeze, everybody is putting them down except me. Good job everyone! I just checked the contest results (updated the 22nd of april) and with only one bird we were sittin in 11th place. We're gonna shoot right up there with all these new ones.

I went out this weekend and it sucked! I only hunted one night and I hunted for about 45 minutes-1 hour. It was pouring down rain the whole time. Woke up at 4:15 sunday morning and it was still raining and the wind was really blowing. I have a dentist appointment at midday monday so Im gonna try and skip the morning part of school and try going out. The weather is suppose to be a little better but not a whole lot..

WRH!!! Are you kidding me!! "Not bad for a first bird"!!! That's one heck of a turkey!! lol You did an awesome job getting him. Man, we're on a roll! Keep after em Pope. Your time is coming.

Lousy weather here too. (Ga.) Couldn't hunt Sat or Sun. Maybe tomorrow. I've got one tag left and would like to fill it with another mature bird. We'll see.

Don't forget there's actually 2 contests going on. The best bird from each of us and the most birds from a team. We should be moving rt. along with these latest kills.
We just need to get em posted. Jepcho is gonna be busy!! lol

Dan

AHH!! SOOOoooooooo close! Today I have a dentist appointment to get a compression made for a retainer since im getting my braces off next wednesday and well the appointment is at 11:30 and if I went to school I would have to leave around 10:30 just to get to the dentist place so I asked my mom and dad nicely if I could skip school in the morning and go turkey hunting. I got everything ready sunday night and went to bed around 10:30 pm. I was up just about all night thinking of turkeys and waiting for that alarm to go off at 4:15 so I could go out turkey hunting. I got up, got my dad up, and off we went to our hunting spot. The only way of getting to our spot is on a dirt road... imagine a dirt road after 3 straight days of hard rain... yeah, not the best driving conditions for a truck, so we had to walk to the spot. It was only accross a couple looong fields and over a few hills but we got there on good time because about 10 minutes after we got settled in the blind there was a tom gobbling right behind us. He was gobbling constantly in his roost and then around 6 my dad spotted 4 turkeys fly down off the side of us. Probably 85-90 yards away. There was two nice toms and a couple jakes. They all worked there way into the field then I called a couple times and that dominant tom puffed out and started showing off for the ladies. They all stayed out about 75-80 yards out and never came a inch closer. The two jakes wandered off into the tall weeds and then finally appeared into the cornfield where they met with a hen or two and another jake. Then behind them was that nondominant bird with the big boy behind him struttin. So they were about 200 yards away gobbling and what not... Then the hens and went one direction and for some odd reason the toms and one of the jakes never followed... They just stayed in the field. After about an hour of watching them and talking back and forth with that dominant bird, they finally came back to us. This time they got 55 yards out in front of us and then they saw our decoys and the nondominant bird started puffing up too.. They walked about 5 more steps and froze.... Then just stood there not wanting to come in. Then next thing I know they take off running still in half strut. Im thinking what the heck... I didn't scare them. Then I look over and out comes two more toms in half strut. They all meet up and start chasing eachother around. Then they went back into the woods and saw or heard of them again...

No bird.... but.. I did get alot of AWESOME videos.
You all are gonna have to wait till the end of the season to see the video because im making a 2010 hunting video with deer and turkey and all that good stuff..
I will get some pictures from the videos and show you guys..
Wait about another 20-30 minutes and ill get some posted up.

Keep after them Pope, With our flurry of taking birds down over the past week, we moved into second place including 4 birds in the top 13 largest list.

I'm done for the season here in Ga. Just killed number 3.

I didn't hear a peep this morning so I set up down in the swamp and called sporadically until around 8:45 when i heard a distant gobble rt. after i had kee kee'd. I just kept it up and wound up calling in 6 longbeard's. I shot what I think was the dominant bird of the group. He was the only one strutting and gobbling. I bet it took him 20 min. to close from 50 to 30 yds. and the whole time the rest of the crew just kind of hung behind him. At 30 yds. he got a case of lead poisoning (actually Hevi 13 7's- lol) and went to flopping. Man is he a mess. The rain we had over the wk. end left a lot of puddles in the swamp and he wound up flopping rt. in one of em. He's a nice bird as are all of the birds we've shot lately. Here's the stats.

22 lbs. 14 oz.
11" beard
spurs 1 1/16" and 1 1/8"


I'll post pic's later. What a mess!! lol

NWTF score- 66.75

Keep after em Pope. It'll happen.

Dan

Good job Dan!

I told you I would get the pictures uploaded within 20-30 minutes... well I lied, I had to leave for my dentist appointment and the computer was being slow after uploading 45 minutes worth of videos from this morning so I couldn't get any on here.

I got some pictures now... enjoy.























My favorite pic... along with being my new computer background.






Now is when the two other toms come out..

Hey Pope, those are some awesome pics now you just need to seal the deal and put one of them bad boys down....

Hey guys, we are doing great! 2nd place as of now, lets keep them rolling. Pope, you are getting really close hope you get one! What part of Iowa you hunting? If you aren't too far away, maybe we can get together for a late season hunt. I plan on hunting 4th season.