Derby City Pro Staffer, Dave Berry, tagged this super jake during Kentucky’s 2011 spring season.  Dave and DC Pro Staffer, Scott Cronin, set up in a field and had two jakes come in as soon as the birds flew off the roost.  This jake gobbled and put on a show until Dave dropped him at 50 yards.

This was a special hunt for me.  Scott invited me, Dave, and my father to his Grayson County farm for a weekend hunt.  I have tried to get my father to hunt for almost 35 years now.  He recently started helping us make turkey calls and this peaked his interest.  At 64 years old, dad finally went turkey hunting.  It was a tough year to say the least, but he enjoyed it.  Who knows, I may get him in the deer woods this year also.

Congrats Dave, on a SUPER JAKE.

I got to spend one day during the 2011 spring season hunting with Mitch Ensor.  We did not get to see or shoot any birds, but we got to hear them gobble.  A great hunt can’t be based on killing a bird or seeing them all day long.  This was a great hunt, because it was spent with a great friend who truly loves the outdoors.  We did not hunt long due to rainy conditions, but we sure had a good time hearing the birds and enjoying each others company.

Mitch is an amazing man with an amazing family.  To all of us, we see a family that is strong and determined.  What we all need to realize, is that they are just like us.  They have weaknesses, needs, feel overwhelmed, feel sadness, and feel anger.  The great thing about the Ensor’s, is they are proactive.  They could have given up and looked for pity.  However, they have taken on the challenge of beating ALS.  I would just like to say thank you to the Mitch and his family for letting Derby City become a small part of there lives.

We love you Mitch!

Grant and his father

Derby City Calls became a sponsor for GrowingdeerTV early in March.  We were fortunate enough to meet Dr. Grant Woods at this year’s NWTF Convention.  I spoke with Grant at length about how Derby City got its start and explained the process of how we make our calls.  We are proud to say that Grant and his team are doing a number on birds in Missouri this year.  Grant has had the opportunity to share in the successful hunts of both his daughters, Raleigh and Rae.  He also got to video his 80 year old father harvest a nice Missouri longbeard.  What an awesome feeling to share a hunting blind with your children and father and to have all three of them harvest nice longbeards.  Grant’s cameraman Brad even got in on the action and killed him a nice tom.  Keep up the great work.  We are very proud to be associated with top notch people who produce an outstanding program.  Make sure you check out GrowingdeerTV at www.GrowingDeer.tv

Brad's MO Gobbler

Friday April 1, 2011

The morning starts early with the last day of the regular school schedule for students before spring break.  Several of my high school wildlife management students and I find ourselves loading a bus at 7am to head to Longest Elementary School to conduct an NWTF education event for the second and third grade student classes.  Spending the day educating youth prior to a few days of turkey hunting was a sure way to get in the mood for the spring season, which was less than a day away.

Friday after leaving work at 4:30 pm it was time to hit the road and get to Grayson County, Kentucky.  I met up with Jim Dawson, Tedd Moffet, Mike Ausbrooks, and his son Jameson for the Kentucky youth turkey season.  Mike grilled some burgers and dogs while Tedd, Jim, Jameson, and myself went to set up blinds in the back corner of the creek in the bottom field where I had seen birds just prior to roost time.

Saturday April 2, 2011

4am has come and 32 degrees greets us for the opening morning of the 2011 Kentucky youth season.  As we gather our gear, snacks, and equipment to take Jameson on his youth hunt, a gray light starts to allow our eyes to see outlines in the bottom.  We hear three to four turkeys gobble within about 600 yards surrounding us.  While the birds did not gobble much, I was interested in the one that was roosted about 300 yards to the left of us on the hillside behind our blinds.  Some calls were let out on the Spur Slate with two different gobbles given off by the tom closing the distance a little bit at a time.  Thirty minutes after fly down the distinctive spit and drum came from behind us in the hardwoods, and we knew it was just a matter of time now.  At an instance, a large gobbler came in to our right less than ten yards from the blind and walked straight to the jake stuffer decoy.  The bird would have put on a show, but we only allowed him to do that for a short while since this was a youth hunt and the bird was in range.  At twenty yards Jameson let his 870 3” Winchester #4 find its mark on old tom turkeys head.  Sharing the hunt with good friends and providing the opportunity for a youth to get his first turkey was wonderful.  You could see the joy in both father and son.  The state of Kentucky offers a great opportunity to allow its youth their turkey season.   7:11 am we are taking pictures and burned memories for a lifetime.

