IA bird down

[Duke0002]

Picked up my first ever IA bird this morning.  Will post info/pics on kill thread later.  Nice one, 2xbeards, 24.4

[DMP]

Right on my man.  Great job.   

[BowBendr]

Way to go Dale, sounds like a dandy. Congrats sir. 

[MDbowman]

great job!  Looking forward to more birds on the kill thread.

[pappy]

YEE-HAW Dale, way to go.....come on with those pics...pappy

[Duke0002]

Thanks guys.  Still in IA and using a strange computer.  Will have to wait until I get home this weekend to post stuff. 

Doubled with son Monday morn.  His first hunt and first bird. 22-2.  He is off to a great start!

[DMP]

Great work Duke.  Keep it up.

[bawana]

  That's the way Dale, Show those Iowa birds how the Buckeyes do it!!

[Duke0002]

bawana,

Our Buckeye guns work well on the other side of the Mississippi River!

[Duke0002]

You know what?  I think I forgot to post my IA hunting story.  I was checking through some threads and I didn't see it.   Here it is.

As a non-res, was selected for Iowa's first season (April 11-14).  Son and family are living in IA now and he wanted me to come out for his first turkey hunt.  Brought him a ton of hunting stuff to supplement what he had.  Gave him my old hunting vest.  Even gave him some mouth calls -he'd never used one.  Learned quickly.

Debbie and I arrived on Friday the 8th.  Played with the grandchildren that night and most of Saturday.

For 3 hours on Sat, scouted the area we intended to hunt.  Strong N-W wind and threat of severe storms.  Thankfully they missed us.  Not one single sign of a bird -no tracks, no vocals, no feathers, no droppings.   However, the area (150 acres timber/bottom land with adjoining bean fields) looked as good for birds as could be!  I mean, it looked dynamite for birds.....  Decided on several set up spots.

Sunday night, wind switched to out of the south.  I was hoping this would move birds around.   Boy did it.

Put decoys on bean field edge and sat down about 20 yds in the grass between timber/field.  Couple of nice downed trees helped give us cover.   Still dark and son decided to move a tree branch  -snap it went!   

Immediately a shock gobble 50 or so yds behind us!  Whoo-hoo!  As son settled in, he pumped his 870's action.  From the same location another shock gobble!  Whoo-hoo X2!   (Now, how could I explain to him that making all that racket wasn't proper turkey hunting etiquette!!!).

At daylight, 2 hens came into decoys and spent 5-10 mins preening, pecking, and purring.  That was good, as it got him settled/used to seeing a bird within shooting range, and confident in our concealment.

Gobbling behind us kept up, but gob seemed to move off toward a cutting hen deeper in the timber.   I yelped and cut a few times, and got faint responses.   30 min later, another gobbled close behind us.  I was sitting with a draw into the field on my right.  Got ready. 

Corner of my eye I see a black blob moving toward the field, up the draw.  Bird was silent, slicked down and behind clumps of high grass.  No white head, so I waited until it cleared the grass to see the beard.  It was heading down back toward the timber.  Positive ID, and pulled the trigger.   My first 2X bearded bird at 6:45 am.

After settling back in, moving decoys, chatting, and waiting for a time, we heard birds in the timber behind us.  Made a couple of soft yelps.  Son tried his mouth call for the first time -not too bad!   Gobbles were moving to our left. 

Short time later on the field edge and on a hill to our left, 3 longbeards appeared.  One was strutting.  They moved away from us and out of sight, but still in the field.  Son took the opportunity to move closer to the field behind a good size clump of grass.

Called the trio back on top of the field rise and they hung up again.  When they started walking away again, I called them back.  Finally all 3 bunched together and came in to examine the decoys.  They got within range and inspected one decoy, but were so close together that no shot was possible.  All 3 moved off together like a rugby scrum.   One broke rank and headed back to the decoy.  Boom... son's first bird  22.2, 9.5 whiskers, 1" spurs.

What an opening day!  We were done by 10 am.

Really proud of Nick, as he was patient and did things the ethical way.   Made true turkey hunters everywhere proud!   Now he's hooked!  He filled his second tag by himself during IA's 4th season.

Turkey hunting is a great family experience!

[Duke0002]

Nick, grandson helping us hold the birds, and yours truly.

[MDbowman]

Great story and pics, thanks for posting!

[derek]

Great hunt. Congrats!

[BowBendr]

Great to see another hunter get bitten by the bug, he'll be hooked forever. Great story.