What Is The Best Turkey Hunt You've Ever Had?

[SinGin]

Any time I get to go to Kansas to hunt I always have a new best hunt.

[catman529]

ooh thats a tough question, and I've only been at it 3 or 4 years.... two that I will never forget are my first turkey ever (a jake) and my first longbeard (on the same area of public land). The first turkey, I had snuck to a field edge with struttin toms, hens and jakes. I clucked and purred and one hen got pissed off and came running to 5 yards with 2 jakes following, and one of those jakes was my first turkey. I still remember their bright read heads up close and personal and seeing one drop and lay on the ground, and thinking to myself I had just killed my first turkey.

The other was the next spring, it was my first long beard, same area, different field. I was on edge of river bank facing corner of field. At some point, another guy came in and set up a blind and 2 decoys about 350 yards across the field. Well I had 3 gobblers hammering their heads off at my calls and then 2 hens that showed up on my side of the creek. The 3 gobblers had flown down on the other side, but they came to the edge of the river and flew to my side. When one popped his head up 10 yards away, he saw me, my gun and camera and started putting and backed down. All the birds then cut out through the bushes into the field and went straight to the other guy's dekes. I heard the shot, and looked out to see the other turkeys just standing around. Then they started coming towards me. I set back and got the gun up. A little wait, and here comes the first one, a small grey head. Then the next one, a big red head. Boom, down, a fat 2 year old with a 12.5 inch beard. Me and the other guy got pics of our birds, he was visiting from arkansas, and we both had a great hunt despite setting up on each other accidentally.

[Jay]

The last one. As my Turkey adventures are winding down to an end due to age, and living on social security, I fully appreciate getting out another year. So many of my elderly friends are not able to do this any more, and living on memories, but I am still creating new memories. I am really looking forward this year to teaching a mother and daughter to Turkey hunt, which due to retirement, I now have the time to do.

[RutnNStrutn]

I've had many, but my Full Circle hunt is as good as a man can expect.  It was a hunt several years ago with my Dad.  We were on a hard gobbling stubborn bird.  My Dad told me several times during the hunt to leave him and go kill the dang turkey.  He doesn't get around like he once did.   He never once left me as a kid and I sure wasn't going to bail on him.   We sat there talking strategy like we have done hundreds of times before.  I could see his deep breaths caused by excitement, and I could see it in his blue eye's the same as I had for the last forty years.  I finally hit on the right combo and the bird ever so slowly made is way towards us.  I saw the bird first and told my Dad to get his gun up.  He can't put it on his knee anymore so he has to free hand it, which is tough even for a young man.   It was timed about right, he saw the birds head and put him down for good.  After the shot I realized it had been forty years since he helped me kill my first longbeard, and there I was helping him put one on the ground.  I remembered the picture of my first longbeard and got us to pose as close as I could remember without him knowing what I was doing.   Then For Fathers day I had the two pictures put in a fold out frame side by side. 

Any story I could tell would pale in comparison to that one. So I'll just say, fantastic story Ronnie, you're a good son!

[Rio Fan]

Guesswho, that's an awesome story. 

