April Call Giveaway Winner
This month’s call giveaway winner is Rebecca Sears. Becky is the proud owner a beautiful walnut pot with aluminum over glass and our Spur design along with a display case that we also engraved for her. We won’t be doing another giveaway for a couple months due to the season being over, but be sure to check back often just in case we change our minds. We would like to thank everyone that has entered and congrats to all the winners.
Wild Wonderful West Virginia Wild Turkeys
Fellow Pro-Staffer Chad Morris and I headed home to West Virginia for the opening day of turkey season. The season in WV opens around the last week of April and usually the birds are fired up, but this year was very different. On Monday the weather was a horrible 31 degrees and raining. They gobbled on the roost for a bit then hit the ground and shut up. That day Amanda Morris, Lonnie Morris, and Lloyd Morris all scored and got birds. The second day started out cold, but no rain. That day proved to a good day scoring four kills. Lloyd got his second bird. Lonnie scored number 2, which was a monster with 1-1/2″ spurs and 11” beard. Kevin Duckworth scored one. Chad’s dad Mark killed a bird while they waited in the blind. As the way they describe it was text book. Chad said, “It was better watching his dad pull the trigger then himself.”
The most special event that took place was when Amanda, Chad’s sister, got her first bird. Everything this girl does is a special moment in our family. When she was 13 years old she was diagnosed with A.L.L (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia). She had a hard road to her recovery. She is the true meaning to the word fighter and also proof of a miracle. She was in a blind with our cousin John-Paul. They had a bird roost close to their setup. After the bird flew down Johnny hit some soft yelps along with purrs and clucks with his cedar spur call. The bird came in without hesitation. Johnny talked Amanda through her nerves as she squeezed the trigger and brought the bird down. It was special moment for us all that we will always cherish, and it’s moments like this that means more to you when it’s someone that has been through so much.
All together seven birds in three days. Chad and I both came close, but it didn’t work out. It’s not always about how many you got. It’s about the experience of being outdoors, and with people that you love. I know for me without my uncle Mark and his family I would not have had the chance to be a hunter. So when you have time please take someone fishing or hunting to enjoy the outdoors.
2012 Kentucky Spring Opener
Opening day of the Kentucky Spring Turkey season turned out to be an exciting day for Derby City’s Dave Berry and Jim Dawson. Jim joined Dave and his son Brandon on a hunt at the Sullivan farm in Jefferson County. Dave had been running a trail camera on a food plot for about 5 weeks prior to the season opener. Dave was getting pictures of birds strutting in the field at all hours of the day. Dave and Brandon were going to hunt this field, Jim joined them to watch and hopefully get a little video footage.
They heard some gobbling on the roost, and had a bird gobbling behind them early in the morning. A little soft calling was all it took to let them know that some hens were waiting for them up in the field. They heard a few gobbles to their left, letting them know that the birds were heading their way.
Brandon saw the birds as they popped into the field about 70 yards away. Dave and Jim had set out two hen decoys and all three were hidden in a dark horse blind. Jim started to film as the birds slowly strutted and worked their way towards the decoys. Dave and Brandon were going to try and double. This would be Brandon’s first bird. Jim got a little shaky with the camera, due to a mixture of no tripod and anticipation. Jim also had to do a little calling with his left hand while holding the camera. He said that the calling sounded horrible, but he did the best he could with his opposite hand. It must have worked, the birds seemed to like it.
Needless to say, Dave hit his bird and Brandon missed. Brandon was a little disappointed, but that did not last long. Brandon dropped his first bird in that same field the next afternoon. A nice 22 pound gobbler with a great beard and nice set of spurs.
Illinois 2012
Jim's Bird
My good friend and fellow Pro Staffer, Dave Berry, joined me on a turkey hunt in Illinois. We traveled there on Easter Sunday and did some scouting in areas that I have seen birds in previous seasons. We had a hard time locating birds, but found one strutting late in the day. I was not sure of hunting this particular bird. I had never hunted that part of the property. I did not know the terrain and had no idea where the birds would move in the morning.
Dave and I went to scout a corn field that had been holding birds all winter. We thought we would see a lot of birds, but only saw 5 hens. Seeing no gobblers or hearing any gobbling, we had a decision to make. After some deliberation, we decided we needed to hunt the gobbler we saw earlier in the afternoon. I had a good idea of where he was roosting. We formulated a plan, got some dinner, and tried to get some sleep.
We arrived at the farm just as it was getting a little light. As soon as we got out of the truck, the gobbler was already hammering away on the roost. We eased down a fence row, trying to get to the back corner. We could only get about 40 yards away from the corner before we had to pick a spot to set up. The gobbler was hot and he was pretty close. I did some soft tree yelps and shut up. He kept gobbling and I was worried he was going to call every hen in the county to him. He shut up for about 30 minutes. I figured he had some hens with him, then he fired up again in about the same place we last heard him. I started doing some soft calling and he gobbled every time. He was somewhere just inside the woods. He was within 50 yards of us, but he never came into the field. We thought he was going to pop out at any second, but we never laid eyes on him. I guess he henned up, went on through the woods, and had a lovely time with the ladies.
Dave and I moved on down to the corner and set out my Zink decoy. We called off and on. We heard a few gobbles way off and a hen did some cutting, but we did not see anything for several hours. Dave saw the tip of a fan strutting out in the field. We did some calling, but never got a response. After another 30 minutes of sitting, we decided that we needed to move to the top of the rise. The wind was blowing hard and gobblers could not see the decoy unless they were on that rise. I ease up to the rise, glassed this finger that jutted out from the woods, and spotted a longbeard feeding. I motioned to Dave to come on up.
I crawled up and put the decoy out. It was not far enough on the rise. Dave belly crawled out to the decoy, and crawled to the crest of the rise. He peeked under the decoy and there were 2 longbeards looking at him. He slithered back as fast as a black racer and the hunt was on. I used my Chestnut Spur to do some soft clucks and yelps. Dave used his call to do soft purrs. I had literally just dropped my call when Dave saw two heads pop over the rise. The lead bird was coming to the decoy, but noticed us sitting in the woods. He got nervous and was getting ready to take off. My gun was sitting in my lap from calling. I swung the gun to my shoulder quickly and pulled the trigger. I knocked him down and 35 yards. He jumped up and took off and I put another hit on him at 45 yards.
He was 22 pounds, 9.5 inch beard, and 3/4 inch spurs. I would like to thank Dave for sharing this hunt with me.
**If you will notice in some of the pictures, there is a tag with a turkey head on it. Dave and I each bought one of these tags at Mitch Ensor’s Hunting for A Cure banquet for ALS. This is a turkey head that Mitch drew. He calls it Cap-N-Hook. Dave and I made a pact that we would carry this tag with us for the rest of our turkey hunting careers. We feel that we will always have Mitch along with us on our hunts. This tag will also be in pictures of any turkey we ever kill from here on out. When my hunting days are over, I will explain what this tag means to me and pass it down to my grandkids or another special young hunter. WE LOVE YOU MITCH. YOU WILL BE TURKEY HUNTING WITH US FOR A LONG TIME.
April 2012 Turkey Call Giveaway
Up for grabs in our April Turkey Call Giveaway, is a beautiful walnut pot with aluminum over glass and our Spur design. We’ve also included a stunning display case this month!
Beyond it’s great looks, this call has a killer sound and it could be yours! Don’t let this call get away, post your comment and get your chance at this call! The way this is going to work is, you have to post your comments on this post and we will pick one lucky winner on the last day of the each month. When making your comment on this post please include your valid email address. Reason being, this is the way we will contact the winner.
Good luck!
