Eggshell's hunt log

[eggshell]

Thanks Happy. Getting old and some health issues has definitely changed my turkey hunting, but I still like doing it. Sad thing is  both the birds I botched set ups on were target birds I had chosen to kill. They have been there for 2-4 years and are great birds. The kind I like to say I beat and I did until time to shoot.

I think I am done with entering contest. I entered a local archery shop's contest and on the team here. I find myself only hunting birds I think will score good and I'm passing by to many. It is robbing the fun. I done this in the 80s and early 90s and decided it was not a good thing for me. Oh, I won a bunch of trophies and prizes, but it stole the fun from my hunting. Now, I find it doing that to me again and at my age and health that's not a good thing. So i am not sure I'll be a G.O.A.T next year. Time to kill whatever I can.

[JeffC]

I feel my age also, things have changed, but his contest is a great way to share our passion for chasing "The King of Spring". If it was a cutthroat backstabbing contest, I would never have joined, and your team with all the great conversations are 1 of the main reasons for me joining. I loved the passion you showed after taking a great fall Tom, hunt for what makes you happy, I don't think about this contest while I am out chasing the hunt that I want. Happy said it to me 1 day, "wish this contest didn't even post scores", I agree, its more about sharing the ups and downs with a great bunch of guys who are all chasing that gobble.
I really hope that you can find the hunt that you want and still be involved with this contest. Good luck with the rest of your season, wish you a safe and successful season. 

[Happy]

I understand where you all are coming from. I struggled with entering myself. But I realized that I just like to have fun and joke around. I don't honestly care a bit about scores or winning and loosing. Yeah, I score them to be a good team member, but I don't hunt trying to get a high scoring gobbler. The true score is in the hunt itself. So Eggshell, if a hard gobbling two year old wants to commit Suicide then oblige him if that's what you would normally do. That's how I go about it. Some years I kill some decent scoring turkeys and other years not. I am an equal opportunity shooter. I only slow my roll to make the season last longer

[crow]

I understand where you all are coming from. I struggled with entering myself. But I realized that I just like to have fun and joke around. I don't honestly care a bit about scores or winning and loosing. Yeah, I score them to be a good team member, but I don't hunt trying to get a high scoring gobbler. The true score is in the hunt itself. So Eggshell, if a hard gobbling two year old wants to commit Suicide then oblige him if that's what you would normally do. That's how I go about it. Some years I kill some decent scoring turkeys and other years not. I am an equal opportunity shooter. I only slow my roll to make the season last longer

Good post, this is my feelings on the team contest also.

Eggo, just forget the scoring, hunt and have fun and shoot the first gobbler that gives you a fun hunt.

[eggshell]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. It's not so much Old Gobbler contest that has gripped me, but the local contest. It is a team contest too and I feel like I have to contribute well to the team. I should have known better. I was asked to do it and hated to say no. In all honesty for many years in the past I would have just shot a jake by now and been done with it. we all need to be humbled at times. This is the first time in over 30 years I still had an Ohio tag left after the first 10 days of season. I have never afternoon hunted in Ohio's spring season until now because we can only hunt until noon the first two weeks.

[lacire]

I understand where you all are coming from. I struggled with entering myself. But I realized that I just like to have fun and joke around. I don't honestly care a bit about scores or winning and loosing. Yeah, I score them to be a good team member, but I don't hunt trying to get a high scoring gobbler. The true score is in the hunt itself. So Eggshell, if a hard gobbling two year old wants to commit Suicide then oblige him if that's what you would normally do. That's how I go about it. Some years I kill some decent scoring turkeys and other years not. I am an equal opportunity shooter. I only slow my roll to make the season last longer

My son has been with me for every turkey I've shot. He is always asking me which turkey did I enjoy hunting/shooting the most, I always tell him the same thing "everyone of them was the best" get a bird or don't get a bird it doesn't matter I just like going hunting and fishing with him and the grandkids. I've never scored any turkey until last year which was the first year being on a team on this forum. I wouldn't be scoring them now if it wasn't for this team contest. As Happy said this is just for fun and a little camaraderie, there's really not that many turkey hunters out there so we have to stick together. Good luck eggshell.

[eggshell]

The other part of this is: I am falling behind mowing, missing some great fishing and behind in the gardens. As weird as it sounds to a lot of you guys I like my fishing and even gardening as much as turkey hunting. When it is all said and done I fish a lot more than I hunt anymore and since the boss is retired we have pretty intense gardens and flower plots. We literally raise thousands of flowers and have extensive veggy beds. Turkey hunting is a waning sport to me. I've done it intensely for 52 years and ready to slow up and literally smell the flowers.

[eggshell]

One of my tagged out buddies and traveling partner has been going with me for the last 5 days just to extend his season. After yesterday he made the statement that we have had some real fun days. Yesterday we started out on an old bird we have named Rufus. Rufus has been a pain in my arse and I spooked him on the only shot opportunity he had given me. We again got Rufus to gun range but he was well hidden in the green foliage of spring. We finally left him when he went silent. As we were about to get in the truck another bird gobbled up the hill and I instinctively threw a call and two birds answered. So away we go and he is getting closer as we get closer. Finally we set up quickly and got ready. We were in a field thicket with a strip of green grass in front of us. He came right to the edge of that at  yards and walked back and forth Gobbling behind a hedge of Multi-flora rose. He had a perfectly good path to come out but wouldn't. So we left when he slowed up and moved off. As we checked the other end of the farm I got a text from the wife  that birds were gobbling at my house. So I head home.

When I get home I can not here any gobbling, but she assures me they are gobbling. So I put the gun in her Kabota side by side and head up the hill. I get to a listening point and I hear a bird across the road on my in-laws farm. So across the valley I go. I stop the buggy a few hundred yards from where I know the bird was. As I walk the farm road I can hear him, he's in the corn field on top. I know I can not get there without spooking him. So I set up just down hill and hope he's horny enough to break norms and come down to me. On the first call multiple birds answer. There is a group of jakes between myself and the bird I want. He is going nuts so I call a little more than usual. These jakes are making the woods ring and getting closer....do I shoot one and get this over enters my mind. Then the old boy gobbles and he's in the woods and just above me. I get ready and he's quiet, that's a good thing. I wonder where he's going to show, so I make a soft whine and he bust out a gobble above and to my left. I have time to turn and do.  15 seconds later I see the birds coming, then a wave of turkeys behind him. I can see his beard swinging and the safety is off. He walks up and stands on a log and stretches his neck to see a hen at 45 yards and he eats a load of Winchester double X no. fives. Tag filled and a season ended. It has been frustrating but I actually had a lot of encounters and as my buddy reminded me, i had a bunch of fun. I passed up a total of 19 jakes and I missed one long beard. All those jakes make for a promising future. I guess our wildlife agency nailed it and showed their genius. After just one season of reducing our bag limit to one gobbler we have all  these jakes running around and a good crop of longbeards. Yup they sure are smart.....not! Everyone around here has heard more birds than recent years and I hope that they continue to do well.

[JeffC]

Congrats on a great Tom, glad you were able to have some "Fun".

[crow]

Good job on a nice one, congrats on your gobbler.