Nebraska Turkey Hunt
A good friend of mine, Scott Cronin, invited me to go on a hunting trip to Nebraska with him this past weekend. Scott’s friends, Nick Brown and Steve “Fish” Callison were on the trip as well. We went to Ponca Creek Outdoors in North Central Nebraska. The country is beautiful and the turkey hunting was phenomenal.
Each one of us killed two birds. Scott and I hunted together on day one and tagged out. After hunting a cut cornfield on the first morning, we did some run and gun hunting early in the afternoon. We struck a bird, put a short stalk on him, called to him a little, and Scott put him down at 60 yards. This bird completed Scott’s 2nd grand slam.
That evening, Scott and I hunted the same cornfield we hunted in the morning. We had an eventful morning at that location and wanted to get a shot at those birds again. In the morning, we had three longbeards chasing and breeding hens all around us. We knew they would be back later that evening. I ended up shooting a true Merriams at about 4:30. About 2 hours later, Scott and I pulled a double on two beautiful Hybrids. My Magnum Aluminum call helped bag three of these day one birds. It was the best day of turkey hunting I have ever had.
Nick and Fish hunted together and killed 2 longbeards on the first morning. On day two, both of them killed their 2nd birds. Nick and Fish hunted a cornfield that was loaded with turkey. It was common for them to have 5-8 gobblers strutting in the field throughout the day.
It was a great trip. We had a lot of fun and did some serious turkey hunting. I came away from this trip with two nice gobblers, two new friends, and one truly good friend. What a great way to end the 2010 spring turkey season.
Derby City welcomes new Pro Staffer Scott Cronin
Derby City would like to welcome Scott Cronin, as our newest Pro Staffer. Scott is a an Agriculture teacher at Muhlenberg County High School. He loves to hunt and fish and does so as much as possible. Scott recently completed his second Grand Slam on May 14, 2010. Scott will be a great ambassador for Derby City. We look forward to many great years of hunting with Scott. Check out his profile in our Pro Staff section.
Finally Tagged Out
Finally Tagged Out on a tree line that divided two freshly planted corn fields. I placed my Peep-n-Tom and Pretty Penney decoys out and sat about 30 yards inside the tree line. I called sparingly every 20-30 minutes. Around 5:10, I did some cutting on my Aluminum Magnum. I put the call down, glanced up, and there he was about 120 yards out. He was looking around, but started to feed in the opposite direction. I picked up the Magnum again and did 3 clucks. That got his attention. He put that head up and started looking my way. I started to do a little purring and he started walking my way.
He finally spotted the decoys and came in on a dead run. He stopped about 15 yards to the right of the decoys. I did not give him a chance to fight or spook. He was 22 pounds, with a 9 3/4 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.
Send us pictures of your Successful Hunts
Derby City would love to showcase your successful hunts this year. Please send us a picture and the specifics of your hunt. We have been uploading pictures and have many new additions to our kill zone. Just go to the Photo Gallery link and click on Kill Zone. Thanks for sharing your successful hunts with us.
