I want to say congrats to all of those youngsters and their families and friends that scored today!

I wasn't as fortunate as to get one put in the dirt but had an absolute blast!! I don't know if anybody remembers, but last year I had the pleasure of helping my coworker aka friend get his first turkey last spring on the very last day in pouring rain at 4 30 pm! Well I had the oppurtunity to take him and his son this morning! What a morning it was! We got set up early ealry this morning on my lil slice of paradise, with an idea of where one might be! I had a hunch of where to sit since the last day of the season last year! Well it worked!! We set up a little bit too far forward on the ridge but it was ok! We wait for daylight, and as it starts turning nothing was talking!! Not even a song bird! Well , I whisper to my buddy, " time to wake him up!" I did a couple series of some real soft tree yelps!! Well this big boy answered right in our faces not 70 yards away.. we nearly jumped out of our skin! I cracked a big ole smile and said get your gun up and get ready!! This youngster looked like he saw a ghost when he looked at me!! It was priceless! His first ever sound of a gobble in real life!! I know I was nervous and shaky .. so I definitly know how he felt!! Well.. I gave this big boy a little more sweet talk and he ate it up!! One of those "textbook" deals!! We were set up above him, "killer b" out in front and a gobblin turkey answerin just about every sound being made!!!

Weeeeeeellllllll. Until he hit the ground he gave us one last gobble and then not a single thing!! We gave it quite awhile but he never showed nor another peep!! Well we unsuccessfully tried a couple more places and decided to sweep around the property... we circled all the way back to what we think is the tree our big boy was roosting! And the sign of what looked like the whole forest floor was turned up.. looking for food! We never heard a single peep from him or a single hen the rest of the morning! But the sign suggested there was a whole flock of turkeys down there!! Any thoughts?? My only though was they literally flew down with him and took him in the polar opposite direction of us! I can't wait till Saturday!!! Lol my turn behind the shotgun!!

Great experience, good going. Thats why it's called hunting, and it's still a blast.

Love a good turkey story, thanks for sharing. The looks on kids faces when a bird gobbles, sees them strutting or whatever is "'priceless".


Earl

Fine, fine morning none the less!! Just to share it with other folks is awesome!!

Sounds like a great morning to me!

Doug

He will be around saturday. Get him.

Does anybody have any thoughts on how to handle this guy! I think he is an old bird! I know him from atleast 3 years, he is tremendously hard to hunt, and doesn't talk a lot on the ground! Being that I didn't hear a single hen make a sound, should I be very quiet and sporadic or hit him hard? Try and get closer or set up in another location, more to the right (down hill of him) or to the left ( slightly up hill but more level)? What do y'all think!?decoys? No decoys?

How much did you call while he was in the tree? I like to hear them gobble too, but too much talk can make them go the other way. I either wouldn't call until he hits the ground, or make only a tree yelp and then wait until he hits the ground. When they are in the tree and can see a long way and you are close they get hinky when the don't at least see a hen. Less can be more.

Vic

Kudos for getting them out. Great experience!

Hard to decipher your entire situation but I would encourage you not to talk to much to him in the tree. After he answered those first tree yelps I would have waited until he flew down to give him anything else... especially that close. He probably decided he couldn't see the hen and headed off. Likely he met up with some hens too. Good luck!

well.. i was situated about 50 to 75 yards above him on a flat. He was down on a little cut out (fire trail) directly below us. I dont think he would have seen us from on the ground, that and it was soooo green out there!! I figured i would call much less, i probably got a little excited and did too much calling, really not that much but since there was so little hen talk.. ( i mean by that i heard NONE) i wont talk much to him next time and just let it happen... do i use dekes or leave it alone. I have a "killer B" and a jake and a couple hens? any of them.. none of them? I'm sorry i am being annoying, i just wanna do it right! i want this bad boy! he'll be a good'en if i can get him to commit!!

I had one like that up here quite a few years ago. We waited untill we knew his every move from tree to hens and tried to ambush him. Well it didn't work out for us we called vary little and he was coming untill he saw my out line and just detoured us and went to the hens. There was no tree big enough any where that we could get a shot so we just hoped and prayed but it just didn't work. Good luck with yours I know that feeling.