2021 Strut Stopper Story Thread

[dzsmith]

Went to bama for 2 days last week. Public. Never heard a gobble. Saw one set of gobbler tracks. This was a very large track. What i did see .... was hogs.... in daylight. Hog sign absolutely anywhere I went. The highest mountains or the swamps had rooting and hog poop. The freaking mountain has rooting.... like what the crap. The very first spot I pulled into , within my first 10 minutes in the woods I was standing there watching 10 pigs rooting at 20-30 yards from me. Only other public land I've seen it that bad on was Louisiana where pigs arent afraid at the sight of a human. Anyway, weather wasn't good , but I at least thought I'd find some turkey sign.... no. There was little to no evidence turkeys existed there . It didn't help that they absolutely burned the entire place . Every square inch of the wma was burned . I thought burns were typically rotated .... well not here. Anyway , I'll just go somewhere differing on the next trip. Very few hunters , but I did see a few. This was one of the rare occasions where seeing hunters is actually encouraging lol. So.... fast forward a week. I went to Texas. This was an outfit. Booked way in advance. We booked for the beginning of the third week of their season. South Texas. I exclusively asked , are your birds mostly shot out in the first 2 weeks because if that's the case or even close to the case I'm not interested . Of course he said no.... we manage the bird numbers well. Yeah well bull#^>€. Not a gobbling bird on the place . Few hens , few Jakes . Tons of evidence of where turkeys were shot all along the fence on the property line . Did hear a couple birds .... that's it literally 2 and they were way off the property. I did manage to get one one time to come to the fence and I shot a freaking limb right in front of the barrel .... as soon as he rested the hill the fence was and could see down to me he was getting out of town , and I had to attempt to shoot through a hole because he hadn't really came down the fence enough for a shot. It was foolish to take the shot but you know how it is .... especially when you arrive and ask how many have yal shot . And the outfit says 30.... I was like uh what .... 30 birds on 1200 acres . And he's like yeah is that bad .... well it ain't good for me lol. I went with a friend . And in 3 mornings and 2 evenings we never technically worked a single bird . And the only birds we heard which was 3 between the 2 of us weren't even on his property. This was not a cheap hunt either . We researched and read reviews and got recommendations..... and it was exactly what we were afraid of . It was shot out in 2 weeks. The guide never talked , the only words he spoke was ok, alright, and have a safe trip when we left . He wasn't even sorry . What a freaking train wreck . Also this guy never changed clothes in 3 days lol.

[turkey harvester]

Dang that sucks!! They wouldn't tell ya there was no turkeys but will take that cash. Seems the stories about outfitters is getting worse than better.
The hogs are all over here in southern Mo too. Bout every week or so we see a big group crossing the highway out where I live. They're not helping the population any but our fine MDC don't want anyone to hunt them on state land or you'll get a fine. Pretty freaking stupid.

[aclawrence]

Man that's a bummer about your Texas trip. Next time you come to Alabama shoot me a message and maybe I could help point you towards some action.  You know the hogs have to be tough on hen nest.


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[bornagain64]

Congrats on the birds and Great stories. I just finished a 4 day hunt, and did not get on a bird until the last day. I am gonna try and make it out a couple more times, but we only have 1 week left.

[birdman67]

Dzsmith that is awful. People will tell you anything these days for a dollar. Sad sad....And hogs are awful. 10 years ago we didn't have any. Now it seems everywhere you go, there they are.

Good luck on your last week bornagain! I hope you are able to get one, but if not, enjoy your last few hunts of the year. It's a long wait until next spring

[dzsmith]

Man that's a bummer about your Texas trip. Next time you come to Alabama shoot me a message and maybe I could help point you towards some action.  You know the hogs have to be tough on hen nest.


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10-4. It wasn't my first choice but I only had 2 days and I wanted to try and roost a bird before night fall so before driving an additional 2.5 hours to my plan "a" I decided to pull in to plan "b" which was where I was driving through. It's ok , part of it. But after the first 10 minutes , I should have got in the truck and drove the 2.5 hours

[dzsmith]

Dzsmith that is awful. People will tell you anything these days for a dollar. Sad sad....And hogs are awful. 10 years ago we didn't have any. Now it seems everywhere you go, there they are.

Good luck on your last week bornagain! I hope you are able to get one, but if not, enjoy your last few hunts of the year. It's a long wait until next spring

like I said we did our research. We may have been the only people to go there an not kill.... or they just delete all the bad reviews and lack of success but I can't lie . The 15 before us killed their birds. The lack of concern from the owner leads me to believe we may not know the whole truth. This was my first time to hunt south Texas it was my buddies 2nd time. He got skunked both times with the same crap. In Texas defense the first time he went he literally went the last week.... so without sacrificing the opening of our state we went the beginning of Texas 3rd week. 1/2 way point of the season. Not early enough ....

[wvhoyt19]

Well My youngest son almost got it done on WV youth season. Birds gobbled well on the limb but were tight lipped on the ground until 9:45. We struck a bird and set up off a field edge with my DSD breeding pair. Ol gobbler didn't follow the script. Instead, he decided to enter the field 5 steps to my left. Nick moved ever so slightly and....gone! Always next time! Good luck everyone!!


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[Kygobblergetter]

Finally got it done today. Got on birds in the morning but couldn't get them to cross the creek that is the property line. Hunted all day covering lots of ground and finally found a bird around 4:30. He gobbled at pretty much every call I made but skirted me at about 80 yards on my first set up. I let him work off and was able to reposition and get in front of him. Made a couple series of soft calls and he came gobbling all the way to the call. It was in thick woods so I was just standing behind a tree about as big around as my body. At 25 yards I gave him a couple soft yelps and shot him when he raised his head. Score will come tonight or tomorrow when I can get to a scale. Felt great to get the monkey off my back after a really tough start to my season


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[Kygobblergetter]

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[aclawrence]

Well My youngest son almost got it done on WV youth season. Birds gobbled well on the limb but were tight lipped on the ground until 9:45. We struck a bird and set up off a field edge with my DSD breeding pair. Ol gobbler didn't follow the script. Instead, he decided to enter the field 5 steps to my left. Nick moved ever so slightly and....gone! Always next time! Good luck everyone!!


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I've taken my 7 yr old on a couple trips and it's tough. If we ever do get one to come in it's going to take a miracle for the bird to stand still and let him get the gun on it lol. Oh well we're having fun either way.


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[aclawrence]

Finally got it done today. Got on birds in the morning but couldn't get them to cross the creek that is the property line. Hunted all day covering lots of ground and finally found a bird around 4:30. He gobbled at pretty much every call I made but skirted me at about 80 yards on my first set up. I let him work off and was able to reposition and get in front of him. Made a couple series of soft calls and he came gobbling all the way to the call. It was in thick woods so I was just standing behind a tree about as big around as my body. At 25 yards I gave him a couple soft yelps and shot him when he raised his head. Score will come tonight or tomorrow when I can get to a scale. Felt great to get the monkey off my back after a really tough start to my season


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Nice one! Congrats on a good day of hunting.


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[bornagain64]

Congrats. Nice beard on that bird. Stay after it guys, it can all change in an instant.

Keep at it with the younger hunters: they are learning some hard lessons, but they will be better hunters for it. And it will be more rewarding when it does finally happen.

[fmf]

good job ky!  way to get it done

[Kygobblergetter]

Thanks guys. The season started really rough but I'm starting to feel like I know what I'm doing again after calling 4 birds to their death in 4 days of hunting. Of course the one I shot was the smallest of the 4. Not that I'm complaining by any means. I have just as much fun calling for friends as I do pulling the trigger myself


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