Let's see some pics of your FIRST Booger Beak ever.

[Jester052]

Well that got derailed quick. But I was looking forward to seeing how camo progressed through the years and see the guns they were using.

[RadSav]

Well that got derailed quick. But I was looking forward to seeing how camo progressed through the years and see the guns they were using.

You can't say a word like "Booger" on this forum and expect anything less, can you?

Too bad I do not have a picture.  That first one I was wearing Camo Clan tiger stripe from top of head to ankles.  In the day that was the primo stylin' poop to the 10th factor!  Someone might even of mistaken me for a cool dude

I didn't kill another one for a few years until I took the Catalina Island tom with my bow.  I was wearing Mossy Oak green leaf on that trip.  My Easton arrows were even green leaf!  It didn't hold the prestige of the Camo Clan, but it was one of my all time favorites.  I might not have been mistaken for a cool dude then, but I sure felt cool wearing it

I took a tom in Pennsylvania with my bow back around '88 or '89 wearing Jim Crumley's TreBark camo and matching Easton arrows.  It was ok camo and did work, but I never felt more like a Dork until I bought Sitka Gear's Open Country   

Vast majority of my turkey kills I have been wearing Mossy Oak Breakup.  Next to Mothwing that is my favorite pattern ever.  And probably my favorite turkey pattern to this day.

[270Shooter]

My first bird. Central WA 9 inch beard 3/4" spurs, 30 yard shot with copper plated 5's.

[Jester052]

I got my first Booger Beak on April 18th 2012. After that I was hooked! I had NEVER hunted a day in my life before and I almost didn't go because a buddy of mine who was more experienced than me backed out the day before. I was already packed and thought about calling it quits and my wife picked me up by the bootstraps and virtually kicked me out of the house. She told me that she wasn't gonna have me moping around the house all weekend after I prepared so much. (Hours of reading this forum and YouTube) So I headed out from Seattle to Colville on Wednesday the 13th to do some scouting,(to see a real live turkey, I'd never even seen one in person before) the season opened on Friday. Since my buddy bailed on me I only had enough money for 5 days at Bennys Or I could camp and stay the 10 says I planed. Well I camped... the first night. It was SOOOOOOOOOO cold all my subzero sleeping bag did was keep me alive. So I slept in my truck in the Walmart parking lot the rest of the trip. So on Thursday season eve I drove around for about 150 miles and saw a couple hens, THEN I came to an opening in the woods and there were probably 25 birds 4-5 Tom's strutting a out and I just got JACKED! I stayed and watched for about 45min before the all started breaking up. I decided that's where I was gonna be opening morning 0500 sharp! I couldn't sleep a wink the night before just seeing all those birds and running through senerios and practicing my slate call. The morning of Opening Day I was heading out to my spot and I ran into a snag... an 8 foot wide creek about 2 feet deep that I didn't see the day before. It's pitch black out and About 25° outside and I walk up and down  the creek bank looking for a way to cross and don't see one so I say screw it and walk across. It was freezing, I had bright extra socks and a blanket so that saved me from hypothermia. I found my spot where I was gonna set up and placed my decoys I got the day before at Clarks and took a seat. Right at dawn when it was getting just light enough to see I see a little land bridge crossing the creek just 20 feet from where I crossed. All you can do is laugh at that point. About 20min after the sun rose I see a coyote working his way on the path skirting the woods heading my way. I'd never seen a yote before so I just watched it. Then it just stopped and stared in my general direction and took off sprinting right towards my decoys, he skidded to a stop about 2 feet in front of my decoy and ran away but into the same clump of trees I was in. I thought he was gone until I heard a stick break and I look and the dog was 10 feet away from me walking towards me but not looking at me, he was looking at my decoys. Wen he got within 5 feet I got scared and stood up and swung on him and yelled and he took off like a bat out of hell. I didn't shoot because after all I'd already been through I didn't want to bugger up my set. (I told that story at the Acorn later that night and a local fella "kindly" told me to ALWAYS shoot). So after the yote I sat for 11 hours straight, not hearing or seeing anything I was after. My train of thought was that if I saw 20+ birds there the day before they'd eventually wander back through. Well they didn't. That night was rough, I was putting myself through hell wondering if I did something wrong, was I not still enough, did they see me when I stood to take a leak,  a million things were racing. So I went back the next morning, Used the land bridge to get to my spot and sat again for about 4 hours before I couldn't do it anymore. I started down the road and in the late afternoon I spotted 3 birds chasing a few hens and they were headed my way. I made a hasty set up and waited, they were on a rope coming in. (no calling, they were just walking straight for me) They were about 50yrds away just on the other side of some thick brush when a hawk SCREAMS! I've never seen turkeys run away that fast ever even to this day. On the 17th it rained and I just moved and called and moved and called and moved and called and then FINALLY a bird responded to my call. MY CALL! I was stoked. So I sat up, placed the decoys and "talked" to the bird. This bird Was gobbling his head off with every cluck purr Yelp mistaken skreech until I heard him starting to get closer and closer and closer. I finally see him 25yrds away but behind me, my backdoor, with all my planning I didn't think about what I would do if he came in behind me. My decoys were wrong, he had nothing to look at, I was using a slate so I couldn't call to him and he hung up at 25yrds and turned and went away loudly. I put him to bed and gobbled all the way till sundown. On the morning of the 18th I over slept because I was exhausted from 5 days Of sleeping in the truck I got to the spot 30 min late just 10 min before sunrise and when I got there the bird was already hammering. I ran to my spot no pack just gun and decoys and set up. Right at legal hunting time I hit my call and boom he Flys down! (I must have set up 50yrds from where he rooted.) He flew down 35yrds away and I still had my call in my hand and gun in my lap. He bent down to feed and I dropped my all and slowly shouldered my gun and when he popped his head up BOOM! FIRST BIRD DOWN! 5MIN INTO THE DAY! I've been hooked ever since! It was unbelievable!

