Most memorable hunt

[wvmntnhick]

Guarantee this comes up every year and maybe more than once.  Figured I'd get it going again though. Doesn't have to be turkey related but cool if it is. I've got a couple but will start with this one.

It was some time ago and I'd never called a bird in to myself before. Had talked my dad into going along with me to a place that I'd heard several birds on a few days before. We get there and nothing. Not a peep. We drive around the place listening from good vantage points and still, nothing. We leave and go check some public ground. I called and no reply. We talked a bit and I called again. Still no reply. We were getting ready to leave and I happened to call across the road (private ground) and got a reply. Called again and two sound off. Couldn't do anything about it because of the posted signs. We drive away and get about a mile down the road and I notice there's no posters anymore so we backtrack to the last poster. The guys property ran at an angle towards the field the birds were in. We jumped outta the truck and angled down along the guys line at a brisk pace. I'd stopped once or twice to check on dads progress as I was pumped and at one point I found him down on all fours picking up mushrooms. Told him to pick up the pace as we didn't have all day. We get there, get set, and two jakes came in pretty quick. Did the countdown and dad fired a bit early. Like shot on "two" instead of even waiting to hear "three." And, he missed. I did connect on mine though. We had some good laughs about it on the way back to the truck as he picked the rest of his shrooms. First turkey hunt with my dad ever. Only one ever to be truthful. 

[tomstopper]

My most memorable would probably be my first gobbler because it started my addiction.

I was 14 & I watched hunters on t.v. and was like how hard could it be (didn't have anyone to teach me as my dad didn't hunt). I went & bought some slate calls & a box call. I praticed making the sounds that the pros did all winter long. Opening day I was positioned about 30 yards in from a public field with my back against a huge oak. I had seen turkeys there plenty of times and felt good about my chances. At approx. 8am I was starting to pack up my things b/c I hadn't seen or heard a bird at all. As I was picking up a gobbler gobbled right behind that oak & made me just about crap my pants b/c it was unexpected and scared the heck out of me. This was the first time I had heard a gobble and it was close. I quickly grabbed my Win 1300 and waited until he walked from behind my tree. He gobbled again when he was at about 8yards away and it was the coolest thing ever. I waited until he got about 20 yards away from me (always was told that you needed a little room for the shot to open up some) & then laid him to rest. 23 lbs, 1in spurs, 9 1/4 beard. The coolest experience turkey hunting and the start of my addiction. Taught me that patience truly does pay off when hunting birds & that it didn't always go as planned. I have had many birds come in silently since but none like that. Still wonder if I called very well or if he was coming in out of curiosity to see what kind of sick bird was making those crazy sounds (I know that I didn't kill another bird until 2 yrs later though).

[fallhnt]

That's easy...my last hunt. A 30 yrd kill shot with my bow in late Oct. on a hen. Till Spring,that's all I have. 

[Clardh]

One of my most memorable hunts was 20 years ago with a good friend of mine in Northern New Jersey. My friend and I hunted along the Delaware River which separates New Jersey from Pennsylvania. That morning we played with toms on the New Jersey side until 9 or so. Everything went quiet except for one bird that gobbled all morning on the Pennsylvania side. Since there was no action close, I told my friend let's sit on the river and fool around with that Pennsylvania bird ( at least he was gobbling). The bird sounded like it was a mile away over ridges. We sat along the river on a ridge to get a vantage point. There was a gentleman fishing for shad in a boat right in front of us and my friend decided to take a knap. For two hours I would call with my wingbone and the Tom would gobble. I could hear him get loud then silent as if he was on the move. As time progressed, I realize he was getting close to the rivers edge. Soon I thought, " I might be able to spot this turkey on the other side of the river.". This was a good 150 to 200 yards away. All of a sudden I heard wings flapping and I looked down on the river and the Tom was flying across to us. My buddy was,still asleep and I excitingly woke him up. The bird ran right to us and my friend fired and missed. The turkey turned around and flew right back to the Pennsylvania side. I couldn't believe it. Of all the birds I have hunted this one hunt I recall over and over. As a youth, all I heard about was how turkeys won't cross streams, fence lines and other obstacles and as I have gotten older I have experienced this; however, if the Tom wants to come to you there aren't many obstacles they won't traverse.

[Flounder]

Killed my first Tom with X bow at 1 yard! He gobbled,strutted and spit drummed at 2 yards!
It was the first day NC allowed Sunday hunting. All Thanks to the Lord!

