# Opening Day



## BIGTHUNDERSTICK (Jan 10, 2001)

WHAT A GREAT opening hunt . EARLY SCOUTING AND PREPERATION PAYED OFF!! I SHOT a nice tom at 20 yards 10 inch beard 3/4 inch spurs,my fiancee shot her first tom on her first hunt with a 10 inch beard & 1 1/2 spurs. shot them both at 7:30 am .we saw 30+ birds. i have been watching them for a while and knew where they were roosting ,guess what the day before opener they moved across the river. birds were very quiet once off the roost and did not respond to calls. sat and waiting untill they spotted our decoys and came in.I did no calling once they spotted the decoys and they eventually came in .we watched them at 40 to 60 yards away for about 40 minutes . the jakes were chaseing each other around toms were off by thierselves but not far behind jakes .the hens came out first. hopefully our 3 boys will be as successfull in a couple of weeks .my fiancee was hunting with a winchester 20 gauge pump useing 3" 5 shot. i was useing my 12 gauge remingtom ultra mag with 3.5" and 5shot. i will post pics later today or tommorrow Good luck to all of you. 
bigthunder (john&janice)


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## orion (Apr 8, 2002)

Congratulations! My arrow found only a couple feathers this morning. Should have had him but, there a is a lot of feather and not a lot of bird when they are strutting. I saw 5 birds, two hens, a jake and a small 5-6 inch beard. Then the big ten inch came in and I blew it.


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## hangoo (Oct 3, 2001)

man...congrats BTS, 

keep the stories comming


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## beer and nuts (Jan 2, 2001)

Took a buddy out this morning. Gobbles off the roost and a couple on the ground, and then everything went quiet. Seems the few birds that are around are henned up real quick. Turkey numbers are low this year, with few groups of big birds. Seems we are seeing one big tom with hens, not seeing the bachelor groups. I have two weeks, so hopefully things turn around and I can find a nice group to work over.


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## Citori (Oct 22, 2000)

I scouted and found what I thought would be a sweet set up. The past two weekends they were struting in a field surounded by woods. Four nice toms one day, two the next. This morning one hen came out.


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## jfink (Nov 19, 2002)

Great job can't wait to see the pics


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## out_in_the_woods (Sep 2, 2002)

WHAT A GREAT MORNING. I GOT TO MY SPOT ABOUT 6:30 AND THERE WERE GOBBLES EVERYWHERE. MY MORNING STARTED OFF ON A SLOW NOTE. I HAD 2 HENS COME IN AND LEAVE. AT 7:45 I HAD OVER 100 TURKEYS IN RANGE. I SAY ABOUT 20 OUT OF THE 100 WHERE TOMS. I TOLD MYSELF I MISSED LAST YEAR SO THE FIRST ONE THAT CLEARED THE PACK I WOULD TAKE THE SHOT. SO, AT 7:48 JUST WHAT I WAS THINKING ONE STEPPED OUT OF THE BUNCH AND I PULLED THE TRIGGER. THEN THINKING ALL THE TURKEYS WOULD RUN OFF OH BOY I WAS WRONG. THREE OTHER TOMS TRIED TO ATTACK MY BIRD THAT WAS ON HIS WAY OUT. SO, I GOT UP AND RAN THEM OFF THE FUNNY THING IS THEY STILL TRIED TO STAY AFTER TRYING TO RUN THEM OFF. SO, I PICKED UP MY BIRD AND WENT TO THE D.N.R STATION JUST TO HAVE THEM LOOK AT THE BIRD NOT KNOWING WHEN HE LOOKED AT IT HE TOLD ME THAT I HAD MYSELF A BOOK BIRD. BY THIS POINT I'M SOO EXCITED I'M GAGGING. HE TOLD ME THAT I HAD A BIRD THAT HE HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE. NOW I AM STILL NEW AT THIS BUT THIS IS WHAT HE TOLD ME. IT WEIGHED 22LBS. SPURS 1 1/8 AND THE BEARDS WERE 11IN. AND 11IN. TOTAL OF 22IN. BUT THESE BEARDS WERE NOT ATTACHED BY 1 LIKE MOST ARE WERE U HAVE THE 1 BEARD THEN U HAVE ANOTHER 1 COMING OFF OF IT THIS 1 HAD 2 WHITE SHELLS WITH 2 SEPERATE BEARDS. SO, NOW I NEED U PEOPLE TO HELP ME IF YOU CAN,I NEED SOMEONE TO SCORE IT. ANY IDEAS? FROM THE TURKEY GROUP. OR SOMEONE THAT KEEPS TRACK IN THE RECORD BOOKS. O BY THE WAY BEFORE I FORGET THIS BIRD ALSO HAD ALOT OF WHITE IN HIS TAIL.


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## BIGTHUNDERSTICK (Jan 10, 2001)

measured the beards one is 13" and one is 10", the 10" had 1 1/5 spurs ... mine were 1' with a 13 "beard. i have to get some sleep working 12 hour afternoon- mid shift i will try toget pics on here tommorrow for sure .good luck everyone!!very pretty birds!!
john& janice


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## Old Hunter (Jan 21, 2002)

Turkey season is over for me 21# Tom,3/4" spurs,9"" beard, plenty of birds gobblin early. 3 Jakes came running in at 6:45am and left, 1 hour later the Tom I shot came in with his girl friend and she had about a 10" beard. BEARDED HEN what a sight to see. My wife was video taping all the birds, hope they came out should be a good show.


