Supplies ordered today! Glass and slate and striker material

Any word from the other hunters who havent checked in?

TeeBug, those are gonna be pretty cool... have you made and used them before?

Few years back i had one. For some reason i decided to make my own this time. With the slate its not a really loud call. Works good though for close calling. Im thinking with the glass ill get some more volume from it. And a guy here at work suggested i turn then upside down, glue the metal cap down and put the glass in. Basically itll be using the cap as a soundboard for the glass or slate. Im gonna try it and see how it goes. I eventually want to get some bigger wood pots and build a few of those as well.

very cool.. keep us posted...

Will do. Worst part is waiting for the materials now

Checking in!!! Been snowed in all week here in s.e mo.

Welcome aboard!

Heck ya, I'm ready to see all thus snow gone and smack some missouri monsters!!!

Same here. Not a ton of snow up here but alot of ice on the lakes and colllldddd

lots of snow and ice here... supposed to a mild weekend.. hope to get some of this melted off

Mild here right now. Snow is melting. Going to camp tomorow and figure ill sight the gun....well its a single shot with a bead so im just doing it to let lead fly hehe

Have sent an e-mail to all our 'missing links' :D
We will wait a few days and then start replacing with alternates.

Be safe out there!

JW

And I got my cross bow back from service to day. New strings, new removable quiver. I can't wait to get out to dial that scope back in. Gonna be a lopping of heads in my future!

JW

Sighted in my gun today....not good. I normally aim halfway up the neck and its lights out. Now im hittinf real low when i do that. Guess thats what i get for switching shells! Still dead on i just have to aim a little higher now.

Do you use any type of sights you can adjust for windage and elevation?

I highly suggest that as guessing only leads to heartache.....been there myself far too many times. Then I looked as why and changed. First to a set of open clamp on Tru-Glo sights which I could adjust for windage and elevation and when my old eyes could no longer focus on the front bead to the back ramp and beyond - (was a result of a miss0 I went to a scope.

I treat my Turkey shotgun as if it is a rifle - only way to go as you are no longer pointing but aiming. And it is far to easy with just a bead or double bead, to lift your head ever so slightly, in the heat of the battle you don't even know you did it and......it's a miss or worse yet wounding.


Now my aim point is always at the waddles as that is the bottom center of my circular pattern.
Aim point is where the feathers stop and the skin starts.
It is a consistent aim point as all legal birds will have that. No guess there.


Just a thought.
Don't take offense - just an idea. But hey it's the Hunter Education Instructor that is popping out here....



JW

Its a single shot h&r. Single bead on the end. I also figured it may have been more me than the gun. Its a 3" gun and i was using federal flite control 2 3/4 shells. Never had this issue with 3" so i may be making the switch back. I wanted to test some other shells as well but it was just too dang cold!

And no offense taken. Always nice to get some constructive criticism

Thanks Teebug.....and I have missed with the scope too! :( even with 30 yrs of turkey hunting experience I get too dang excited at times and in the past 2 years I have missed taking a double with my kid 3 times.....So I am 0 for 3 and she is 2 for 3.

I have taken grief from her over that.....simple for me. You no longer get 1st shot! And I told her so.

:D
JW

Ps as long as you are test firing. And hitting low I am wondering if adding a Monte Carlo butt stock addition like I did would help you?

Hey guys, I just did some scouting on some new property I gained access to here in IL and man are there a lot of turkeys on it. The snow really helped find travel routes/patterns. Saw a few birds as well. I've got a few roust sites to set up on as well as some later morning travel routes. Should be a slam dunk hunt. Only regret is not getting extra tags and there are no leftovers for this county. Definately will get more tags next year. Don't worry about me filling tags though - I have 3 for OK, and 1 for WI and am planning on buying 2 more WI tags when they become available and should fill most if not all. Come on turkey season!

Lets get that team name up! Red dawn raiders!

I can do that.

JW

Woot woot! Now whos good at making avatars haha

Checking in here folks. The Red Dawn Raiders will roll over the (weak) competition. And by "weak", I mean "any"....

And I am sighting in the Browning 10-gauge Gold day after tomorrow with my Leupold...

April 6, I can't wait!!!!!

Got that right!

Account straightened out. Thanks JW for the help.

Had 7 very scrawny turkeys cross the road in front of me yesterday near one of my favorite spots. Turkey count seems to be down significantly here this year as well as last year. Last year, my honey hole was all dried up. I'm looking at a new property to get permission to hunt on that has some good potential.

Last year I didn't get much action. Had some coming in from the roost. A nice longbeard came by out at about 40 or so yards. I was waiting for the second one that was in full strut and dragging his wingtips. I was more wanting the strut action than to just shoot at one just walking. Noticed his beard a bit short, but the longbeard was already out of sight so I shot the one in strut. So, I have to get one this year better than a 17lb jake.

A team member from zero dark turkey! Welcome aboard!

Here are my artistic contributions to the group:



and...

Those look sweet!

Very nice and if you want to change banner design okay with me......you guys pick one.

And no word from the missing. I did find that some e-mails bounced back at me. so we are at a loss I can get e-mails because of Moderator duties.
And in a few days we will start a mass recruitment and drop those who are missing with new replacements.


JW

Hopefully we hear from the missing!

Getting my hands on a lights out slate call...anybody ever use one?

Sent them a "gather yelp" call and they may come.

We may have to set the decoys out to attract them.

How much time are we going to allow? Boy they have just started gobbling here in S.E. Missouri. Getting some courtesy gobbles only but man does it get the blood pumpin!!!

man... we don't start until april 1 and may 1 here in ma & ny...
gonna be a long wait.
Been rather mild here the past few days and melting off some snow... but they are calling for more snow tomorrow night i guess... ugh

Yeah may 1 seems like an eternity away! Been nice here but calling for 10- 17" of snow tomorow...yuck

21 April - 18 May here. It just means more time to scout and plan ahead.

Anyone already pack their vest yet?

I never unpack it, haha. Yea april 21st seems a long way away. Gonna be a good year tater.

Im cleaning mine out ha! Adding some new calls to the vest as well as some homemade ones.

I usually just leave mine packed too. Each spring I clean out all the food wrappers and check the gear out and make sure I have everything. And add a few things to it every year.