Wanted to give a mid season update here. I have been pretty busy lately and off the board for a little while but here's what I've got. Please excuse the poor pics, most are cell phone shots.
My turkey season started off with a bang as I traveled to FL for a little Disney World/Osceola combo trip. Managed to get one on the ground pretty quickly was on my way to another single season slam. Benelli SBE 2 with Rhino choke and Nitro shell. 9" beard, 1 1/4" spurs
From there, it slowed down quite a bit. I didn't have much time to hunt and was limited mostly to later in the day and with the heat, I wasn't finding any receptive birds.
Fast forward to the last 3 days and I finally got to do some hunting. Went 3 days in a row and managed to connect each day! Had my friend and turkey guide Rusty with me the first 2 days and he was gracious enough to help me out and let me get 2 birds on the ground. This morning, I was able to bag another but was by myself for this hunt.
First MS hunt was classic woods type hunt with bird gobbling on the roost and then on a ridge top before finally giving up and coming to look for us. Benelli SBE2 with handloaded TSS 3" shells with Pure Gold Tempest choke at .670" constriction. 9.5" beard, 1" spurs
Second hunt was a mid morning hunt with 2 birds getting fired up about 11am and after several attempts and moves, finally convinced them to come our way. We had 2 birds but just couldn't quite close on the double. Rusty was kind enough to let me do the shooting on the one for sure bird! Same SBE2 with TSS. 8" scraggly beard and 7/8" and 1" spurs.
Today was a bird that hit the ground in the dark and headed to a clear cut to set up and gobble. After about 30 min and 200 plus gobbles, he decided that he wanted to find me and came to my ridge about 300 yds away. Game over and this one was with the Benelli M2 20 ga with Nitro shells. Fun stuff. 10.5" pretty thick beard and 7/8" spurs.
Still have several hunts planned with VA and KY in the mix as well as our annual trip out west. Should be hunting OK, TX, CO and KS this year. I'll update after that trip.
Enjoy.
Lee