I've had so many awesome days in the turkey woods, even when it didn't result in a dead bird, but one day stands out from the rest.  It was opening day back in 2009.  There was a lot of snow that spring so we couldn't even really get to our areas until right before the season started.  The evening before the opener, my dad and I walked into an area to see if we could hear birds gobbling on the roost.  I hit a coyote howler and a bird gobbled.  He was the only bird we could hear in that particular spot, but as we were walking by to our truck we could hear a couple of birds gobbling way off in the distance to the west of us in a different canyon.  The next morning we actually hunted a different area we knew was holding birds and we've done well in that spot in past years.  The bird we set up on gobbled well on the roost, but he had company and several hens ended up taking him away from us.  We figured we'd go try one of the other spots and come back and hunt this bird later in the day.  When we got to the spot where the bird gobbled at the coyote howler, a rig was parked there so we drove down to where we heard those birds gobbling in the canyon to the west.  We got set up and I started calling and a bird gobblers right away.  He ended up being across the canyon from us and we watched him strut out to a logging road, he was hammering bigtime.  Well, after a bit we hear another bird gobbling in the direction the first bird came from.  Meanwhile, the first bird flies across the canyon and lands below us to our right and starts working his way to us.  I could hear him drumming as he was approaching, but couldn't see him because he was below us a ways.  The second bird come out right where the first bird did and now he's gobbling and strutting his stuff on the logging road at the edge of the canyon.  I finally see the first bird's head and he's already about in range.  He was walking towards a big stump and as soon as he walked past it, I'd have a great shot.  My dad didn't have a shot the way he was facing.  So the bird steps out and I shoot him and then I immediately grabbed my glass pot call and started calling to the other bird.  He was still gobbling like crazy, the shot didn't even both him.  So this bird also ends up flying across the canyon, but lands off in the distance to the left of us and that's the way my dad was facing.  This bird started working his way to us and he was fired up.  He actually joined up with two hens that I didn't know were there but he came running to the calls with the hens trailing him and my dad whacked him.  I killed my bird at about 8:00 and my dad killed his at about 8:30.  We excited to say the least!  So we took a few pictures and tagged our birds and headed back to the truck and then we drove back to where we saw that rig at the other spot.  The rig was gone so we walked back in there and on our way in we could hear several birds going nuts.  I figured it was a group of jakes, but didn't know for sure.  As we got further back into that area, the gobbling stopped so I'm guessing maybe we got busted.  We sat down and on my first series of yelps, a bird gobbles at us in the direction the bird was the evening before the gobbled at the coyote howler.  We ended up having to reposition on this bird 3 times, but he finally worked his way to us and was about 20 yards away when my dad pulled the trigger.  He was hit hard, but he managed to flow a couple hundred yards and then we saw him land and start walking quickly along a logging road.  We hurried over there and I was just praying we weren't going to lose this bird.  Well I could see his footprints in the snow and then they went off the logging road to the edge of a canyon and I looked down below and he was laying there dead.  So my dad is tagged out and longbeard number 3 is down.  So we end up heading back to where we started that morning.  As soon as I called a bird gobbled at us.  I called again and he cut me off.  And then it wasn't too long and I could him drumming.  I got my gun up and the bird stepped up from behind a clump of brush and started walking right towards me.  I let him get about about 30 yards from me and I pulled the trigger and longbeard #4 was down.  The best thing about that day was that I got to experience it with my dad.  We definitely drove off the mountain with huge smiles on our face.

Two days later we were in Idaho and the first morning of our hunt, we had two longbeards come strutting their stuff up a logging road from about 300 yards away and we doubled on them when the got within about 20 yards.  One bird was already in range and I was about to tell my dad to shoot him because the other one was below and little lip in the road and I didn't know if he'd present a shot.  Well, he finally showed himself and actually hopped up on a blown down log.  My dad shot him right off the log and I thumped the other bird.  The turkey Gods were with us those two days, that's for sure.  Sorry for such a long story guys, and I'm not a good story teller, but I just had to share those hunts with you.

[jblackburn]

I've got a couple that rank pretty high.  As a complete turkey hunting trip, last year all of us with Gooserbat Game Calls finally got to hunt together.  We started out in Colorado after Merriams, and in 3 days of butt kicking we had one bird to show for a lot of hiking calling, and glassing.  We decided to break camp and head to Kansas to hunt public land and we found birds everywhere!  5 public land gobblers down in 4 days!



But probably my single favorite hunt was during the 2010 Missouri youth season.  I took an 8 year old and his 16 year cousin hunting.  We set up in a bottom where the 16 year old knew some birds were. I set out my new jake mobile 20 yards in front of them and sat 15 yards or so behind them to call.  The 16 year old had killed a couple birds before and was setting by his cousin to keep him still and calm (or so we thought!).  Two gobblers pitched down in the field and I have a few yelps, they stuck their heads up and ran at us!  They got to the decoy and proceeded to beat the ever living crap out of it!  The kid had a single shot 20 gauge and fired at one of the birds, but he was too excited and I watched the wad sail about 8 feet over its head!  Both birds jumped straight in the air, landed, gobbled and kept beating the decoy!  The 16 year old had all the extra ammo and was digging in his pocket for a shell as two long beards are still beating the decoy! 

One of the birds started to get nervous, but they got the shell in the gun, clacked it back closed, cocked the hammer and the kid rolled a 24 pound stud with 1 1/4 spurs! That was such a wild hunt!

[natman]

Not necessarily the best hunt, but the easiest hunt I ever had was one morning I parked the car and heard a gobbler gobbling his head off non-stop. I walked in to my hunting spot listening to him carry on. I sat down, got settled and tried one yelp. The gobbler ran 250 yards downhill to where I was. I yelped once to get him to stop, then shot him.

I was hunting for about 15 minutes total and was home before 9 am.

It was fun, but I'm glad they're not all that easy.

[Gooserbat]

I've got a couple that rank pretty high.  As a complete turkey hunting trip, last year all of us with Gooserbat Game Calls finally got to hunt together.  We started out in Colorado after Merriams, and in 3 days of butt kicking we had one bird to show for a lot of hiking calling, and glassing.  We decided to break camp and head to Kansas to hunt public land and we found birds everywhere!  5 public land gobblers down in 4 days!

