KY Youth Opener

[kytrkyhntr]

I have always dreamed of killing a banded bird in my home state, awesome job and congrats! Really cool stuff

[boomer]

Congrats!!

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[kyturkeyhunter4]

Congratulations that's Awesome

[Mabren2]

Congrats! I'm in KY as well. My youth hunter has outgrown me haha, so I'm patiently waiting for the opener. Hard to top that hunt!

[Zobo]

Nice going, great job!

[Tsgman]

Congratulations!  I hope to have a similar story this coming weekend for my sons youth opener.

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[suburbhunter]

Congratulations 

Please follow up with the banding information. Thanks. 

[toneloc]

Thanks for all the kind words.  You guys nailed in on the mistakes making the hunt.  Nothing sweeter than redemption.  I told Joey it's not normal to only have to wait 15 minutes for that.....   Couldn't ask for anything more for our first KY hunt.  After the kill Joey brought up  on his own about all the work we put in choosing what state to hunt, map scouting, talking to biologists, making mouth calls, rolling our own ammo, patterning different chokes, etc.  Felt good that he realized all work that goes into it.  Told him you need some luck, but in life you make your own luck as well.

Hunted hard yesterday till 330PM.  Had to cover a long distance for our first setup yesterday.  Bird was hot and on the ground by the time we caught up to him.  Super open hardwoods, so had to play it conservative.  Setup above him, one call and he shut up and went straight away giving us a couple courtesy gobbles.  Trailed him to the next ridge and crept out where we could look down and waited.  After about 30 minutes we got a couple responses.  Watched a hen go one way and 3 big ole long beards strut up the opposite ridge and over.  Must of been another hen(s) the other direction that we could not see.  We circled the bowl and tried to come at them from above where we felt they went to.  Never got a response so we eventually called our way down to where we last saw them strutting.  Area was tore up with scratching so we sat in the sun and waited for 30 minute or so when a hen finally started soft calling to us.  Called her for 15 minutes or so before we got one last gobble.  Continued to work that hen for 45 minutes and she would not come up, just move back and forth.  Thinking she may have had a nest in that area.  It was 1PM by then.....the 8hr drive home and 2.5 hr hike to the truck was looming, so made the tough call to try and find something more cooperative on the way out.  Heard 2 distance gobbles and then one close gobble within 500 yds of the truck at 245PM.  We quick closed the distance and setup quick, but he never gobbled again and never showed himself.

On the band....They had an option on reporting to get an "appreciation letter", hoping that letter will contain some info on when and where he was tagged.  Will report back if we get any info.  Also found a pretty cool video on banding from KY wildlife.  Link below.  Said in the video they try to band 300 birds per year.....do the math on 330,000 estimated turkey population, that's a rare bird.  1 in 4 is a green band with a $75 reward!  Pretty cool program.

Good luck to all you guys our there with your kids / grandkids!   Thanks again for all the congrats.

You tube video on banding:  https://youtu.be/viTN88ztykQ

[Muzzy61]

Love it, Congrats to the young hunter.

[grayfox]

The proudness on that young man's face is priceless. Congrats!

[3bailey3]

Awesome bird and hunt, Congrats!