2023 Strut Stoppers story thread

[Kygobblergetter]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wvhoyt19]

Congrats!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[turkey harvester]

Got to take my nephews Sunday morning for the last day of youth season. Probably fastest hunt I've ever been on. Got set up in a little field along a woods row. Got 2 boys. Had 2 screaming at the other end of the field. Put out decoys and crawled next to one of the boys. A hen started to talk so i talked back. this lasted about 5-8 minutes. I hear wings and 1 of the gobblers flies straight to the decoy bout 5' away. Second comes flying in and now they both are putting the hurtin on my decoys. we had a borrowed single shot with a safety for the youngest boy. We were trying to get heads to stop moving and do the 123 boom. Well it happens and all youo hear is a snap. The oldest was trying to give his little brother first shot but safety was on. Oldest boy shoots one of the gobblers and it goes down. Other one stands there looking and my brother hands me the gun cause he's not sure on the safety. I take it off, cock the gun just as the other gobbler flies off. I videoed all except about 15 seconds of it and the video is 1:48 long lol. Absolute great day in the woods. Were gonna take  little man with us so he can score during our season.

[turkey harvester]

tryin to get the pic to load.

[wvhoyt19]

Awesome!! I'm patiently waiting on WV season to start. In the meantime, I took my youngest on a fishing trip and he caught a huge rainbow trout.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[birdman67]

Congrats guys!

[turkey harvester]

Awesome!! I'm patiently waiting on WV season to start. In the meantime, I took my youngest on a fishing trip and he caught a huge rainbow trout.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My gosh that's a huge fish!!!! Bet that was a good fight. And I'd say so by the smile on that young man's face!!!

[aclawrence]

Those are some great hunts guys.  My season started Saturday and the pressure was some of the worst I've experienced out there. If it doesn't let up I'm may be exploring new territories.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dzsmith]

Finally killed an Alabama turkey after 10 days spread across 3 years / trips to do it. Watched 2 birds die, the first 2 days there, one literally shot directly in front of me, the guy simply walked right over and sat down .I thought public was rough in Mississippi.... It doesn't hold a candle to the things I witnessed there this pass week... the first morning I didn't have to share a ridge with multiple other people and had the woods to myself , I managed to kill one at daylight . 637 to be exact. Sadly I'm more happy I don't have to go back , than I am that I killed a Turkey. I have no idea what's wrong with his fan .... It's like eat up. If you've seen this before let me know. I'm curious .

[aclawrence]

Congrats Dzsmith. I finally got out this morning. It's still a mad house out here. Fortunately I found a bird in a spot over never hunted. Almost pulled it off. I'm still hunting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kygobblergetter]

I got it done on a military base not too far from my house here. The season on base opens a few days early and it doesn't count towards our statewide limit. Not too much of a story. I heard him gobbling and slipped in tight. One light series of yelps when he was on the limb just to keep him from flying down somewhere crazy. Heard him hit the ground and one more series of yelps which he answered immediately. 30 seconds later I was looking at him. I let him keep coming to about 25 yards and when he came out of strut it was all over


After I got my bird I met back up with my buddy who was hunting the area next to me. I checked in to that area and we covered some ground finally getting an answer at about 10:00. There was a hen with them and she was calling a lot and coming fast. We sat down and could soon hear walking in the leaves. She popped up first but never spooked. Soon we could hear more walking and drumming. The longbeards came up right where she did but when my buddy went to shoot his gun just clicked. I started calling hard while he racked in another shell. The birds gobbled one last time at my hard calling and he was able to kill one.




Notice the size difference in the heads of the two birds. His sure had a noggin on it. Mine wasn't close to being an upgrade but it sure was a fun hunt


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[birdman67]

Congrats guys!

DZ, could that turkeys fan be possibly from someone shooting high and left when he was in strut?

[birdman67]

I limited out today in MS. He's an upgrade so I will post pics later.  I went to a green field yesterday and set up for an afternoon hunt. The bird gobbled at every crow around but wouldn't answer or show interest in me. I finally got his hen agitated and she came out looking for me about 300 yards away. Right behind her, he strutted out into the field. The hen walked right by at about 20 yards. The gobbler gets to 100 yards and takes a left and walks over and flies the creek. He then walks down the other side of the bank and gobbles until the hen flies over to him. He then goes out of hearing gobbling every few minutes. After that, I decided to change it up on him today. I went in about 8 o'clock and setup in the same spot. But I put out a hen decoy. Wasn't long that I heard him gobbling and working his way toward me. Just like yesterday, he came out in the field about 300 yards away. He came to about 150 yards and some hens in the woods started cutting and he went straight to them. Right before he went in the woods I gave him one good set of yelps ands clucks. He stopped and looked before walking off. That's when I reached in my bag and pulled out the strutter decoy. I slipped out and set it up right behind the hen. From that point on, for the next hour, I clucked real light. Several hens came by and some jakes. He didn't gobble another time. But out of the corner of my eye I see a blur and he comes charging in and begins to work over my decoy. It happened so fast, my gun wasn't up. I eased it up and at 8 yards, I ended my season. He was the dominant bird in the area. Had no feathers left on his legs from breeding hens. 10 1/2 beard, 1 1/8 and 1 3/16 spurs, 15.75 weight. Run down from all the breeding no doubt.

[dzsmith]

I guess it's possible . There was a shot directly below where I killed this bird the morning before but I assumed that bird was killed . I never saw the guy walk out so who knows . I looked real close and it doesn't look like mite damage , it looks like someone took scissors and cut it out , seriously . Day one somebody way down the ridge , fired out of shells at one .... Maybe this is him .

[Kygobblergetter]

Killed a bird today for the Kentucky opener. Started off calling for my brother and he killed one right off the roost. We heard another bird gobbling pretty far off and closed the distance on him. At first he wasn't interested at all, never answering the call but gobbling every once in a while on his own. We changed that by scratching leaves and he got pretty hot pretty fast but still wasn't charging in by any means. He finally broke but I needed left when he went right and he drifted off. We made a few more moves back and forth and finally caught up to him with a good situation around 10:00 or so. One quick aggressive move and I had him at 25 yards. Not an upgrade but a great opening day. My dad also killed one this morning not far away


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk