A Bakers Dozen!

[GSLAM95]

The 2012 Spring turkey season has come to a close and I wanted to make one thread to share what was a very special season. 
I have a lot of pictures so I will add a few with each post. 
This year was focused on 4 places to hunt - TN private/public ground, then Fort Campbell along with IL and MO... 
I titled this thread A Bakers Dozen! because I had thirteen total tags and I feel very lucky/fortunate to have filled them with 13 long beards and it all started on a WMA in TN.

[GSLAM95]

My most memorable day of the spring season was April 7th as the birds were gobbling strong all day long.  I was able to take two birds on two separate set-ups that day while hunting at Fort Campbell and also took one on a piece of public ground.  A special Thank You to Richard Hudson for all his help and tips on the areas and places I hunted.  I had the opportunity to meet up with him at the National convention and again while at Fort Campbell.

Here are some more pictures from the TN trip...

The graveyard bird..


I named this one Mr "GT"  aka Golden Throat because of his course old gobble...


The call shy creek crosser...

[GSLAM95]

There were no motel rooms as I traveled and lived out of ol betsy (My 99 Chevy) that just turned 214,000 miles on this trip...





The Kitchen....


I took a lot of cold spring fed creek bathes on this trip and although I spent all my TN nights in the truck I must admit that I did find a bed or two in MO..

[GSLAM95]

Here is some scenery from Caney Mountain Park in MO...

[GSLAM95]

What kind of Mushroom is this?




I know this is a black Morel...

[chatterbox]

Looks like you had an AWSOME season!
Congrats on killing a ton of longbeards!

[GSLAM95]

I used the 20 gauge through most of the season this year with no blinds or decoys.

I have read and listened to a lot of comments from a few turkey hunters in the last couple of years saying how hunting with a blind was easier and cheating.  I am humbled at these comments as I hunt both open run-n-gun & bow methods.  I find that all methods are rewarding in their own special way but it takes packing a blind, bow, decoys and camera equipment to appreciate a self filmed bow hunt..   Here are some pictures from a few of the bow hunts..

[GSLAM95]

A bow kill from IL...



The NAP 3" cut F.O.C. (freaking outrageous cut) head does a number on them

[GSLAM95]

Had an encounter while working a bird in MO this year that I will never forget.  
The bird was gobbling good and went silent on me so I had the gun up and ready for what seemed like forever!  All of a sudden I heard a bunch of splashing and commotion of a wood duck down the hill in a small creek that runs through a pasture.  As I come out of the woods I seen a coyote chasing the wood duck hen who would not leave the area as she had a bunch of little ones following her up and down the creek.
The coyote seen me a split second later than I seen him and lets just say he had a bad day.

I followed the hen woody up the creek as her little chicks caught up to her trying to get a close up pic with the iPhone.  She cut up the bank one way and the chicks split up into the fescue pasture to hide.  I could not resist and followed to where I took the following picture.  Them little boogers are quick on the feet but hide in nothing when you get up on them.

I looked down and had one of them run right into the side of my shoe and stop like he was going to hide under the arch of my boot.  I picked him up, took the picture below and quickly released him with the others as they were all now running and swimming to catch back up to mom..

[GSLAM95]

Here is a Jake that thought he was the area stud service for the morning but that all changed about two hrs later when his grandpa showed up..
He opened a can of whoop rear end on my DSD Jake and turned gay for a little bit.  He later decided to climb up on top my DSD hen

[GSLAM95]

The Dirt Nap!


Just getting ready to chill out..


Although I used several different calls I think Herb Hornstra's trumpet may have been one of my favorites for the season...

[GSLAM95]

The season of tags...


Had some beard rot on a couple of different birds this year


Saved up all my legs until the end of the season for cleaning


I cut them off with a cordless grinder set up with a cut off wheel, de-skin and boil, then take the caps off the spur, scrape again, peroxide and borax them, rinse/dry and hot glue the caps back on and finally put 2 coats of boiled linseed oil on them before they are ready for display.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

Awesome season.

Very, very well done.

Congrats

[bbcustomboxcalls]

Man that was a great season!!!!  Looks like you hunted some beautiful places too.

Bill

[vaturkey]

WOW ! Awesome Season ! Congrats ! Great Pics ! 



   vaturkey