[Gooserbat]

To many to list but I have been stuck in walk in freezers with a short woman who wanted to take me home with her all the while with an old and I mean OLD couple made out durring the tornado.  I've also called in birds for my Dad and Son in the same morning, and I once drove from Arkansas across Oklahoma and Texas then through New Mexico and circled back through Colorado to hunt Kansas and even paid a toll to do it.  I will never forget the fire ants and the jake that gobbled and sent me into a dive for cover on their nest.  Killed that stubby bearded jerk too. 

[TauntoHawk]

I have many of my own hunts that are forever burned in my memory, I have called birds in for kids, veterans, and my  father. But my most memorable hunt is my wife first ever bird. 

She had deer hunted some with me but never really like the long sits in the cold and honestly I didnt see a lot of personal enjoyment over a killed deer, she was happy cuz I was happy but she didn't get all pumped up for it. I asked if she'd try spring turkey and promised her more excitement and warmer temps. Our first morning found on a beautiful hillside with a gorgeous sunrise shining on the catskill mountains studding the  background. We had 4 longbeards and multiple Jake's ripping inside 100yds. A few tree calls and we were in business after fly down one of the longbeards started strutting slowing into our set up. The bird got a little spooky and she ended up running a shot and missed. The birds all buggered out and started up again about 400yds out. We let them settle down and i started the slow walk a way calling and got those birds fired fired up. One of Those epic countless gobble mornings. Unfortunately the birds over committed as I did the walk away calling and circle her and came to me. I let them walk hoping we could get another set up but the but the birds went cold. We opted to head for another property. On the walk out we marveled over the action of the morning and the views before us never mentioning the unfortunate miss. As we drove to a near by farm I reassured her that we would have other opportunities. The farm we were headed to is owned by an elderly lady that lives on about 50 acres down the road from the main farm. As I pointed out her house and adjoining pasture ground to my wife I couldn't help but notice a massive strutter by himself in her back field. I quickly turned around and stopped at the landowners house to get her blessing to hunt out back. We made a plan and eased up toward the field where we spotted the bird but when we got close to see the field the bird was no longer out there. We slid up to a stone wall near where e had seen him strutting and I told my wife that if we could strike a gobble from a lone gobbler at this time of morning our chances would be really good of calling him in. I went to work with a cherry ceramic pot and the bird immediately started returning gobbles but much further off than I had expected. He was already several hundred yards out but after about 15 min of back and forth I could tell he was making his way. He showed up at 98yds stand atop a rock wall that separated fields. Then began the show, he strutted occasionally pausing to launch gobbles out direction for the next 45 minutes to close from that 98yds to inside 40.

It was s dandy of a first bird, 24.5lbs 1 1/8th spurs and a nice 9.5in beard. Since than she's laid down several awesome gobblers and absolutely love it each spring and has even watched me kill a few.



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[born2hunt]

My most memorable hunt was with out a doubt the first time my Daddy went turkey hunting with me. He started taking me to the deer woods and dove fields when I was 4 but he never hunted turkeys. I got into the spring hunt on my own later in life and he just didn't seem interested.
Well one year I convinced him to join me on opening morning. We were set up with our backs to the property line and a bird started gobbling behind us, we didn't really have a good place to get where we could face his approach so I just started working him anyways, against the odds of it working out. He had closed the gap to probably 75 yards and Daddy was getting exited. Every time he would gobble Daddy would tell me to call again. He was eating it up. The woods where the bird was were thick and the only open area was in front of us. I knew I needed the bird to come looking if we were gonna get a shot so I was calling very soft and sparingly hoping he wouldn't hang up. Now we were completely focused on the bird to our rear when all of a sudden a bird gobbled to our front/right, then another and another. It was four birds (jakes) and they were coming in. When they started gobbling, the one behind us fired up even more and we were right in the middle. Well I just quit calling and the Gobbler from the rear came by us at 10 ft and met with the jakes just to our right at 20 yards but we still didn't have a clear shot. My elbow was touching my dads arm and I thought he was gonna drop his gun he was shaking so hard. A min or two later one of the jakes walked by us at no more than 10 ft, saw something he didn't like and started alarm putting. The gig was up and as the bird started walking off I told daddy to shoot, he made it count and killed his first turkey at maybe 15 yards.The rest of the birds flushed off but one stopped just out of sight at about 50 yards and gobbled. I made a few cuts and he came running back in and jumped on my daddy's bird as it was still flopping, stood up and gobbled again. I just couldn't take it any more and rolled that jake right off the back of my daddy's bird. I had never seen my daddy that exited in my life.
I was proud as ever to be able to show my skills off to my biggest role model ever and in a sense it felt like I had partially repaid him for all the time he had spent with me hunting as a kid.