After getting back to the cabin, loading gear, and saying our goodbyes, I head down the road and buy my out of state Tennessee license at 1:30pm.  I slipped into a well known area, set up and let out my first call by 2pm.  Little did I know there were three long beards and a group of hens that was glad I was in the woods.  Hearing hen’s answer back to me, then a crow sounding off, my ears rang with the sound of gobbles.  After about forty five minutes I saw jakes coming toward me, then hens and three toms.  It was now just a matter of me getting turned for the shot and letting the yardage come to my advantage.  With some soft purring and clucks I find myself with a bead on a full strut gobbler at thirty five yards.  Finally, at twenty two steps, I have one bird break away enough to take the safe clear shot of one of the long beards.  My Tennessee season has just been started with tag one.  I return to the gas station where I bought my license to check in my first of four 2011 Tennessee gobblers.

Sunday April 3, 2011

4am I’m up and out of bed and driving to the same small farm in Tennessee.  I’m in an area that should be productive.  Letting the woods come alive on their own, I realize I am sitting less than 100 yards away from two toms and a large group of jakes.  Unfortunately, I realize that the toms are going the wrong way after fly down.  With very few gobbles on the ground, I wait to make a move, only to see red heads coming right toward me after making some calls.  Seven jakes in one group with two trailing behind, I watch with my guard down knowing I will not shoot a jake.  A long beard appears to my far left thirty yards away.  Before I can make my move, the jakes run at the gobbler only to push him away and out of sight.  9:30 am birds are not gobbling and its time to hit the road and go to another farm.  11:30 I am in Wilson County, Tennessee speaking with the land owner who I had just met weeks ago.  I let him know I would be back to hunt on his property for a while and he wishes me good luck.  Gear on, gun loaded, walking back to the property, I spot a gobbler with two hens.  He is strutting, and the hens have their back at me.  I get in sniper mode, drop my gear, grab my favorite mouth call, and get up in the vegetation then cut and yelp.  Two gobbles and then one hen starts cutting back and turns to face me.  I cut again and now she is on a mission to find me.  The other hen turns and the gobbler breaks strut and follows his hens gobbling no less than 30 times.  12:45 Tennessee long beard two is flopping twenty six steps.  I go back and thank the land owner, who is laughing at how quick the hunt lasted and I am off to the check station once again.

Monday April 4, 2011

No hunting today, I have to get a few things done for work and the weather is bad.  I also find myself making the drive to Lafayette, Tennessee where Jim Dawson will meet up with me later in the week after his Illinois hunt.  Tremendous thunderstorms strike today from West to East across Kentucky and Tennessee.  After my work is completed and the drive was accomplished, I began scouting birds for the week on farms I have never stepped foot on with a spring turkey quest.  The mountain terrain of Macon County, TN makes a man learn really quickly that good optics is important.  Thankfully the light rains have pushed birds out of the timber and into the fields.  While I realize these birds may not be in the fields, it allows me to do inventory of the birds I have on the properties I had obtained over winter.  6pm two long beards and a large group of hens are feeding up the hillside.  I will be back early the next day with only a few things left to do. Monday night I eat solo in the hotel, pack my gear for the hunt the next morning, and rest my mind.

Tuesday April 5, 2011

4am I am up and 4:20 I am eating breakfast, drinking diet Mountain Dew, and driving down highway 10.  Windows are not cracked today because its cool out, but my music is going and my spirit is high.  At 5:30 I began walking the dreaded hill with a blind, decoys, chair, and supplies.  I had to because I had no cover to hide and no other way to make the terrain work for me.  I was extremely hot, drinking my Mountain Dew, I felt the cool wind hit my face before pulling up my face mask.  6:11 am was the first gobble. They were a little late getting going this morning, but after that storm system I was not surprised.  Four birds gobbled within hearing distance on the farm I am on and several across the Macon County ridges.  The closest bird to me was about 600 yards, but only to my surprise did I see hens start flying 300-400 yards without flapping a wing down the ridge to exactly 40-50 yards from my blind.  I have about a dozen hens around me now and then I see a big gobbler fly down and land and head straight to the full strut decoy 60 yards away. Another gobbler is coming in as well.  I am in complete shock a third long beard lands 100 yards out, but I have two at my decoys. Then at 6:50 am, Tennessee gobbler three is dead.  I sit quietly so that I am not to scare the birds who act a little spooked, but have not flown off.  At 7:30 am I can not take it, I come out of my blind holding bird three, gather up my gear, and head to the check station.  I spend the rest of the day scouting and doing work commitments.  Tuesday late afternoon my good friend Jim Dawson gets in town from hunting in Illinois.  Birds are fixing to put a bad spell on us and I did not expect it.  The land owner had seen birds Friday and I saw them Monday evening.  We go and set up only to see and hear no birds.  A great steak dinner for two hungry turkey hunters and off to bed.

