When I say "my" season it's mostly not about me. It's more my kids and my father. We were very fortunate to have another great season this year. My son started the season this year with a jake opening morning of the youth season. We had out our new DSD hen and Dakota Extreme jake out. Around 8am 4 jakes came strutting in and fell head over heals in love with the DSD. I'll admit I was skeptical if it would be worth the extra money but the first hunt I was sold. When one finally separated from the group he popped him with a load of HW 7's. We could hear several birds gobbling but took the bird in the hand approach.
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l113/bigbuckdown_06/2015/A0FBEED6-BD0D-49A6-A241-4FC704CFECE4_zpsr3r8tbfe.jpg) (http://s94.photobucket.com/user/bigbuckdown_06/media/2015/A0FBEED6-BD0D-49A6-A241-4FC704CFECE4_zpsr3r8tbfe.jpg.html)
When we got in around 10 my daughter was just getting up and after seeing big brothers turkey she was chomping at the bit to go. We headed out around 3pm and set up along a long food plot in an old logging road. My plan was for us to sit there until 5 then move to another area to try and break the afternoon up some. Well the turkeys had other plans. Once again I got the DSD hen set up and we had just got settled in when I sent her mom this picture....
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l113/bigbuckdown_06/2015/D4390D28-4D6D-45E3-9EA9-ED1AA8885912_zpstw8cptum.jpg) (http://s94.photobucket.com/user/bigbuckdown_06/media/2015/D4390D28-4D6D-45E3-9EA9-ED1AA8885912_zpstw8cptum.jpg.html)
8 minutes later we had 5 strutting jakes come in and try to start violating my hen when she dusted one with brothers gun and a load of HW 7's. I will admit it rocked her world and she wasn't real excited at first but it didn't phase her for long.
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l113/bigbuckdown_06/2015/5516721B-F666-4ECB-9015-16E6C7FF90D3_zpspa30g4fd.jpg) (http://s94.photobucket.com/user/bigbuckdown_06/media/2015/5516721B-F666-4ECB-9015-16E6C7FF90D3_zpspa30g4fd.jpg.html)
So now the regular season is about to open and I've been watching 3 lbs together for the past week. Got listen to them fly up Friday evening and an hour before daylight the next morning my dad, my son and myself are sitting 150 yds from them. Daylight comes and they don't make a sound. Typical South AR turkeys! We hang around until 8:30 and decide to try and split up. My dad goes one way and we head the other. We had went a pretty good ways before we struck 2 together. Soon we could hear them drumming and I thought for sure it was fixing to happen when a hen came between us and away they went. They had moved off about 150 yds and I told him that if we'd sit tight that when they got done with her they may come back. I'll be honest, it was the only game in town so I didn't know what else to do. Well sure enough about 20 minutes goes by and I catch movement to my right. A single had come in silent. His gun was on a Caldwell dead shot pod pointing way left of the bird. I told him when he stepped down in a little ditch to swing and shoot him as fast as he could get on him. He done just that and body shot him at 11 steps. Very nice AR bird with a 12" beard 1-1/8" spurs.
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l113/bigbuckdown_06/2015/87F44864-C8CC-4422-BDD5-24308E8E7E72_zps2fpbnhoi.jpg) (http://s94.photobucket.com/user/bigbuckdown_06/media/2015/87F44864-C8CC-4422-BDD5-24308E8E7E72_zps2fpbnhoi.jpg.html)
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l113/bigbuckdown_06/2015/71B1F971-E67A-4916-9C0F-D2F2440347B1_zpsjwuekquo.jpg) (http://s94.photobucket.com/user/bigbuckdown_06/media/2015/71B1F971-E67A-4916-9C0F-D2F2440347B1_zpsjwuekquo.jpg.html)
That's the highlights of my season for sure. I was lucky enough to get a 2 yr old the next morning while hunting with my dad. He came in a charged my Xtreme jake as fast and hard as I've ever seen one come in. Being a bully cost him dearly. I went to KS for a few days and had 2 good hunts there. Turkey numbers appeared to be way down but the weather and crop rotation could have been bigger factors. After returning I tagged out on my first AR double beard. Had a 6.25" and 10.5" beards. 2 yr old bird as well. My father tagged out while I was gone. I bought him a Dakota Jake and it took a whooping 2 mornings in a row. He smoked both of them with his 20 gauge M2 shooting Hevi 13 7's. Congrats to everyone who had a successful season and my hats off to everyone who carried a youth hunter.
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l113/bigbuckdown_06/2015/17B6DEC9-3CDE-4106-87C2-309514ECA03A_zpsfiyuxrrl.jpg) (http://s94.photobucket.com/user/bigbuckdown_06/media/2015/17B6DEC9-3CDE-4106-87C2-309514ECA03A_zpsfiyuxrrl.jpg.html)
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l113/bigbuckdown_06/2015/87A55C8F-03A6-4976-B006-5BE4830644AE_zpselkkwc7u.jpg) (http://s94.photobucket.com/user/bigbuckdown_06/media/2015/87A55C8F-03A6-4976-B006-5BE4830644AE_zpselkkwc7u.jpg.html)
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l113/bigbuckdown_06/2015/76EAF1E6-858D-44AE-ADEC-E874C772CFFB_zpsrg8mnhct.jpg) (http://s94.photobucket.com/user/bigbuckdown_06/media/2015/76EAF1E6-858D-44AE-ADEC-E874C772CFFB_zpsrg8mnhct.jpg.html)
Congrats on a successful season!
Congrats man! I bet you had a smile the whole way through. :icon_thumright:
Congrats BBD
Looking good
Congrats on a great season!
What an awesome season! Congrats to everyone!!!!
Great job. I love seeing those kids in the woods.
Awesome season! love to see kids tipping over birds
That's an awesome season
Very nice going,congrats big time!
Outstanding!
Nice wrap up
Congrats!
Congrats!
very nice, very nice indeed :icon_thumright:
Awesome !!! Kids and Gobblers it never gets old ????
Congrats