A buddy of mine asked to post this on the blog, he’s done some nice things for me recently and I’m just returning the favor.  All you North Carolinian readers, this is for you.  On August 21st, the Wake County Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation are holding a Hunting Heritage Dinner and Auction.  The doors open at 6:00 p.m. and tickets are $50 for a single seat and $75 for a couple.  If you purchase tickets by August 14, you will receive $20 worth of complimentary raffle tickets.

Your ticket price covers the meal, alcoholic beverages and/or soft drinks.  Silent and live auctions for artwork, equipment, and more.

Additionally, if you are really feeling generous, you can do a sponsorship for $250 (call the contacts for more information there).

If you are interested in the Wake County Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation and want to attend the banquet on August 21st, call Mark Etter (919)266-1918 or Charlie Overton (919)872-2143.

The banquet will be held at the Amran Temple (Address: 11101 Creedmoor Road, Raleigh, NC 27614)

Well, this post is a little deleted, but I just got my hands on my dad’s pictures and scanned them onto the computer.  So here it is, dad took one his good friends from the church he pastors to Kansas turkey hunting a couple of weeks ago.  It was kind of a returned favor, as this friend took dad to South Texas last December on a wild quail hunt for 4 days.  Anyways, no sooner are they set in the Double Bull blind, 3 gobblers, 9 hens and a few jakes fly down off their roost and start making their way towards the decoys.  One gobbler was a real stud (11″ beard or so and probably 25 pound range)…these are Easterns, the other 2 were lesser birds but nothing to sneeze at either…8-9″ beards.  Well, 30 minutes later the birds were within 55 yards, but because dad wanted a closer shot he held off.  Finally they wandered into the creek bottom behind the blind and that was that…no birds yet, but dad shot some wonderful video on his handheld recorder.

They slipped across the field longways to avoid bumping the birds and planned a new approach.  Once the turkeys showed up in the next field, they slipped back down the creek bottom and crept out to the edge where the birds were strutting 150 yards from the woodline.  At this point, a good many steps have been covered and they take their time before calling to the birds to enjoy the scene and catch their breath.  It didn’t take many clucks to bring the turkeys their way.  Unfortunately, the boss gobbler split off from the main flock, but at 25 yards, dad’s 12 gauge barked and down went bird #1.  All the birds took off flying except for the other gobbler and that was a mistake.  Smoking shell #2 = Dead gobbler #2!  Dad’s tagged out 2 hours into his 2008 Kansas hunt.

Barry’s turn.  They decided to take it to the house for the rest of the day and enjoy some charcoal grilled steak at local legend restaurant the Singing Cowboy (sounds like something else don’t it)…  Next morning, another perfectly planned set-up has birds flying down 100 yards from the decoys.  Unfortunately, these gobblers were glued to their hens and wouldn’t come any closer than about 50 yards.  Hoping for a closer encounter, no shots were fired but dad captured some more quality footage of 3 big gobblers doing their thing and 2 bearded hens were also in the flock (5″ beards or so).  The coolest thing was the big boss gobbler’s head…it would go from beet-red to a ghostly white all in the matter of 5 seconds…really spectacular footage!!!

They got back on the same group with a creek bottom stalk and emerged within shooting distance of the toms, but Barry had made up his mind…either call a bird in and shoot it, or no shooting at all.  He had enough experiences and memories for it to be a successful hunt and that was enough for him.  They had to catch a 6 a.m. flight back out of Kansas City, so no evening hunt was attempted.  But it was a great hunt, lots of birds for only 2 mornings hunts.  Dad’s birds had 9″ and 7.5″ beards, a little over 1 inch spurs and both eclipsed the 21 lb mark.

Well, dad leaves in the morning for southeastern Kansas with a friend who has never turkey hunted before.  Last year, dad went on a south Texas wild quail hunt with him and is sort of returning the favor with a trip to the country’s heartland in search of longbeards.  You might remember that my dad was successful last year in bagging a big tom and had a beautiful mount done.  I’ll be in touch with him Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday as he tries to bag a Kansas gobbler for the second consecutive season.  Shoot straight dad and have fun!

So I just thought I would throw out a tip to all you guys who will be building ground blinds in the coming weeks in an effort to ambush ole’ longbeard…  Last summer, while I was darting my research deer in Maryland I had several spots where bachelor groups of bucks were hitting fields, but I didn’t have a good way of getting in a tree that would put me inside 20 yards of them.  So, I built several ground blinds.  The most effective one that I darted out of was carved out of a multiflora rose bush, but I also had a really good one built out of a privet shrub also.  Basically, I just carved a hole out large enough for me to sit back inside the bush about 3 to 4 feet from the field edge.  Then I took the clippings and hung them vertically from branches out in front of me to conceal my outline.  Leave just enough space for a couple windows of shooting opportunity and make sure the wind is right, especially if you are hunting deer.  The fact that both of those species carry their leaves year round make them perfect ambush spots.  Deer, turkeys and other game are already used to them and wouldn’t be alarmed to see a human outline camoflaged by the shrub’s bulky outline.  Try hiding in a shrub with no leaves on it and you might have a little more trouble.   Hope that helped!

Here is the gobbler that my dad killed in Kansas last year.  The same weekend my dad was hunting, the property owner was guiding several other guys from Pennsylvania.  A couple of those guys were bow hunters and dad got to sit in ground blinds and watch those guys whack a couple nice toms before he got the chance to do some hunting himself.  It didn’t take long… they spotted a big flock about 1/2 mile away feeding in a freshly-tilled field bordering some creek bottom.  After a mile-long stalk through the creek bottom, they crawled up on top to the field and the turkeys were within 150 yards.  When they got the chance, a quick move placed a decoy right on the edge of the field.  10 minutes of calling later, the big tom was coming in on a string.  BOOMM!!!  This was my dad’s first turkey ever actually, but he had hunted for several years unsuccessfully back in Pennsylvania when we lived there until 1990.  His hunting buddies always killed the birds, he was just never in the right place.  Well, he was this day.  He is headed back up in just 3 or 4 weeks to try and make it 2 years in a row.  Hope you enjoyed this primer for your upcoming turkey season.

The full body mount turned out beautiful if you ask me!