Wednesday April 6, 2011

3:45am I am up and making the drive to Trousdale count. Again, no birds gobbling and just a lone hen are in a field bright and early.  It’s a new farm that I have to learn so I decided to cover ground today to help Jim fill a tag and maybe even get a double.  At 8:30 am I’m in new clothes, I get a quick bite to eat, and off to the woods for some sprint turkey hunting.  I pull up to one farm and other hunters are there.  They do the right thing and go to another spot.  This has me a little bummed out because I knew a long beard was using this area regularly to strut and hens were feeding there during mid day.   Up and down, run and gun, sit and wait, walk and glass, sore bones, bodies, and low spirits at the end of a long day.  Great friends but bad hunting for the day, but it did allow for us to look and see some of the terrain of the new land we had permission to hunt.  Today is the first day I realize I have started to lose things in the turkey’s woods.  My new fan saver is somewhere on top of a ridge in Macon County.  I also remembered how much I hate the wind.

Thursday April 7, 2011

4am up again no naps yet.  The body, mind, and muscles are all tired, but the drive and spirit is still there.  I know we will be on turkeys where we are going, but the morning starts with zero gobbles.  We see birds fly down two hundred yards away.  It is a gobbler and a few hens.  He is strutting only yards away from where I killed one Tuesday.  He struts and stays with his hens. It looks like we are going to see a show and not be able to pull the trigger.  Another gobbler shows himself on the ridge and runs downhill toward our decoy set up.  Now the first gobbler is running, will we double?  It sure looks that way, but the second gobbler never got close enough before Jim had to shoot.  Twenty steps, 7:45 am, Jim Dawson has just killed his first Tennessee long beard.  We hunted until 10am and had no more luck.  Jim and I have some business to take care of in Portland, so we get a bite to eat and make the drive.  We go back to the hotel, get dressed and set up again at 3:30pm.  Its 80 degrees and sweat beads up on our faces.  We have a scouting and hunting trip in the late afternoon with no visuals, gobbles, or real promising results for the next day.

Friday April 8, 2011

4:30 am is our last day, and man, how time has passed all too quickly.  Cloudy and warm, three or four different birds gobbled in the same area that we had heard nothing the day before.  It seemed promising to say the least.  Birds seemed to be all spread out.  Morning comes along just fine, and the cloud cover was nice because it helps hold the temperature down and makes it a comfortable spring morning in Tennessee.  A first for both Jim and I was a mature tom with no beard and hens absolutely running away from him while he chased them like a buck deer in full rut.  At about 8am we now hear a gobble every so often. Is nothing to get excited about until I catch a gobbler strutting through the hard woods 1,000 yards away on the opposite ridge.  Jim and I both call only to have two hens sore across that ridge to the ridge we are on.  The tom gets lonely and his gobbling picks ups.  He makes his way very slowly towards us, but takes the low bottom approach. I know he may come but he may not make it into gun range also.  Firing him up and going quiet for a while eventually got him to 150 yards away from us on the bottom of the hillside ridge for some gobbling and strutting. I began with soft calling then got quiet as he moves to within 100 yards.  One more series of soft calling makes him move to where the terrain blocks our view.  At 9:00am he is strutting 35 yards away and my set up makes it difficult for me to place the bead on his head and pull the trigger.  At twenty five yards away, I can get it on the bottom of his waddles.  At 9:15am, I am standing on top of the ridge over my fourth and final long beard of the 2011 Tennessee spring season.  Jim and I talked about how it was a classic hunt and how it would have never happened if the hens would not have pitched over here to us.  We walked up to the very top of the hill to get a view of the country we are in.

I stand on top of the mountain with a great friend and tell him how thankful I am and how grateful I will be to become a father to my first daughter in only a few days.  I came to a big smile and ended with some time on top of that mountain with tears running down my face, so emotional because my life is so blessed, and will be more blessed very soon.  Jim knew it was a very emotional time for me and walked down the hill gathering gear while I spent time by myself taking it all in.  It was the most emotional experience I have ever had while hunting.  I lost one of my best turkey hunting partners to cancer this year and have a new life with my daughter in the near future.  After my emotions had settled, Jim was gracious to take some good photos of me and my turkey.  I really appreciate Jim because when you hunt solo you do not always get to capture memories but burn them.  It was now time to load up and head home.  At 1:00 pm I surprised my wife at her work with flowers and a big hug and kiss. Oh how much I missed her, and how lucky I am to have her!  At 1:30 pm I went to work on a few house cleaning things, checked my email, and sent off paper work. At 9:15 pm the yard is mowed, truck unpacked, and my wife and I had enjoyed a great meal outside tonight.  Kentucky season is a week away and I am ready to make those hunts as memorable as my 2011 Tennessee season.

