Greetings!

[FullChoke]

Hey guys! It has been a hot minute since we last got together and I know that many of you are in mid preparations for the upcoming seasons. My turkey season will undergo some drastic changes in terms of opening day, but that just postpones the celebration. I trust that these Yankee birds will find the hen with the southern drawl to be impossible to resist.

How is everyone doing and what are you going through for your opening day? I know that several of our team mates will be heading south for the early openings and have a number of other states already mapped out for some travelling. 

Cheers for a new year of turkey hunting. 

FullChoke

[cannonball]

I will likely just hunt here in East Tennessee unless another opportunity comes along. My Uncle has a small farm close by that's loaded with turkey's and I'm the only one that hunts it. I'm going up there in a couple weeks to set up my blind. There's a large field that is a hotspot for the gobblers come strutting time.

[xarcher]

Greetings to all as well. I'll be in FL for a couple of days on the tail end of trip. Will be hunting a WMA just down the road from where I am staying on Mar 18-20 then gotta head home for PA. Should get some MD/WV hunting around the end of April, then PA the month of May. 

Best of luck to the team.

[FullChoke]

My name is Norman Sisson and I now live in St. Paul, MN, a far cry from my previous stomping grounds in MS. I retired this year, my wonderful wife and I have been married for right at 43 years and have raised 2 beautiful, strong and talented daughters who are out on their own. I have been chasing turkeys on and off since the spring of 1974 when I was at college at Mississippi State University. Back then, because there were not that many turkeys, no one really wanted to tell anyone anything about how to hunt them and certainly wouldn't tell where I could find them, so I had a rather long and frustrating learning curve. During the day I am concentrating on producing artwork and creating a viable market for my works. I am a 2 time world champion of the wingbone yelper division of the Grand National NWTF Turkey Call Competition, but I have had to quit making them due to eyesight.

I started hunting with a 20 gauge after I won an NWTF Edition Remington 870 Express at our local banquet. I have it pretty much dialed in at this point. I will be shooting 3seasons' TSS #9 handload shotshells this year. I have had some very good patterns and results with them in the past. I have several good locations on public land mapped out here in central Minnesota.

I look forward to finding new opportunities and environments here and continuing to expand my horizons.

FC

[paintbrush]

  Bill Bongs here from Brainerd MN. I've been on the team for several years now and I must apologize for my disappering act from last year. I got in a bad car accident last year coming back from SD and it put me the hospital for a couple days and my grandson, who was hunting out there with me, in the hospital for a couple weeks. That put me in a bad way. I stiil should have let you guys known what was going on back then, so once again I'm sorry for that. We are both doing fine now.

Anyways, enough of that as thats all in the past and I'm ready to get back to chasing after these wonderful fascinating and sometimes frustating birds! Ill be starting my year off in Iowa, then over to SD, then hunt here in MN and then off to Montana. Going to try and get in a late season hunt in WI. We'll see about that one.

Best of luck to all my teammates. Shoot straight and hunt safe!

 

[GuideGun]

Matt McCaslin from Maine here. Talking with FC, it would appear I'm the first member of the roaring 20s from Maine. I started hunting turkeys when I was in college back in 2013. Now it is absolutely my favorite thing to do in the outdoors. I am a registered Maine hunting guide.

I started shooting a 20 gauge 5 years ago. I started with a single shot Midland Backpacker. I now shoot a Franchi Affinity 3 elite. I also have a new trick up my sleeve this year and that is a dedicated 20 gauge flintlock muzzleloader with a turkey choke barrel. I will share pics of that when it is finished being built.

This year I plan on just hunting here in Maine as I have a couple friends I'm guiding for as well. I have a possibility of hunting in Vermont as well in late part of May.

[Gobbler428]

Hello everyone, my name is Bill Norwood and I am a new team member from South Carolina. This is my
first time participating on one of these teams and I really look forward to meeting and getting to know all of you, I live in Columbia, SC and hunt just west of the city on private land. I have belonged to the same hunt club for the past 15 years. Our club has been around since 1986 and has five separate tracks with a total of 10,000 acres.  I started hunting turkeys in the mid 70's when it was almost impossible to find anyone else that would admit they turkey hunted much less knew anything about it, I hunted mostly public land back then and unlike now, I saw only a few other turkey hunters where I hunted back then. I guess you could say I am a self-taught turkey hunter and just when I get to thinking I've seen it all and made all the mistakes possible, a new one pops up. I started hunting last year with a 20ga SBE3 and Apex #9's and now I'm a hard core 20ga fan," Once you go 20ga you want go back."

Good, safe hunting to each of you this year   

[afhunter1]

Well, I guess I'm last to be adopted to this team.  My name is Adam Faupel and I'm an accountant, beef farmer, landlord, husband, father, turkey and elk nut.  My wife and I have 3 kids.  Oldest (Joey) is 21 and at WVU, middle (Trinity) 19 is at Elizabethtown college, and the youngest (el Diablo aka Zander) 15 is driving me nuts.  All my kids hunt. I was always a 3.5" 12ga guy until I found heavier than lead alternatives and I built my ultimate turkey slayer around them. I'll post that later. 

I usually hunt PA, MD, WV, and OH for turkeys but this year I probably wont hunt OH.  I live in Bedford, PA and can be in all these states in about 1 to 2 hrs.   I also take a week every year to hunt elk with a bow.   This year I'm taking Zander to WY, it will be his first trip out and can't wait. 

I am a newb to the contest so I'll be asking for help to make sure I document everything right.

Good luck to all and  I hope we have a successful season this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[zelmo1]

Hello new killers. My name is Al Baker and I live in Southern NH. I will also be hunting York County Maine as I always do. Beat up this year,  old age and wear and tear catching up to me. I will be shooting lefty this year due to shoulder surgery, but 4 shots shouldnt be too tough, lol. Good luck and God bless. Z