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## thornapple (Feb 3, 2003)

Congratulations everybody! I called in 3 toms and two hens At 7:00 a.m and took the biggest one. 9.5 inch beard with 7/8 spurs .


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## GoneFishin (Jan 11, 2001)

Great stories can't wait to see the pics  Hope them videos turn out good Old Hunter, I can't wait to see 'em (maybe you'll give us a show at the Fugefest).

Woulda liked to been out this mornin' but been tryin' to close the deal on a new truck, just had ta take advantage of that 0% - 5 yr deal, and the sales guy finally found the one I wanted.


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## Joe Scholtz (Nov 13, 2000)

It all happened at 6:38 A.M. this morning. My Grand Daughter Miranda on her first turkey hunt shot a 20 Lb, 10 1/2 in beard 7/8 in. spurs. She handeled everthing perfect, including a very excited Dad and Grand Father.


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## Hawker (Jan 6, 2003)

Congrats to all who took a bird today. Your stories are great! Looking forward to those pics!

I didn't shoot, but I had an action-packed hunt. My guide called in a pair of huge birds from the roost but I messed up and got made. That same pair of birds gobbled NONSTOP(no kidding) until 9am. They were unbelieveable--just wouldn't shut up! However, they wouldn't leave the strutting ground no matter what we did. We got two other sets of toms going again from 2pm until 3pm. One set passed within 60 yards, with hens. The other pair wouldn't cross a clear cut. I get to try again Thursday or Friday.


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## mich buckmaster (Nov 20, 2001)

Well I started out busting some birds out of the roost for carelessly thinking they were in trees about 100 yards further, oh well. Then they shut up right after light. Didnt call in anything early, but then called in one hen and a jake about 10:00am. After chasing some toms with hens around for a while, I finally got within range of 4 nice toms, but my father couldnt get a shot, so I passed on a bird that easily went close to 11 inches.

I then called in 3 more toms and they put on a great show until they saw my decoys and they ran like they saw a ghost, I guess they had seen them earlier from another hunter. Pops still couldnt get a shot off, but I could have killed all 3 toms. 

finally three more toms came in and two were small jakes, and my dad was fed up and took a double bearded, two five inch beards. I was very HAPPY for my father. I hope I can do that for him every year. 

Now its my turn, and I hope I get a crack at some of those big boys. 

Congrats to all, and good luck to the rest of you!!


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## wild bill (Apr 20, 2001)

man you guys are killing me. i have 2 more days till we head up north for a 5 day weekend. hopefully it only takes one day to get our birds.


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## Fred Bear (Jan 20, 2000)

well..... I am very happy some of you had a great day. And congrats!! This is my first year turkey hunting and today all I saw was my decoy. My call was all messed up, I was late getting to the woods and I have no idea where the turkeys are. The place I had picked out was ocupied by some other hunters. I had to choose a secondary and then a thirdary location. I did see a nice healthy yearling deer. It was bedded on the other side of a tree I had decided to set under. I am gonna take a rest for tomarrow as it calls for rain get my stuff back in line and try again latter in the week. I know turkeys are in the area but have no idea where to sit. trial and error I guess.


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## orion (Apr 8, 2002)

After yesterdays incident with my bow, I decided since it was snowing I would take my gun. I called in 4 toms, three long beards and a jake. They did not like my decoy and hung up at 40 yds, Their mistake was that I know how the gun will pattern at that distance. I took the biggest one, A nice ten inch beard with 1 1/8 inch spurs. A big thick beard about an inch and a half across. Now I dont have to tote a weapon any more and can have fun calling for my dad and my friends. Good luck to all!


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## bounty hunter (Aug 7, 2002)

Started out calling for the wife in the morning and we had 2 toms and a hen come in about 8:30 but as luck had it one tom was out of shooting position and the other was flanked by the hen and she did not want to risk hitting them both..In the evening I took my 12 year old daughter out to set up and try to cut them off on there way back to the roost and as if ever a plan worked out just right a tom and 4 hens came by at 20 yards and she stoned him in his tracks with her 20 ga. The bird had a 9-3/4 inch beard and about 1-1/4 inch spurs but tipped the scale at just under 25 pounds.. So one down and one more for the wife.( I wonder if I will ever get to hunt again,all I do is sit with them)


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## Fred Bear (Jan 20, 2000)

what is you guy's secret? How are you comming across all of these birds? I just want to be able to see a turkey at this point.


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## mich buckmaster (Nov 20, 2001)

Fred Bear, its like deer hunting, YOU HAVE TO SCOUT!!!!!!!!

Birds are there, and they live there all day long. Get out in the dark and listen for some gobbles. THEN sit all morning and call very sparingly. 

Late afternoon they should be voistrous again and you can get close to them. I would be willing to bet that they will be in the fields just after fly down, and a couple hours before dark. 

You cant shoot a turkey if you are sitting home


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