We ended up getting a second double with a couple of mature toms on our next hunt that season and I have called in a bird for him each year since but that first turkey hunt with my daddy was sure nuff special and could only be matched by a hunt with my own kids.

[ilbucksndux]

I remember them all ! From the first one to the last.

Last year the third day of season and I had not fired a shot yet. I took the safety off once but didnt pull the trigger. That morning I hunted a place that was loaded with vocal toms but they were on the other side of a swollen creek and I could not find a place I could cross it to save my life. I was back at the house early and thinking about plan B. That happened to be a place that I had scouted but was pretty low on the place to hunt list. I pulled up to the place I was gonna park shut off the truck and opened the door. It thundered and I heard 2 gobble CLOSE !. I grabbed a mouth call,slate call and my gun and headed to the birds. I saw them out in a little pasture and they must have saw me too cause they were hauling the mail across this thing. Just when I thought I had screwed up again a bunch of hens started tearing it up BEHIND me !. I ran down one ridge,up another down ad up again. I should be right were those toms would have to trip over me. I was not gonna touch the call. I sat for about 5 minutes and it thundered. They sounded off to my left. I called a few times and shut up. It thundered again and they were right in front of me. They both looked to be about the same size so either one would do. Instead of walking straight at me they veered off to my right a bit. When the first bird was at 30 yards I cut just to see him gobble one more time then pulled the trigger. I was up and within seconds had my foot on his head. I got back to the truck and had only been away from it for 15 minutes.

[gotcha]

Lots of em' but hopefully the next one takes the cake!

[8up]

My Sons first gobbler for sure!

[tha bugman]

Mine has to be when my dad took me on my first turkey hunt when I was 5.  I remember everything about it...the ride there, where we were, where the turkey was...how he called and the bird responded....I was hooked...no turkey I have every killed or hunt that I have been on has meant as much to me as that one.  Never take the time that you spend with a child for granted...it means more to them than you will ever know.

[OldSchool]

Mine has to be when my dad took me on my first turkey hunt when I was 5.  I remember everything about it...the ride there, where we were, where the turkey was...how he called and the bird responded....I was hooked...no turkey I have every killed or hunt that I have been on has meant as much to me as that one.  Never take the time that you spend with a child for granted...it means more to them than you will ever know.

That's awesome.   I've got a lot of great memories of hunting with my dad, but not turkey hunting. He didn't have much interest in it for some reason, but God knows I tried. He would have loved it if he'd given it a chance.

I have a bunch that were really memorable hunts for different reasons. One that stands out was an early fall hunt around ten years ago. I found a couple toms feeding in a big pasture that morning about 8:00, but they ignored my calling.

The old pasture was starting to grow up with some brush and scrub apple trees here and there, so I had a little cover for a stalk. Long story short, in the span of three hours I snuck and crawled, following them from one end of the pasture to the other, then back to almost where I started.

A couple different times I thought I was busted, but they went back to feeding. I got close a couple times, within a few yards of being in sure range, but not quite. At other times they'd get in a spot where I couldn't move and open up the distance. Three hours from the time it all started they decided to take a rest and hung around in one spot long enough for me to close the range. I killed one of them standing at about 25 yards, and the other just as he cleared the ground. Both nice adult gobblers.

What made it such a memorable hunt for me, wasn't so much killing the birds as it was the heart pounding three hours that led up to it.

Bob

[MK M GOBL]

Here's mine!

I have had some history with this "bad" bird and have been hunting him for the past 3 years, he was the kind of bird who would always answer but never come in, seems he always had hens with him and 5 or 6 of them at a time. Well here we are in year #4 and have seen him out strutting with his harem of hens and have set-up on him a number of times this year already, actually killed a couple of satellite birds in his area during our first couple of seasons. So we are now into our 4th season and after a tough few days and a unsuccessful morning hunting with a buddy I was headed back to the house to mow my lawn that seriously needs it. My buddy says you can always mow lawn in 2 weeks when turkey season is over... Took his advice and went out to the blind, got the DSD's my Cody and BIG PUFFY out. Once I sat down this guy gobbles once at my hen talk and then shuts up, I gave him a few more calls and no response... Next thing I see is a head pop up in the field and disappear, the a fan appears and he is strutting in and doing the fast walk. Eleven minutes into it and he's down at 15 yards! This is the one I was after and he was lonely today. This is a bird that I knew all too well and finally taking this longbeard "Hook" was worth the wait! He weighed in at 23lbs 7oz, a 10 ½" beard and spurs were at 1 7/16"

MK M GOBL