Joey you beat me to it, that was one of the best I've ever been on, but probably the finest was the first, not that I killed any thing because as a seven year old kid I didn't even have a gun or a call, but because it lit a fire and bonded me and my Dad.  We've lived hours apart and never deer hunted together but come turkey season we would go to the same WMA on SE Oklahoma each year for our annual hunt. 

[Tail Feathers]

Ronnie that was an awesome story and I love the matching photos.

There are many, but my most memorable moment was my first longbeard.  Two of 'em came in straight off the roost, hard gobbling and strutting down a long, narrow oat patch.  They came right past where I wanted the shoot them, and both double gobbled about 30 feet from me.  They almost blew my hat off!
They were so tight against each other I couldn't get a shot (1 bird limit here).  Finally at about 6 yards the bird closest to me got a step ahead, still in full strut and I let him have it.
I still get goosebumps thinking about it.
I have some great memories in the turkey woods but that is the one that got me so completely hooked.  I began to travel for turkeys the next spring, a one bird limit locally wouldn't let me get my fill of these magnificent birds.

[WildTigerTrout]

I have had quite a few great turkey hunts but my two favorites occured just last spring. I called in a nice mature gobbler for my son(his first) without the aid of decoys or a blind. He was shaking like a leaf. I thought for sure the bird would see us but it all worked out and after nearly 15 minutes in front of us he dropped him with one shot out of a 20 ga. at about 20 yards. What a RUSH! That was during the youth hunt, then a week later on the first day of our regular season he was sitting right beside me while a called in and killed one of my nicest gobblers yet. It's pictured in my Avatar.

[Frank G]

Give a little description of the best hunt, best kill, or best day in the woods period. Have at it

The very first bird I called in a decade ago, close second was a double beard big boy. Worst both: No one around to share it with! 

[firstflight111]

3 years ago was the greatest hunting ever, i spent 3 days with my boys and got to tag them out before i even shot my first turkey. first day of youth my youngest smashed a nice tom with a 10.5 in beard 30 min later my middle boy missed a monster .we moved over the hill and watched him go off on another property we can't get on so we packed it in for the day  . morning 2 took the middle boy and the oldest out to my honey hole they both shot turkeys, middle boy went first right at day break he crushed a monster tom with an 11.5 in beard. 20 min later my oldest boy gave a Jake a dirt nap ,then the next day took an old friend out to the same spot and he crushed a great tom with a 10.5 in beard them took my dad out the next day and he got a monster with a 12 in beard then i started to hunt chased mine almost all season long well worth it 12 in beard .i took other guys out but family and friends made it even better..

[jhcats10]

Our last day in Kansas last year. Me, my buddy, and his dad had about 1.5 hours left in the hunt and we all had a tag left. We set up in front of several hay bales in a field that we've had success in before. After trimming some cedar bushes and making a temporary blind, I gave few yelps out with no answer.  We were all chatting it up when I looked over and saw a big bird blowed up about 200 yards away.  After every call he answered but wasn't coming any closer.  After about 10 minutes he starts to walk out of the field and I thought he saw our strutted decoy and the game was  over. He makes it to the field edge and I look behind him and there are two more birds strutting in the field behind him. 
  The original bird starts to walk the field edge in our direction and when he gets about 75 yards out, he commits and starts running in. It was my turn to shoot and I told the other two guys, when the bird gets in front of my barrel, I will shoot but sit still and I'll keep calling. He struts in to about 25 yards, I start to cut on my diaphragm and up pops his head. BOOM!! He falls stone dead and I let out a flurry of cuts and yelps and the other two birds come charging in.
  They reach my bird and I count down for both of them to shoot and it's over in a flash.
  So there we are with only an hour left and we all three tag out in 20 minutes.  Best hunt I've ever been on and the only triple I've witnessed.

[gophert]

This one, when my 10 yr old daughter killed her first turkey. 

http://youtu.be/PN8lPFbm-Pk

[reflexl]

I spent 3 hours one morning trying to get a bird to leave a flock. There were 9 birds struting and who knows how many hens. Every time I touched a call they gobbled. I ranged them at 328 yards. I just sat tight. I had decoys out but because of the way the field rolled over I knew the birds couldn't see them. I was watching them with binos and saw that one of the strutters was getting tired of the party. He started flogging anything that got near him. That was my chance. I started purring aggressively and he and his buddy came running. The ran the whole 328 yards! When he got within range I smoked him. Here is is where he fell with my makeshift blind and decoy in the background. reflexl