Mass Turkey, Day one..

[MBullism]

My morning had everything in the book....birds gobbling, unwanted company of the hunting variety (they turned out to be a "non factor" though), a woman jog through my decoy spread with her lab at 6:40 a.m. (she seemed confused by the fake birds-and never saw me, LOL), said lab delight in busting up the group of birds I was working...me call it a morning about 8 and I head for the truck. Insult to injury, three toms all fanned out behind my truck. They kinda spook, but not bad...long story short I end up getting a shot and miss http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-bag-on-head.gif , but I don&#39;t feel too bad (at least that&#39;s my story and I&#39;m sticking to it).

How&#39;d everyone elses morning go?

[skipnoid]

After that story, maybe they should just change opening day to Friday the 13th!

I took the wife to "Spot A" ... same field I got birds on opening day the last two years in a row. We had at least six birds shot at all around us. Nothing showed up in our field though. We hung tight till 9:30 or so. She was incredibly patient, quiet and still. I could see her shivering too, but she wouldn&#39;t admit she was cold until we got back to the truck. Spent a half hour walking trying to locate one. Heard one drumming in dense pines. Set up and tried to call him in ... nothin&#39;.

I asked her if she wanted to try another spot that I wanted to scout. There are birds there that never were before and I wanted to try to find a roosting area. She said "whatever", which is her way of saying no, but I of course took the more literal translation and took her to "Spot B" anyway.

We walked around the area I wanted to scout ... calling blind ... nothin&#39;. While walking back out to the cart path she tripped on a blow-down and went down hard ... twisted her ankel (sp?) pretty bad. Got her up, grabbed her gun and stuff. So at 11:45 I&#39;m waiting for her to catch up and I made one more try with a locator call ... Gobbble!
http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-dancin-red.gif

We set up real quick and I was able to call him all the way in. At 11:55 she had him dead to rights at 20 Yards, head held straight up, motionless and everything ... but she didn&#39;t shoot!
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She just wasn&#39;t sure what to do. I was against another tree 10 yards away and couldn&#39;t talk to her. At one point she looked over to me and I gave her the thumbs-up. She felt bad afterwards ... she was even appologizing and stuff! I was just psyched to get a bird out in front of her on her very first time out! I told her it was still a sucessfull hunt, because we did everthing right and she could have killed the bird cleanly, but just decided not too.
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I think she gets it now. The non-hunters who see turkeys and deer in their back yards think it&#39;s real easy ... until they actually go out and try to kill one of &#39;em! Her ankel was bad enough that she got it X-rayed. It&#39;s not broken though. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbs-up-ani.gif Would you believe that she&#39;s trying to arrange a baby sitter for Saturday morning! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-bowdown-purple.gif

After we got done, I headed to the Berkhires for yesterday&#39;s hunt. The guys I met had birds all around on Monday but couldn&#39;t get any to come in. As luck would have it, not a peep on Tuesday. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-hitting-self.gif Nice place though!

I&#39;m going to try it for a couple hours on Friday before work. The squeeky wheel gets the grease you know! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-biggrin-aqua.gif

[MBullism]

Glad to hear Mrs. Skip is O.K.! Awesome all that hard work paid off and got you a bird in front of you guys. Definately a success, catch and release if you will http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-biggrin-aqua.gif

Keep that wheel a squeakin&#39;, persistance is definately a big part of it. Kudos to both of you for sticking it out til noon http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-bowdown-purple.gif