New year brings new memories! UPDATED 5/7

[Karl Blanchard]

Little late on posting this, sorry guys.  As most of you know, my spring last year is what you would call "rough".  With Aaron's death and everything that followed I only got to turkey hunt 3 days last year and ended up with all tags going unfilled.  With a new season and a rejuvenated drive and refreshed spirit to be back in the woods, I am very excited about this season!

 First hunt of this year year was my two youth deer hunters from the previous fall.  I love these boys!  They will walk to hell and back and never complain once!  They are twins but couldn't be more opposite.  One is laid back and reserved and the other is high strung and very "excitable".

 Over the course of two days we covered 17 miles and heard from 8 different toms.  They were henned up bad but we still managed to work some birds in but just not quite into gun range.  The morning of the second day we had a bird play the part just perfect!  He came on a string gobbling the whole way!  Gobbled 11 times inside 80 yards and finally strutted up and stopped at 35 yards where Camden proceeded to drop the hammer on him!  I was amazed that a Jake would act so dominant in an area with so many birds.

With one bird down we continued on to try and find a bird for Blake.  We got caught with our pants down by 3 hens and a pair of strutters in the middle of an old skid road.  We dove into the ditch and set up best we could.  It took some calling but I finally got one of the hens ticked enough and here they come!  With the hens at 40 and the two toms at about 60, I figured this was a done deal when out of the corner of my eye I see the shotgun slip on Blake's knee a little!  The lead hen caught the movement and it was all over.  They bugged out and left us sitting there heart broken.  It was not an ideal location to sit and he just couldn't hold that big shotgun up any longer.

It was a killer weekend with lots of laughs and gobbling action!  My favorite part though is to continue to watch the brotherly bond between these two boys grow through every hunt they share.

[Karl Blanchard]

Another goal for this year is to get either of those boys to crack a smile for a picture   Tough guys!

[Jason]

Great Story and awesome bird, Congrats on the harvest to the young man!

[WaltAlpine]

 

[PA BEN]

 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Sweeeet ... I can feel it in the air .. good job 

[3nails]

 I really don't think it gets any better than hunting with youth. That's livin the dream right there!

[JKEEN33]

 

[jackelope]

 Good stuff, Karl. Thanks for sharing.

[kevinlisa06]

Good luck to ya this season! Congrats to the young hunter!


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[turkeydancer]

    Very cool BLRMAN !

[Karl Blanchard]

So I wasn't able to make it out on the opener but got out over the weekend.  Left the truck about 0530 and just started riding.  I wanted to get some distance from the rest of the crowd.  I stopped at the top of a grade where I like to listen for morning gobbles and had a bird sound of before I could even catch my breath.  He hammered pretty good off the roost but pitched down in the opposite direction.  I made one move on him and set up again.  He was in his strut zone and not wanting to move but after some convincing he came on a run!  At about 40 yds he started to strut,  when he got to 20 I let him spin and show off a little before I rolled him!  Fantastic morning.  A few hrs later I worked a group of Jakes into the gun but let them walk.

One of the other guys in camp also killed a bird.  I had to leave Sunday mid morning to get home for easter but not long after I left I got a picture text from my buddy of a dead turkey, so it was a three for three weekend.  Good food and good friends, makes for a great weekend!

[Gobble Doc]

Great stories and birds. 

[Karl Blanchard]

Thank you all for the kind words.

[Deer slayer]

When are you headed back down?