Hunting on Turkey Day

[ducksdogsdownriggers]

When we were kids, my dad would take my brother I for a quick early morning duck shoot before turkey dinner.  I think it was more about getting out of the house and getting out of helping in the kitchen for my old man, but for me, those are great memories, though the central ca hunting was usually poor.  I'll be headed out tomorrow, on Thanksgiving morning, for the first time in more than 20 years.

I'm interested to hear about some of your Thanksgiving hunts/memories...   

[Mfowl]

Holiday hunts are great! I've spent many Turkey Days in the field with my dad as well a a few Christmas and New Years Day hunts too! New Years is my favorite holiday to hunt on. I've had many good hunts then.  I shot my first rooster on T-Day when I was 13. Shot my first goose on Christmas morning the next year.Unfortunately I won't be in the field tomorrow morning. Just gonna sleep in and pig out! Might do something for Saturday. Good luck out there!

[full choke]

Kind of funny how things can change. When I was younger and single I would head out and hunt every single weekend, basically living out of my vehicle. I didn't even have a truck. For awhile I had a Mercury Topaz. I put the dog crate in the back seat and filled the trunk with decoys and strapped some to the roof too. I slept in the front seat. When I got older and wiser (i.e. had more money) I would spring for a room at the Motel 6 in Moses Lake. High times. I vividly remember hunting alone one Thanksgiving. I went into town to get dinner and there was nothing open. Nothing. Not even Perkin's. I was SOL. I ended buying 12hr old cheeseburgers (at least they tasted like it) from the AM/PM out on Stratford road. Nowadays everything seems to be open.

I also remember one of the first years I hunted Thanksgiving. It was the first time we were going to be hunting that year. I somehow lost my hunters ed card and didn't realize it until that tuesday. Back then you had to physically show your card when you were buying a license. This was back before Wild I.D.'s and email, and cell phones. My dad called up The Game dept- and had to drive down to Olympia on wednesday and pick up my replacement card so I could get my license. Then we drove over to Potholes. It was cold that morning and we had to break ice to set the decoys and he stepped out of the boat on the wrong side and went up to his neck in the canal. He stayed out in the blind all morning, waders full of water and never b!tched at all. I think we did pretty good on the ducks, but what I really remember was how much effort my dad put out to show us a good time.

These days Thanksgiving seems to be one of the more popular days afield- places like Potholes get mobbed. The best holiday hunts were always Christmas morning, well... except when you put your truck in a ditch and have to go knock on a farmers door, and he goes out and gets a tractor to pull you out... Now I have a wife and two young kids and getting away for a hunt on the Holidays is a thing of the past, at least until my son gets a little bit older...

[snowshoes22]

I'll be laying in a goose blind in the morning. It was a tradition for my brother and I to goose hunt on turkey day untill I got married. Good luck everyone

[deaner]

im still trying to decide if i could hunt elk until dark without bumming my mom out

[TopOfTheFoodChain]

Shot my first deer on Thanksgiving day. Black powder in the Coweeman with high school buddies.

....oops, waterfowl thread- my bad

[JackOfAllTrades]

My son Shane will be out in a Goose blind in the morning.. When he's not workin, he's trying to kill stuff.
 
-Steve

[Kola16]

.......waiting in a blind right now 

[AWS]

Growing up in WI deer season runs the week of Thanksgiving so many a TG dinner was venison and grouse/snowshoe rabbit I the tent.  The whole family hunted so it wasn't a big deal to be away from home. 

This is the first year in the past four that I've been with my wife on TG, she's been in NM or I've been hunting.  The Pot Holes are frozen and there are crappy tides so we're going to do a smoked roast over the campfire in the back yard.

[7mmfan]

THis is the first Thanksgiving in years that I'm at home and not out in the woods or on the water. From 2000 - 2008 my Dad and I were late archery hunting every Thanksgiving. 2009-last year I was able to catch my first winter run of the year in the Sky on Thanksgiving. This year, I'm shampooing carpets.... love being a home owner and married, but shiiiiii.........

[snowshoes22]

Thanksgiving hunt.

[C-Money]

My boy and I went out and got a few quail. never gets old watching the excitement of the dogs and my kid. We had a lot of fun!

[Patarero]

Usually try to duck hunt Thanksgiving morning.  Thanksgiving hunts usually involved breakfast in the blind or bush boat with only a few ducks being shot (Historic Atlantic Flyway).    One of the most memorable hunts was back in this salt marsh we liked to hunt.  We were picking up decoys and a gobbler literally flew across the marsh right between me and my buddy.  We could have used our guns (unloaded) like baseball bats to harvest the thing, it was close.  We just looked at each other dumbfounded and asked why the other didn't grab it.

[Mark Youngblood]

I grew up in Tn and it was always known that we were going hunting on thanksgiving morning while the women folk prepared the food for the feast!  It was either deer hunting or rabbit and quail....sometimes we would deer hunt in the morning then go after rabbits and quail in the afternoon after we ate.  I still carry on the tradition and I was happily sitting in the duck blind yesterday morning with a buddy.

[oneshotkill]

No real tradition but my dad and I went out while I was home on leave on Thanksgiving morning mostly to get out of helping get ready for guests and managed to scratch out 3 geese.  I hadn't gotten out hunting since I joined the military so it was really nice to get out and kill a few birds with my dad.