RE: who got you started
 

Well it was my good buddy Mike Luer who got me into Turkey hunting back in 97. I first got to know Mike in 93, we both played Guitar and started our first band together. Mike was a few years older than me and although we graduated from the same school we didn't really know each other untill then. It wasn't long that we discoverd we both liked to hunt. and did allot of bow hunting together. It was then I found that Mike was quite a woodsman. He taught me all kinds of things about the woods and animals and old Ma Nature. He was so full of insight about all things wild. In 96 they opened our area to its first Turkey season. Mike and his father Al went hunting that first year and Mike got a Jake. After that Turkey hunting was all Mike would Talk about. To me I thought it was a little silly. I worked on a domestic Turkey farm, and in my opinion Turkeys were dumber than a football bat. I could not understand what would be so exciting about hunting such a painfully stupid bird. Mike finally talked me into sending in for a tag. For that intire winter Mike and I would get together every week and practice calls. He showed me how to use them all. It was much like the time we spent together learning songs on the guitar. We would record our selfs calling and listen to ourselfs to figure out how we really sounded. We had a lot of pride in our calling abilities, we wanted to be better than every one in our area. We even talked about getting into some contests. But over the years we both agreed that it was more important to impress old Gobblers than Judges. As I look back I think Mike would have done well at the State level. When Spring finally arrived in 97 Mike took me out to call in my first Gobbler. BEFORE SEASON[:-] Yes we did our share of that in our early days. I know from experiance that that dose come back to haunt you. That first Gobbler is a memory forever etched into my mind. We struck that Gobbler on a oak ridge High above a river. When I first heard him he was so far away that Mike didn't even hear him. But he came in so fast Mike and I had to scramble to find a place to hide. My first Chinese fire drill. We repositioned twice before we were happy with our spot. I remember how alien it felt to be hiding from that turkey at ground level. And when that bird fired off from 25 yards, it rattled my fillings lose. Now how can you forget something like that, what a rush. From that moment on I have had Turkey on my brain. That gobbler walked by us at around fifteen yards. He was on the search and never did any strutting or drumming. It would be some time before I heard spittdrumming for the first time. After the bird disappeard over the crest of the hill Mike and I made a hasty retreat. That year Mike tried to get me my first bird but it was a bust, I got skunked. My season was near the end of May and it was brutally Hot that year. As the years went by I finally got my first bird and I got to help Mike get some of his. I found that some thing I had once thought was silly was the thing I loved doing more than all else. As time went on Mike and I recruited a few more people into the sport, and found that the greatest thing about turkey hunting wasn't even getting a turkey. The greatest thing about Turkey Hunting is sharing the sport with your friends and family. There is nothing that compares to seeing the reaction a person who is new to the sport has, when a Gobbler fires off for them the first time. And more than anything its about taking in the beauty of the great outdoors in the spring time. Watching the sunrise and seeing and hearing the world wake up on a crisp spring morn. Those are all the things ole Mike showed me.

Thanks Mike

Jerry

RE: who got you started
 

My Best Bud and Hunting Partner(My Dad) Started hunting Turkeys in the early 80's when Lousiana opened their Turkey season- I guess I was about 10 or 11. He didnt take me the first year, just left me standing in the drive way crying my eyes out- I listened to all of his calling tapes and watched seminar videos with him for a long time. I can remember trying to correct him on a call he was trying to make at which point he had never let me put one in my mouth. He got kinda aggrevated and said " well, if you think you can do it better, here" Handed me the call and after that it was ON like a chicken bone, I started listening to his tapes more and more and calling everyday, a neighbor about a 1/2 mile down the road had some turkeys in his yard and he would let me sit there and listen and call to em for hours I probably learned more about turkey talk from them turkeys then anybody- Come the next season I had gotton pretty good and GUESS who wanted to take me then- We started hunting everyday we could and went two years before even coming close to seeing or hearing a turkey. Then one morning on the third year of hunting we were walking down a loogin road and we stopped and I gave a light yelp and as usual nothing, I yelped again a litttle louder and nothing again- we started walking and took about 10 steps and a Thunderous Gobble exploded about 70 yds in front of us , then a again and again-
I'll NEVER forget, both of stopped dead in our tracks and jerked our heads toward each other looking at each other with the biggest DUMB look on our faces and then tripping over each other trying to get out of the middle of the logging road-
To this day we still talk and laugh about that hunt! It was the Best.