Looking Back

[TRKYHTR]

Now that Turkey Season is just a memory. It is time to reflect on my year. It started out in GA with a good friend Dave Owens. We roosted turkeys the night before opening day but the weather was going to be bad. But what do you do when you have turkeys roosted before opening day. You go hunt. So on our way to the set up it was looking worse than any storm I had ever hunted in but we kept our spirits up because we knew where there were turkeys roosted. It was raining hard and the thunder and lightening was bad and getting worse the closer we got to where we needed to be. Then all of a sudden lightening hit so close that it was blinding and deafening. We were disoriented but were instantly in a panic mode to get our guns off our shoulder and lay them on the ground. Words cannot express how close we were to dieing. The lightening storm moved off in the distance and we picked our guns back up and went back to the plan. Joey and Dave were headed to where the turkeys were roosted and I was going to move off in a different direction. Daylight soon came and Joey and Dave were set up right where they needed to be. The gobblers flew down and came within yards of their set up. Joey killed the first gobbler he had a chance at and we were already on board. The rain was still coming down hard and 99% of the hunters never even went. We finally decided to get out of the rain and get dried off. The next day was much better weather and I was into turkeys but they were on a different ridge than I was on. Dave sent me a text and said we need to go that his brother Drew had some turkeys in a field in a great spot for us to kill. So we got there and belly crawled into place. Dave began calling and I assisted and we got the hens to start at us. The whole flock decided to come and see what was going on and that put 2 gobblers in front of me and my GA turkey was down. We took pictures and headed to another spot that Drew had to hunt. We struck a bird and moved in. We set the decoy out and was ready with the cameras rolling. Dave was supposed to be the shooter and Joey was backup. A few yelps and the turkeys were on their way. I had the main camera and was behind a little. I could hear spitting and drumming but couldn't see any turkeys yet. Instead of the turkeys coming down a small dirt road where the decoy was set up the went left and when they popped up over the rise they were in front of Joey. He didn't even let the turkeys get in view of the camera and shot the lead bird. No footage, dang it man. Dave was not happy because we were in a great place and had a good set up. Don't know why Joey shot and he didn't know why either, other than he was in kill mode and he had a gobbler in front of him. The wind came up the next day and we were off to AL. So we hunted 1 1/2 days in GA and killed 3 turkeys between us. We met up with Chris and Ronnie Holmes in AL. The first morning Ronnie and I called in a gobbler right off the roost but the camera was in between the shooter and the turkey. The next morning Joey and I went back to the same place and called another gobbler right off the roost but couldn't get a shot. I went back to that area and cutt some shooting lanes where we needed to be. That afternoon I killed one of those gobblers going to roost. The next morning we only had a few hours to hunt before we headed back to Atlanta to catch our flight home. Ronnie and I went to a different place and Joey and Chris were headed where we saw a flock of turkeys the night before. Ronnie and I had a great hunt with 2 gobblers coming right to our set up and I killed my second AL turkey all on film. Joey and Chris got in on a flock of turkeys and Joey went commando and got where he needed to be before killing his first AL turkey. It was a great trip down south with 6 turkeys killed in 4 days of hunting. Thanks to Dave and Drew Owens for their hospitality and to Chris and Ronnie for being great hosts. I felt like we had known them our whole lives and all 4 of them boys are turkey killers.
Next was CA season. Joey and I hunted in West Point and didn't have any luck right off the roost. I finally got into position and called a gobbler in with 1 hen and killed my first CA turkey of the 2013 season. I took my SIL on his first spring turkey hunt and called in a Jake that he killed. I went to the horse ranch 2 days later and killed a big gobbler that lived there. There was 3 gobblers running together and only 1 left, #2 CA turkey down. The next weekend I went up north and hunted with Garrett, a SC boy, who moved here a few years ago. I called in a Monster longbeard away from 4 hens and Garrett whacked him at 20 yards all on film. I went back to where Jason killed his turkey and called in and killed the big gobbler there and my 2013 CA season was done. I took Jason back there a week later and called in his first longbeard that was all caught on camera.  Then I took my good buddy Dr John Zeiter and called in a nice gobbler with 2 Jakes and 13 hens, my decoy took a beating , all on film. Then I took Mellisa to West Point to get her first turkey. After we botched the first set up we snuck up to where we could see some turkeys and Melissa killed her first turkey. My last hunt of the season was on the San Carlos Indian Reservation. After messing with 3 different gobblers on the first day we decided to move and try another area. All 3 of us roosted turkeys that night and I called and killed my last gobbler of the season with Jay Scott.
So I killed 7 gobblers in 4 different states and called in 6 other turkeys for other people. It was a great year and I can't wait to do it again next year.

TRKYHTR

[WiLL B]

Congrats on a great spring!! Good pictures too!!

[DirtNap647]

great season

[jblackburn]

Congrats on the season, thanks for posting the recap!

[Publicland]

Great season Joe! Enjoyed the read!

[Gold Spur]

Congrats on an awesome season. Thanks for sharing the cool pics.

[catdaddy]

Good stuff and congrats to a fine feller!!

[vaturkey]

Congrats to you & Joey & the rest of the folks on a mighty fine season. Great pics ! 


  vaturkey   

[trkycaller]

congrats on a great season!

[beagler]

Very Nice!

[njdevilsb]

Looks like you had an awesome spring.  Congrats all around.

[3seasons]

Thats awesome congrats on a great year!!!

[RutnNStrutn]

Looks like you had a heck of a season Joe, congrats!!

[mudhen]

Nice report Joe!

mudhen

[Gooserbat]

Look like you had a great year full of great memories.