According to a handy dandy perpetual calendar courtesy of the Internet and my hopefully correct recollection of Missouri's formula for opening day back then, by my calculations, I first went turkey hunting 47 years ago today.
Many times I have questioned whether that was a blessing or a curse. After 7 days in Alabama with only one close encounter and no trigger pulling and little action here in Missouri, I was leaning towards the curse way of thinking.
Then, this morning, with little confidence in anything happening after misjudging the distance of a roosted gobbler and realizing he was across the road from where I could hunt, and trudging back up the hill to my original vantage point a quarter mile away, a squirrel barked, a turkey gobbled, and in less than 10 minutes I had called in two longbeards and dropped the hammer on one with a 10 inch heavy beard, I remembered why I was still doing this 47 years later.
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So, you started about a year before me. :icon_thumright:
If, by chance, a guy loses sight of why he lives 11 months of the year to do this for 1 month of the year......... ONE GOBBLE will usually slap his arse RIGHT back on track.
Yep.
CONGRATS on your bird !!!!
Great story and sums up why we keep going when things are slow - because it can all turn around in a heartbeat. But you'll never get the chance if you aren't out there trying.
Happy Anniversary!
I wish I had discovered turkey hunting 10 or 15 years earlier. I still wouldn't have 47 years at it tho.
Around my 42nd spring here .
As I walked the mile or so back to my truck this am without even thinking
I " might " have heard one gobble I questioned my sanity.....
Good lord willing ? I'll question it again tomorrow am ...