My 2017...busy, busy, but it's been good!(Dec. 31st update)

[Guru]

Going to try to do most of this with pictures.

The year has gone by in a flash!

 Between off season baseball/softball workouts....then basketball for Mae-Mae...then spring baseball and the never ending travel softball season for Mae we have been busier than I ever imagined my life could be.....but....

It's been one of those years that when I did get the opportunity to get out hunting....things just "worked".

As crazy as things were, I still found or made the time to practice and prepare for the times when I did get out. It would have been easy to get lazy...but I didn't allow myself to do so. I wanted to be ready if opportunty "knocked".

Let's get to it....

The first real hunt of the year was a bunny hunt at Shawn's with a bunch of good Trad Gang friends...first critters with my Timberghost Apparition...
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That hunt was incredible...I think we killed around 18 bunnies that day all together!


  Spring time...

Crazy times with Cade playing baseball(Jr. year), and Mae playing JV softball as a 7th grader....but oh yeah....it's gonna be turkey season!

I fit in as much scouting as I could before work and between games....I knew right where I wanted to be come opening day...


May 1...

Hunting a spot not far from home...just cruising a back road, almost there and bang!!!
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a deer comes running out of the darkness and with no time to react...  
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Deer runs off, I stop....only a mile to go, not gonna miss opening morning....on I go...I'm hunting!

What followed was one of the best/toughest hunts ever trying to convince a henned-up gobbler to commit...

But after a couple hours he did, and I captured some of the best turkey hunt footage I've ever gotten all captured on 3 different camera angles....it's cool!!!

In the heat of battle....getting closer...
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Screen capture while checking footage after the shot...
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Deployment...
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[Guru]

Tools of the trade...Sony Action cam that I had on a head strap, and a slate call given to me by TG'r Bob Palmer(it's turkey poison!)

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Here's the set-up...you can see the other sony action cam that was on a small tripod that is remotely controlled and capture the "opposite angle" of the gobbler strolling in and the shot...
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The string leading into the thicket behind me...
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He didn't go far, the 300 grain, 1 1/2" wide Big Jim broadhead on a .340 carbon launched out of my old reliable black Kwyk Styk "Cy" caught him slightly quartering away...he was an absolute big, beautiful old gobbler!!!
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Bonus!!
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A true trophy in every sense of the word!
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So despite how the morning started, real, lifelong memories were made....

[Guru]

May 13th...

This was going to be a rainy Saturday morning in the blind, Cade had practice, so I was again alone...

I had watched 4 gobblers go to roost somewhere in the woods close by the evening before.

 I'd been seeing this group of gobblers on and off for a month now...I finally got them roosted in a spot I could do something with them.

Never a guarantee, but this set up has worked before....I liked my chances!!

[Buckeye1977]

Been waiting on this! Glad to hear you had an exciting season. Can't wait to see the videos too. I'm kinda in the same situation with two kids in sports and trying to squeeze in hunts when I can but wouldn't change it for anything. Gotta love the color of the spring woods behind a big gobbler strutting to the decoys!!!

[rastaman]

Awesome pics and an awesome season so far Curt!

[23feetupandhappy]

       

[A.S.]

       

[Jayrod]

What a year you have had curt way to get it done brother and can't wait to read the  rest!  

[9 Shocks]

KEEP IT COMIN!

[doubleo]

A limb hanger! Keep it coming, Curt!  

[J. Cook]

Awesome...keep the pics coming, we know there's more!!!!

[South MS Bowhunter]

Good looking turkey, as well as the rabbits!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Congrats Curt!  Dead Bird and Fresh Morels! Great Combination!

[lt-m-grow]

Cannot wait for the rest.  Awesome so far.

[vintage-bears]

Love it.......
         

[Guru]

I beat the rain getting set up, but just as the birds started gobbling....it started to rain.

Shortly after it was light enough to shoot I could tell by the occasional gobble that the birds were on the ground and headed my way....

With cameras rolling, they appeared in the the corner of the field as they often do....saw the decoys...and started in...

I double checked cameras and wrapped my gloved hand around the familiar stippled grip of my trusty Kwyk Styk "Cy" once again...

With the steady "pitter-patter" of the rain on the roof of the Double Bull....they wasted no time closing and in no time were right in the decoys...

What a privilege it is to watch gobblers at such close range....at 8 yards they look huge!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

 still tuned in.

[Buckeye1977]

   

[stujay]

   

[Guru]

I swore I was going to let the birds work over the decoy, and then shoot....but they hesitated a bit...

 It's nice to wait at times to see what they'll do to a decoy...but I've also learned to not wait to long because things can go south quick as well...

 So with one of the birds standing facing me and the strutter behind the other birds....I didn't want to wait any longer...

 The giant Big Jim 3 blade caught the gobbler at the base of the neck severing it and over backward he went in a heap flopping, flipping in a mess of feathers and water...and here came the strutter!

 Right in front of the Sony action camera, he proceeded to trounce his amigo. Then when he got done with him, he went after the jake decoy.....pretty cool footage!!!

Strutter just getting done with his beating...note the camera on the small tripod...
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You can see he drove the stake right through the top of the decoy...
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Eventually the birds fed off and I was able to get out of the blind...
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Although he doesn't look like it, he was beautiful bird with a 9.5" beard and 7/8" spurs...
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The same "Big Jim" was the demise of both birds...
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...Up next The "Muzzy" shoot...