Sorry, late to the party been busy at work and trying to keep my mind off hunting till Opening Day this weekend! We will put down some birds as we have a stacked team!

It is good to hear from you mmorgan!! Good Luck this weekend we hope you get to blast a nice one.. Be sure to let us know how your doing we all would like to hear from your hunting experience.. I still have 18 days left before my season starts up here and can hardly wait.. The snow is quickly melting away now so I hope those blizzards have left us all.

We will soon be showing them how it is done!!! I am not sure how this winter has been on them but there has been birds showing up around town here.. There has been a nice double bearded bird spotted and I am sure he will be getting hunted hard.. I will probably let it be for a few days while traveling up to my usual hunting grounds..

I am leaving out early in the morning heading to south central Kansas. Can't wait to get up there and chase some Rios.

Good Luck SB I hope you have a great time out there!!!

Got us a bird. Nice eastern 24 lbs 10 oz. I'll get the rest of the measurements later on and details.

All Right blackheal!! Congrats! It sure sounds like a really nice bird and we can not wait to hear the story and see the pics!! Again Congrats!

If you are having problems posting the pics or anything let us know!! We all want to see you get this bird up and posted for the team.. A lot of our members are just now starting to hunt and more coming to their seasons as the month moves on. We have a great team and we are going to win this contest!! Thanks..

Sorry - Got home at midnight from our hunt then left the house at 7 this am to take 5 boys to a 3D archery shoot (2 plus hr ride one way).

Anyhow, this story is titled "Hate it When a Plan Doesn't Come Together"

My 12 year old nephew and I were drawn for a public land hunt. He's been hunting with me now for at least 4 springs and has killed 2 fine gobblers. We had this same tract last weekend for the youth day and never were in the game but it gave us some direction for this weekend. We got up to the area on Friday, scouted a bit but didn't see much so we planned to go off info from last week's hunt. We had seen 2 strutters in a wheat field at 10:30 am and we were going to hunt there. It was a beautiful night to camp and we got to our spot early yesterday morning. It was almost silent. We only heard a total of 4 gobbles from 2 distant birds. We held tight and about 8 am started seeing some hens work around the field near us. Then around 9 a male turkey (could never see a beard in the wheat) skirted us never getting closer than 85 yards. My gut says it was a jake. There were still hens milling about dusting and feeding. About 10:20 my nephew spots 2 toms come into the field about 300 yards to our say 10 o'clock. They meander across the field and get maybe within 150 yds. A give a little light calling but since all the hens in the field are silent and these toms are too, I play it coy. They turn and work away from us, with one tom strutting ever so often. They work all the way across the field and are now to our 1 o'clock and over 300 yard. Then they turn to the left and get directly to our noon position, turn and begin to slowly work directly to us. It didn't help that my soft calling had brought a hen into our spread. They'd take a few steps, feed and the one would strut. The sun was directly behind us and these birds were just gorgeous in the sunlight, glistening feathers against their red necks and white heads. This went on until they got to 65 yards and hung up for 10 minutes with their heads craned into the air. We quietly discussed what to do and my nephew was cool with trying the 1,2,3 BOOM method. After the eternity at 65 yards, they slowly moved into range and when they got to 28 yards I asked him if he had a shot. He confirmed. I asked if he was ready. He quietly said yes. I said ok, 1,2,3 and I hesitated for him to get first crack and I fired. My bird drops and I see his standing there confused. HIS GUN MISFIRED! He ejected but was flustered and needless to say there is only one bird that came home. It was a tough time. I would have traded anything for it to have been my gun. We had some time together and then went out to the bird. We said a prayer over him and picked up. The short of the rest of the story is we hunted the rest of the day and never got on a bird despite going to a honey hole on that property. We did have fun and I WILL get my nephew a bird this spring!

11:25 am
Public Land in NC
28 yds
12 gauge Encore Turkey Gun
#8 TSS
24 lbs 10 oz
11" beard
1 3/16" L & R spurs

The only pic I don't have is the scale. We weighed it at a tackle shop near the hunt unit and did not get a pic.



Right spur (5 year old photographer) - I promise it goes to the 3rd mark!


Left spur (5 year old photographer)


Beard shot

Woo Hooo ! What a monster blackheel and a real nice story to boot! Hopefully next time your nephew will get a chance again to try and blast one! Again Congrats and this is the score I have come up with..
Your score is 24.625 + 11.875 + 11.875 + 22 = 70.375
I will get your turkey up on the board for us!!!

Come on guys if we are going to win this contest we need some more turkeys!!

I just went back and check all the other teams and we are doing great right now!! We can still get this done and I know we will be showing them all what turkey hunting is all about!! Southernstrut and blackheel has done great at putting the presure on the other teams.. I hope we do not let those 2 down and can prove we can get it done!!Thanks SS and blackheel on a fine job and good luck hunting if you guys get to go out again..