For the record you may not be able to look up Addyson Grace Cronin hill in any public deeds books in Macon County Tennessee.  But I would like to state for the record that I named it today in honor of my first child and daughter who will be here all so soon.

To my wife, I love you with all my heart and my you only know how all so special you are to me.  You knew when you met me how strong my turkey hunting addiction was and I never thought anything would ever want to keep me from it.  With all smiles and tears of joy I let you know now that you are my number one love, priority, and most beloved thing I have in my life.

Scott Cronin

Spencer's Bird

Derby City Pro Staffer, Rick Denkhoff, gave a slate Spur to one of my students at school.  The student, Spencer Delepierre, used the call during Kentucky’s youth hunt to bag a nice longbeard.  Spencer stopped by my office the other morning to show me pictures and gave me a letter that he wrote.  This is what Spencer had to say-

 

 

 

Dear Derby City Game Calls,

Your product works great.  I got my tom this year on the first day of my hunt by using the slate spur and 500 year old maple striker.  Every time I yelped, cut, or purred, the tom gobbled and worked closer with each call I made.  Your product is easy to use and sounds like a real turkey.  I will recommend this call to all my friends without hesitation.  Thank you for your super product.

Sincerely,

Spencer Delepierre

Congrats again to Spencer on a nice longbeard.  I would also like to give a shout out to Rick for being gracious to give a young hunter a call.

I  got a email yesterday from March’s call giveaway winner. He had stated that he had received the call, and that it was just what he wanted. Zach had wanted his call engraved with his friend Bryce Russell that had passed away and went on to meet the lord. Bryce was the one that had gotten Zach into turkey hunting. Here is the rest of the story in Zach’s words.

I just wanted to let you know that I received the package in the mail yesterday and LOVE the call.  It is exactly what I wanted and I couldn’t be happier.  I played it some in the morning and loved the sound of it, and I had already been planning on going out with my bow that afternoon.  Well I am normally the guy that I completely loaded down with calls up the wazzu, but yesterday I decided I wanted to go light and I decided to only bring my new call with me.  This is a big deal for me since I usually carry a box, 4 slates, 8 strikers, locators, and 7 mouth calls.  Well I had my bow with me and since I was traveling light I decided to stalk the turkeys rather than sit in a blind.

I got out to the woods at 3:45 PM and I knew where they hung out at that time of day.  I stalked into the area and hit the slate every few steps trying to locate them but didn’t get any response.  I ended up walking up on a strutter at 20 yards across the dried up creek bed.  I had to get set-up fast and the only place I could while still having a shot was a three foot deep cut-out that used to be a cow path, on the bank of the creek.  Well I hit my Derby City slate call one more time and that was it, they came in on a string and I nailed the biggest of the 6 toms with my bow at 14 yards.  I knew you wanted me to send some pictures of me with the call when I got it.  Hope you don’t mind if there is a turkey in the picture too haha.  Fell free to use any of the pictures for anything you want and thank you again for this opportunity. I know Bryce was watching over me on this one.

Zach Rees

On April 1st, 2011, Scott Cronin, Tedd Moffett, and myself traveled to Scott’s Grayson county farm to get ready for Kentucky’s youth turkey season.  Mike Ausbrooks would be bringing his son Jameson down to hopefully bag his first turkey.  After everyone arrived, we set out to locate some birds.  Scott spotted 4 longbeards strutting in a field, so we backed out and waited until dark to set up blinds for the morning hunt.

Early the next morning, we headed to the blinds to wait for the birds to wake up.  It was not long before the birds started gobbling.  We could hear one bird gobble on occasion behind us.  Scott got out his Derby City Spur and did some calling and the bird responded.  We could hear that he had some hens with him, we were hoping he would see the jake decoy with two hens in the field.  We felt confident that if he did, he would not like an intruder coming in to steal his ladies.  Fortunately for us, we were right.

The gobbler was spittin and drummin behind the blind and he came out into the field in full strut.  He went up to the jake and started sizing him up.  He pecked and flogged him a few times before Jamison put him down for good.  We had a great time hunting and spending time with each other.  It was a great way to open up turkey season.  Congrats Jameson.