Your most memorable hunt

ROVERBOY

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I'll always remember mine. I located a bird at a little before daylight, and set up and did some light clucks and yelps while still on roost. He gobbled back and I went quiet. he gobbled 4 or 5 more times, then I heard him gobble on the ground. I called a little more and he answered. Then immediately went quiet. He was coming in right below me. The next time he gobbled he was coming around the hill side and worked his way behind me on the point of ridge. He stayed back there for 3 Hours. Gobbling his head off but, wouldn't come any closer than 150 yards. Where he was it was a little open, and I was afraid to move closer. He finally moved out in the pasture, and I could tell by his gobble about where he was. I went commando tree to tree for about 100 yards and shot him standing behind a big poplar. Ye haw! :party:
 

clwg97

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I know you said most memorable, but I have 3 that really stick out.

1. My first turkey
Went out with my dad on a Missouri youth season, had a bird fired up and he gobbled his way all the way to us, came down a point on one side of the holler, jump across a wet weather creek, and came all they way strutting into to 20 yards. My dad was telling me the whole way where he was and I could never see him. He looked like a ostrich working his way in. I finally saw him once he was about 30 yards and I couldn't swing my gun over on him. I was carrying my grandpas old 870 wing master with a 30" full choke "turkey" barrel. I had a small tree sticking up when I tried to swing it over the barrel was hitting it. I tried lifting it up and over it and the bird saw and took off. I was about 11 or 12 and it was a pretty low point that morning, dad had called up a monster gobbler and I had buggered it up. We walked back out of the bottom and got on top of a ridge and dad let out a couple yelps and had a bird double gobble at us. We sat down in a brush pile and he called and got cut off by another double gobble. We sat there and went silent, as a kid I was dying to hear them gobble again. He gave it about 5 minutes and hit another couple licks on his slate and the turkey gobbler 3 times in a row at like 60 yards. Waited a few more minutes and started seeing red heads pop up at 20 yards. He had called in about 6 jakes. He told me to pick one out and shoot. I shot and they all flew off. He hollered I had missed and we walked up and there was a bird laying there. He was about 16lbs with a 4" beard. I was on top of the world.

2. First Longbeard
This was my final youth season in Missouri. I was 15 and knew I this would be it. Dad had joked all spring about how next year I was on my own so he could go kill a few birds for himself. I told him if that was the case he better call me in a big long beard. I wasn't shooting any more jakes. Opening morning of youth season was clear and no wind. We were on a ridge top that had been a small clearing where it had been logged and had a big pile of the stumps. We backed up in the stumps and had a few birds fired up. He called in a superjake, this thing came in all puffed up strutting, he looked like a basketball with legs trying to walk down the road. I couldn't even see a beard as a strutted by. I chose to let him walk and wait for my longbeard. we sat there until about 9 or 10 o'clock. nothing else wanted to come in. We go up and picked up the decoys and were going to walk back to the truck. As soon as we started back down the ridge top logging road a bird fired up about 100 yards down the road. We hurried and sat back down. This bird was one of those mid-morning birds you dream of. He had no issues hanging up and strutted his way in. I was so short I couldn't see him over a small hump of gravel in front of me from them grading the gravel road the previous summer. All I could see was the top of his fan as he strutted in. My dad still says to this day he has never seen a gun barrel shake so much as a bird was walking in. when this bird popped out from behind that gravel he was about 8 or 9 yards. I was so excited he took a full load of 3" number 5's full strut straight in the head. He was 21 lbs with an 10.5" beard and 1" spurs.

3. First Long beard called in on my own with a mouth call only
I was hunting some public land in Missouri by the house. In Missouri the season opens up on a Monday and you can only kill 1 bird the first week. This allows all the hardcore hunters the first week without everyone else in the woods. There was a truck parked in my normal spot I park, but i knew of a couple other spots where you can fire up a bird so I drove a half mile down the road and went off in a holler on the other side from where the truck was. I was out and had a bird fired up on the limb. I got about 100 yards and he was just down the point I was sitting on and on a point going up the other side. He came down off of the limb and strutted at 100 yards on that other point where I could see him for about 30 minutes. It was awesome watching the sun come up and watching that bird strut back and forth gobbling, I would only call when he was looking the other way, and only call softly where I felt he couldn't pinpoint me. He would strut back and forth on the same 10 yards of land and gobble his head off. He finally broke strut and started coming towards me. He came down from his strut zone and walked across and instead of walking up the point to me he swung around to my right. Being a right handed shooter I had to wait until he walked behind a tree and shift just a little. He walked out right where I wanted him to and I rolled him at 10 yards. He had a 10" beard. 1-1/8" spurs. I didn't weigh this bird.
 

