Well, I posted in the Team 9 update thread, but figured I would put up a thread here too. My father's birthday is on 4/29, and he had never gotten a spring bird so my b-day present to him was a new set of MOO camo clothes, and 3x days of my time to call him in a bird. I got down to our property last Wed night with plans to hunt Thurs, Fri, and Sat. We got up at 4am on Thursday, and managed to hear 2x toms on the roost in the same vicinity. We spooked one while trying to setup on those two, but setup anyhow. They gobbled towards us about 10x times while on the roost, and I was relatively quiet and didn't want to push them too much. Right after flydown, one bird went the wrong direction, and the other seemed to stay put. The one closest gobbled a few times immediately after flydown, but then shutup for about 45 minutes. All of a sudden after hearing quite a few distant birds, the one we were working on the roost gobbled back at less than 100 yards from posted property we didn't have access on. I cackled at him pretty hard cutting off his gobble and then shutup to let him find us. He double gobbled one more time and then finally appeared about 80 yards out in full strut finally on our property. The strangest thing is that when he appeared he had 2x deer feeding less than 5 yards from him the whole way in????? They worked their way as a group until about 55-60 yards and then finally the deer split off their own way. The gobbler hung up a bit but then started proceeding in again. At about 45 yards, we probably could have killed him as he walked into a nice opening but I whispered to let him come closer to the decoy that was out 30 yards. At about 40 yards, he dropped out of full strut and quickly walked away.............[:'(][:'(] Not sure what happened, my only guess is that my father was moving a bit trying to get setup for a shot and maybe the bird spotted us. Anyhow, he put on a hell of a show, and my father (who is a long time deer hunter) finally was hooked on turkey hunting, and understands why I do it now. Even though we didn't tag him, it was well worth it and probably will remain as my single best hunt ever for spring birds.

The next morning, we got up again. Daybreak had another gobbling at us in a slightly different area. We were too far away though and quickly moved to try and setup on this bird. We got settled into some pines overlooking a hardwood shelf on the side of a mountain as well as a field. We heard him work his way down the shelf and into the field, gobbling to occasional blue jays and crows. He would not however respond to my calls, except for one gobble I must have scared out of him with a loud cackle to yelp series. He got into the field, and we decided to move to the hardwood flat on the other side of the field. We successfully skirted him, and got setup about 80 yards from him without being detected. We got settled, and I let out a few soft yelps and purrs on my favorite call, the True Double double frame, and sure enough he started running in, without any gobbles. He got to 40 yards, and after the incident the day before, I told Dad to shoot. The bird didn't even flop......dead as a doornail. 9 1/2" beard, 3/4 spurs, but only 15 lbs. His wings were all worn down on the tips from strutting, so we think he must have been doing a lot of breeding to have only weighed in at 15lbs. Best part was when we brought him into the local sporting goods store to have them weigh him, the newspaper was there and my dad will be in their local paper sometime this week with his first spring bird.

Here are pics.





Can't wait till this weekend, I have an elderly guy I am calling for in Vermont, and hope to get him one so I can spend the last few weeks of season calling for myself. I will hunt VT this weekend of 5/14, back in PA for the weekend of 5/21, and then will be in either spot I feel am most likely to tag one for the last weekend. I will update more once I finally have an entry for the team.

he's one happy man [8D]

Man it a lot of fun calling for other people and it's even more special when it's family
You and your Dad will never forget those hunts and that time share together in the woods. Even a few locals won't forget it if they keep their newspapers around for a while. Congratulations

Congrats to both of you!!