Roll call

[birdman67]

With only one weekend left, I decided to go after an old bird I've been chasing after work. Walking in, he gobbled twice. I setup and he came out into a field. He walked across but wouldn't come close enough for a shot. He has a paintbrush that I would love to measure before May 1st. Gonna keep after him hard. May try him after work again before the weekend. After he left I checked and he was 82 yards. If he would've gotten under 60 I would have taken him. So close....

[Dr Juice]

Nice.

[turkey harvester]

I feel your pain Birdman.
Sure was Stopper, wished the hawk would have waited 5 minutes. Good luck

[deerbasshunter3]

Well, I am off Sunday, so I will be in the woods one more time this season. As bad as the hunting has been (nobody on our farm has killed a bird) I cannot promise anything, but it will not be for a lack of trying.

[RIStrutStopper]

Sorry guys, didn't get it done today. I got to the farm I hunt in CT just before light and headed down the road to where they typically roost. Had one hammering just where I thought he'd be. I put out a single hen decoy, sat down in my Cabela's Turkey Lounger which immediately broke, and gave him a few soft clucks to know I was there. He flew down and headed away. I kept at him, but heard some turkey calling from the field a good 80 or so yards in front of me. I thought it might have been another hunter. After a series of clucks a few minutes later, he hammered back. He had completely circled around me and was standing 30 yards directly to my right. Of course, my gun is pointed left. Over the rise came a flock of maybe 10 birds from the field! There were some jakes in half strut and a bunch of hens, all walked straight to the longbeard. There were too many eyes for me to make a move. I heard them shuffling behind me for a bit.

After everything quieted down, I tried to locate them again. I heard a gobble back toward my truck. I set-up and called but no responses. I dropped my broke chair back at the truck and see another truck parked next to me with a shotgun case sitting on the seat. I know other people hunt that farm, but they usually only hunt weekends. Lovely. I knew there wasn't anybody where I just came from, so instead of hunting rest of the farm, I went back and set up on the field I was near before and did some blind calling. Amazingly, a longbeard snuck in silently and he stopped about 40-45  yards right in front of me. I clicked off my safety, and instead of continuing to my deke, he craned his neck and started putting. I should have dropped him right there, he took off running to the opposite side of the field. After that, I moved to try and get close to a bird gobbling in the distance, but he was on another property and I couldn't make him move. I did hear a shot coming from the fields near my truck, but after I called it quits, the other truck was still there. Don't know if they got a bird or not.

[deerbasshunter3]

Well, got it done on my last day of hunting this season.

[RIStrutStopper]

Nice bird Deerbasshunter3! I'm dying to get back in the woods. I'm in Orlando with the family doing the Disney thing. Hopefully I'll get out again next weekend.

[turkey harvester]

Well folks my season is over. This is the first time in several years I have crapped out hunting. By far one of the worst seasons for me. Between work, family and I've been sick, didn't get to hunt as much as I like. Sorry guys.

[birdman67]

It's all good. We all have a bad year every now and then. I appreciate you stepping up and captaining this team also buddy.

[turkey harvester]

Not a problem birdman, I wanted to see our team go ahead and do this contest.

[Dmason3]

Don't worry man. It was a bad year here in Illinois too. I didn't see a single satellite bird all year. Saw a tom strutting on a hen just two weeks ago. Thanks for letting me on the team this year. It was my first year doing this and really enjoyed it


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[turkey harvester]

Well folks it's over with. They going to tally up the scores and we'll see where we are. Looking forward to 2017 season already. I've enjoyed the stories and pics of dead turkeys. Been a pleasure getting to know some of ya. Maybe we can get the strut stoppers going for 2017!!!!

[birdman67]

Enjoyed it guys! I can't wait till next year. Hope we can go again in 2017!

[deerbasshunter3]

I'm down!

Can we have the same team next year, or does it have to be different every season?

[turkey harvester]

We can keep the same team and name. We can kinda get this thing rolling before sign up and not run into the problems we did this year. But we overcome and so the strut stoppers formed. We'll get our team together before it's even time to sign up and be ready to rock and roll.  Jeff