Southern Sportsman

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West TN
There are several honorable mentions, but the most memorable happened last year. I was able to find my old post to copy. Sorry it's long. I was still pretty excited when I wrote it:

I struck out a couple places early yesterday. Storms were rolling through, but I drove to another spot for the afternoon. I checked the radar, set my alarm for 1 hour, and took a nap in my truck. Woke up and the rain had passed and it looked like I had a couple hours before the next line hit. I headed out hunting slow and checking fields. I made it to the far side of the farm with only a 4-leaf clover to show for it. It was starting to get dark again off to the west but I figured I had just enough time to hunt my way back to the truck before the rain hit again. I dont mind hunting in rain, but the next line on the radar looked serious. I was on a high spot about to turn back when it thundered in the distance. A turkey gobbled near the edge of a field below me.

Accepting that I was going to get wet, I moved in 100 yards or so and set up on a pinch point where his field passed into a smaller field. It was getting windy so I called pretty loud on a box. He answered and I waited. I called again 15 minutes later but no answer. Soon, as the storm got closer, he gobbled again at thunder. He was in the same spot roughly 200 yards away. There is a small finger of woods leading towards his edge of the field, but it is a miserable mix of privit and greenbrier perfectly suited for rabbits and not much else. He gobbled a couple more times from the same spot so I decided to suck it up and make a move. The wind and rain helped cover the noise and - now bleeding from the briar scratches - I made it to a spot near the field edge. I thought I was within 100 yards of him. I clucked and yelped on a wingbone but got no answer. 15 minutes passed and another clap of thunder drew another gobble - this time 300 yards across the field. I figured he moved away from me so I eased up to see part of the field. I saw a turkey strutting out in the field moving right to left towards a block of woods not far from my first setup. I moved back through the thicket the way I came planning to circle him. Just past the briar patch I ran into 4 turkeys. They were nervous but not completely bumped so I yelped a little hoping they would stick around long enough to confirm my suspicion. Confirmed - they were jakes.

I continue my circle maneuver but now the storm was fully upon me. Lightning was serious and I was thinking how stupid it was to be chasing a 20 lb bird in circles during that kind of storm. I made a conscious effort not to get close to the tallest trees. I got to a spot near a short tree and waited. More thunder and the bird gobbled in the woods east of me. That's where the strutter looked to be heading when I saw him, but he got there faster than me. As I was planning my move another clap of thunder rumbled and the first turkey gobbled near where I first heard him. Turns out he was there all along and the strutter I saw was a different turkey. He was the closest to me so I headed back that way. He gobbled at thunder while I was moving and it sounded like he had moved into the woods. He was still ~ 150 yards away and the aforementioned briar thicket was between us. Plus, I hadn't called from that area since my jake encounter 30 minutes earlier, so I knew he was't coming to me from where he was. I wanted him to gobble again so I could course him before moving any farther, so I stopped just on my side of the thicket. I leaned my gun against one fork of a big forked tree and I leaned against the other. I was looking through the fork at a tangle of briars and pouring rain waiting for it to thunder when a glint of red appeared. Then, slowly, a wet turkey materialized through the vines and rain, looking intensely in every direction. He was 40 yards away. My gun was 1 yard away. He went behind a clump of briars and I slowly reached for my gun. He stepped out. I now had my hands on my gun, but I was holding it like one might hold a broom. Not in any position to shoot. He stepped behind another clump, and I was able to shoulder my gun without being seen. I started using a fastfire sight recently and I really like it. But I discovered that they are not ideal for use in driving rain. The wet lens was blurry at best, but I could just make out his red head when it came into view. I settled my blurry red dot over it and touched off one more rumble of thunder.

I brought him back to my forked tree and laid him down to admire him in all his wet turkey glory. I was bent down looking him over and I saw a morel right next to his head. I searched around and found a dozen or so. On the walk out I also found two antler sheds. So I didn't get killed by lightning, I found a dozen morels and two shed antlers, and I killed a 4 bearded gobbler. What more could you ask of a single 4-leaf clover?

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RUGER

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I have two.
My first longbeard and then the other is actually a weekend of hunting.
The weekend I killed my first turkey.

In all my years I must say this was the perfect weekend in all respects.
I will never forget it.
 

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