We had a great weekend in Texas! Saturday was the first day of youth season in Texas. This was my first turkey with my bow. He weighed 19lbs, had 3/4in spurs, and he was doubled bearded, 8in and 6in.

Congrats DTC jr. It is hard enough with a shotgun, nice job on the bow kill.

Way to go JR. Congrats on a fine accomplishment .

I was fortunate enough to get my second Osceola today. [/URL]

Hey checking in. Hadn't been on in a while.

Nice job RPD63. Welcome onetohunt.
How many hunters are we missing now?

Awesome guys way to lay the smack down.

Welcome back onetohunt

Unless I missed somebody, we are still missing four. All of them have been contacted at least once.

Good birds, keep it up!!!!!!

Good to see you back onetohunt. When does your season start?

I have another hunt coming up. Last week I hunted or scouted for 6 days straight. I have heard a bird gobble on every day except for 1, and I had terrible weather that day.
Lots of gobbling but birds are not responding. Hopefully the hens are gone and the Toms are lonely.

Swamp Slayer, did you ever get the picture posting thing worked out?

Pope & Young Conv
 

Good start guys. My first hunt is still ten days away. But it got to 80 degrees already here in St. Louis. I spent ten hours today helping crate & load the taxidermy mounts here at the Pope & Young Convention. Body is sore.

Haven't figured it out on my phone and just haven't had time to jump on a computer lately. Just made it to Valentine, NE tonight and headed out to Rapid City for a few days to take a stab at a Merriam's. Then on back to Florida with a quick stop in GA for an Eastern.

Osceola down in Florida.
Beard-7"
spr 1"
Spr 1 1/16"
weighed 14lbs
score-48.625


I went to a spot we know about on public land. The bird never gobbled at all. About 9:00 I had a hen fly into my set up and hang around for an hour. I would call every 10-15 minutes, I kept hearing some more birds in the direction the hen came from. At 10:00 they walked thru my set up, there where 2 hens, 3 jakes and the Tom.
He looked at the decoy, but never went to it. The hen must have bumped the decoy earlier and it was kinda sideways. Shot him at about 25 yards.

Nice job on finishing up your season.

Please welcome xOEDraganx, Western MA Hunter, dmills to the team

Merriam down in the Black Hills. Measurements to come amigos! Only about a 30 minute afternoon hunt which happened to be my first setup of the 3 days I have here. Just walking and calling and struck two up. Could see them across on another ridge with a pile of hens and they were very receptive to the yelps so I figured a double fighting pur using my mouth call and a slate call...They couldn't run to me fast enough! First shot was a little less than 10 yards and I was shaking so bad I missed! But they decided to run about 10 yards and slow down so I could pop the strutter again.

Just checking in since I was added to the team. Maryland season opens next week.

Late entrant checking in. Thanks Arrow! Been doing this contest for years. Season starts late here on 4/24. Have had 3 long beards every day in yard. I will never hunting Mass and NY. Congrats to those of you who have already connected.

Welcome Dragon. Good luck in Maryland

Got another Merriam this morning with my bow

Awesome SS. Lets see what ya got. Welcome new team members. Im headed out early Sunday morning to Missouri for their season opener on Monday. I cant wait. Question for all of yas. Im only thinking of taking one of my Avain hens. Should I take more than one?

Welcome to the team , new guys.
No pressure, but we are the reigning champs from last year. And we have been talking a little smack, so we need to back it up. Lol
I think we can win it again.

My season is over, so keep the stories coming.

Nice going Swamper. Give us a look at them birds.

Nice job so far guys! Sorry to say I had to cancel my Texas trip, I had pneumonia and a cancer scare (spot on my lungs), never have smoked and doc has cleared me. Our daughter is still vetting a cancer scare, we think she is going to be ok, but waiting on the last word, and my wife is still ongoing to be tested for cancer (same as which her mom died from) and still a few weeks before we get that checked out. This all came about three weeks ago and has been rough on the family. Lucky if I get out in NY. If all goes well I still may get to Maine, and maybe a short trip to Ohio. All big if's for the moment.

Keep smack talking. I'll bring a a few NE longbeardsvto the table. Looking at one out my back window as u write this. Happy Easter everyone. Headed to FL w fam fir school vacation today. I'll be back Friday and ready to take some heads off Monday ;)

Happy easter everyone. Mooky I will be praying for you and your family. As much as we love turkey hunting and as important as we think it is, it really does not matter at all, compared to what you are going through.

Thanks, I'll take every prayer I can. Really can't enjoy being up against a solid tree and enjoy what we love when you need to be there at home...

Take care of that family Mooky. Keep us posted on the test results.

Welcome Western MA Hunter. Glad to have you on our team. We are looking for a repeat as champions.

Coyotes did me in on the Missouri opener and today. This morning I had 3 gobblers hammering my calls. They were coming and were at 100yds, and guess what showed up a coyote. Needless to say the hunt was over. The gobblers turned and left. Still a great hunt with a lot of action. Ill be back in Missouri for the Saturday morning hunt

Dang coyotes are a real problem. Good luck this Saturday

Just got back from FL late last pm. Getting ready to head in to work this AM and there was a nice longbeard on ridge behind house.
Monday!

Good luck. Looking forward to a picture and story.

Thanks... I hope to have a few pics and stories...

Maryland season came in tuesday but today was the first chance I had to get out. Got situated by 5:40am, first gobble at 5:50am, fly down at 6:00am and I had a bird on the ground at 6:05am. Definitely going in the record books as one of my fastest hunts. I even had to sit still for almost an hour after I shot because I had birds in the fields all around me and I didn't want to run them out.

The bird I shot flew down, and speed-walked around the edge of the field while locked on to my Avian X jake decoy. He was beating the heck out of my decoy and even smacked my breeder hen around before I shot him. Unfortunately, my camera man sitting across the field from me didn't see him until after I shot since he was busy watching some birds that hit the ground right by his tent blind. I do have a very low quality video I recorded with a gun-mounted camera that I'll be sure to share later with pictures and official measurements. Had a great opening day!

Congrats! Way to get it done in Maryland. Looking forward to the pictures and stats, Be sure to also post the pics and stats over on the official stats thread. Go team Strut Stoppers.

Very nice bird. If you want to, post a picture on our team thread so we can comment. They don't want us commenting on the official score thread.