I have been turkey hunting off an on for several years. I became serious about it about 5 years ago. I have been close to harvesting one a couple times but never punched a tag until Saturday morning, Louisiana's opening day. I was unable to locate any gobbling birds at daylight so I went set up on a clearing with fresh sign and did some soft calling for a while with no luck. I went scout out another area about 1/2 mile away and returned to my starting point about 10:30am. Before I headed back to the truck to try another spot i did some aggressive calling on my pot call and one finally answered ! I setup quick and about 10 yelps and 4 gobbles later i saw the blue head through the grass. I folded him up with the hvy 13 mag blends at about 40 yards. Boy was I pumped. He weighed almost 17 lbs, 1 inch spurs and a 10 1/2 inch beard. I took the day off Sunday and hit the woods again Monday Morning with my buddy. We jumped out the boat on separate sides of the slough. Once again I did not hear a single gobble at daylight ! I tried locating a bird with crow and owl calls but had no luck. I kicked in to run and gun mode around 930am. I stopped in about 5 locations and tried calling with no responses. I was hunting back to the boat for lunch and finally got a very distant response. I closed the distance and sat down along a big slough. He would gobble at my calls but not come closer. So I kept moving closer to him and would cut and yelp at him. I finally heard a close gobble, and the last time I called he cut me off. I put the call down and picked my gun up. I heard leaves crunching then I saw in coming in strutting. I shot him at 20yards. He weighed 20lbs, 10.5 inch beard, 1 1/4inch left spur, 1 3/8inch right spur. What a rush !
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http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff245/sacalait1180/IMG00067-20110321-1223.jpg
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff245/sacalait1180/P1010006.jpg
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:happy0064:
Congrats!! :icon_thumright:
GOOD JOB :fud: :newmascot: :you_rock:
Congrats on the great birds. Fun game, hey..Mike :fud: :newmascot: :newmascot: :you_rock:
Nice job - congratulations! :icon_thumright:
:icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: congrats on a great bird
:icon_thumright: Congrats on two FINE birds :z-guntootsmiley:
Great bird for your first. Even better bird for your second. The pressure is off and it looks like the birds are gonna come now. Congrats on getting your first also. :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Congrats!! :icon_thumright:
Congrats on the great first birds :z-guntootsmiley:
Swamp birds!!!
Congrats
Way to stick with it and congrats on two great birds! :icon_thumright:
Congrats :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Congrats :icon_thumright: That looks like a fun area to hunt
pittboss
fantastic job there. looks like you had yourself a good time. :z-guntootsmiley:
Nice birds, congrats! :icon_thumright:
nice hooks...congrats on yur first bird..now you got that monkey off :you_rock: :z-guntootsmiley:
Thanks guys, I was able to take these birds off public land on 2 different WMA's. And the second one was a swamp bird. I was hunting solo Saturday morning so I didnt get any pics of my 1st bird in the woods. Gotta love that swamp hunting, wading through waist deep sloughs, alligators, cotton mouths and all. LOL
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WOOHOO!!
Way to go man!!
Reads like some fun hunting, with persistence as well!!
Nice looking pics!!!
God Bless,
David B.
Great Bird...congrats....love those hooks
:z-winnersmiley: Awesome!
Congrats on a nice bird.
Congrats!
Congrats!!! :z-guntootsmiley:
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:icon_thumright: :z-guntootsmiley: :icon_thumright:
:wav:
Very nice gobbler,congrats!!
Congrats on your hunt!!! :icon_thumright:
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Awesome! Way to stay with em.
Those are both nice birds. That last one is a toad for La.
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Quote from: Reloader on March 28, 2011, 12:07:02 PM
Awesome! Way to stay with em.
Those are both nice birds. That last one is a toad for La.
I was wondering how old the second bird was ? I asked the 2 guys at the WMA check station that checked him in but they were not biologists. His beard was pretty brittle and some of it may have broken off being I had to tote him 1 mile. I have no idea how to age turkeys, other than the longer the spurs the older the bird.
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WAY TO GO!!!!
two real nice birds congrats