[Jester052]

Come on peeps! I KNOW some of you dude who are long in the tooth have some rad pics! Just take a photo of the poloroid if you have to. 
Can't wait to see the pics Radsav! My first camo shirt ever was an awesome Tiger striped t from Kmart.

[RadSav]

Can't wait to see the pics Radsav! My first camo shirt ever was an awesome Tiger striped t from Kmart.

I didn't even own a camera most of the eighties when I went on my big nationwide tear.  Couple blurry pics of a deer and a few bulls using a disposable 110 camera.  Turkeys to us back then were just a really big stupid grouse.  What did we know...we were from the Oregon coast 

What really got me to get a real camera was when Doug Walker wanted me to write an article for Western Bowhunter magazine because, so he said, my Catalina Island tom was the first ever killed on the island.  You should have heard all the cussing and throwing of stuff in his office when I told him I had no pictures and I did not even own a camera.  Figured if I ever wanted to write again I'd better get a camera   Still wasn't until some time in the 90's that Larry D. Jones taught me how to take a decent dead critter pic.  And even now I don't have much of a gift for it, but I try to make up for it by taking A LOT of pictures hoping one won't look too bad.

In '85 I shot a monster Javalina in AZ.  I brought it back to Depoe Bay, OR and my mom asked the local news paper photographer to come over and take a picture...that's how much I used cameras back then.  We were just stupid kids and had no idea what we were doing was anything special.  I am a little disappointed I never got a picture of my Camo Clan outfit.  The only time I might have been cool...and nothing!! 

Two years ago was my first bird using a guide service and the first shooting one from a blind (Bearpaw).  Dale took nice pictures of those that are posted a few times on this site

I've been thinking trying to figure out how many booger beaks I've killed in the past 35 years.  I do know I put in for the "Draw" five years in a row without getting a permit to hunt turkey.  Anyone remember those days?  I'm thinking I've probably only taken 15 maybe 16 and eight of those have come in just the past two years.  Two with a gun (my first one ever TX and my first one in WA) all the rest with a bow.  Haven't tried to total all the misses, but I think maybe four or five more that should be on the list.

[pd]

Jester, that was a great story.

[returnofsid]

Last Spring, 15 minutes into my first turkey hunt ever attempted.