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Bittersweet treat just to ride along behind the big dogs vicariously, much less be reminded of pointing pup fun. Thanks for sharing your blessings..

Dang I'm jealous, and I'll leave it at that...

Just read all your posts and thoroughly enjoyed them!

Congratulations on the highbred that was pretty cool to see.

Sounds like the tree limb to the ribs could’ve been much worse than it was. Glad you didn’t take it to the eye!

As a sidenote my pisser on my outboard in Alaska would always freeze up. I kept a piece of thin wire in the boat and I would just work it in and out. It didn’t take very long to unplug it. Might be worth a try next season if it happens again to you! Most guys up there did this as it was a regular occurrence!

Thanks for the tip PC! I’ll pass it along to my buddy.

This is for running through a tell-tale to unclog it.

This is where you keep it.
Wrap it around something good and it'll stay.
Try and find a piece of stainless wire...try

Had a rare kid-free day so after work I took the pup to enjoy the late season cool air we’ve been blessed with. Didn’t plant any birds but she flashed pointed some old hide spots where Dad had worked his pointer puppies earlier in the day. She ran hard and really seemed to enjoy herself. She’ll be 6 months old in a couple weeks. She’s hell on wheels around the house but I think she’ll do good enough as a versatile hunting dog. Starting to get the hang of the retrieving thing too. Went swimming a few weeks back when I was working on duck boxes.

Great fun bringing a pup on.

Pretty Puppy, and we look forward to watching him grow and learn!

Date: 3/25/23 Alabama turkey opener

Time: morning

Location: friend’s lease

Cloud Cover: heavy with rain 30 minutes after daylight. Stopped about 830 with sunshine soon to follow

Wind Direction and Velocity: strong early, which made for tough listening conditions

Temperature: warm

Moon phase: waxing (?) crescent

Special Notes:. Barometer 29.80

Activity: didn’t hear our first gobble till 845.

Responsiveness: super after we finally located a gobbler. 3 came running to us 10 minutes after we struck them.

Hunters: 2 college buddies that I used to hunt with a lot.

Guns: friend’s new 410

Malfunctions:don’t like getting rained on, but I made an exception for this endeavor. Grabbed calls and put them in my pocket and left my vest in the truck

Special Equipment: none

Curses: none

Kudos: felt good to get the three stooges back together.

Birds By Species: 1 eastern gobbler. 10” beard. 1” spurs

Photo Ops:
Managed to prop the camera up for a timer selfie.


Picture of the picture of the hero shot, just for Rick.

Lagniappe: morning started with no gobbles heard. We sat for 45 minutes and then began working back toward the truck as the bottom fell out on us. Waited the heavy rain out in the truck and then bailed out along a creek. Walked 100 yards and called, firing a hen up who cut and yelped her noggin off to within 10 yards of us. She walked over the hill just as the rain ended and sun came out. We picked up, crossed a gas line and feeder creek, then up a big hill adjacent to a creek bottom, stopping to call every 100 yards. After about our 4th stop, we cut back and forth and struck a gobbler 200 yards ahead of us. We eased up about 30 yards and sat down. Called a couple times and heard multiple turkeys gobbling this time. They gobbled on their own a few times as they worked toward us. After 10 minutes 3 long beards came running down the road and stopped at 14 yards. Had a chance at a double but would’ve had to make a long shot through some brush and didn’t want to ruin a good morning with a wounded turkey.

Nailed that picture of a picture shot. Soon as I saw "rain," I thought "road". Don't think they like getting wet any more than we do.

Great report & pics DE

Deltaman wrote:Glad to see that you still have some wild birds to play with, and watching a good dog work is a beautiful thing

My dog is freaky about quail since i trained him on them.
He checks the empty cage every day hoping I'll toss him one.
I think I could be convinced to hatch out some eggs and smuggle them into another state.

What a nice morning hunt.

Great story and pics, thanks for sharing!

Great story and sounds like great company! Congrats

Date:5/3/23

Time: arrived at 445. First gobble at 520

Location: farm

Cloud Cover: clear clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: nil

Temperature: 43

Moon phase: almost full

Special Notes: I’ve been slacking on my turkey reports but this morning was too good not to share.

turkey Activity: scouted yesterday morning because I could only be there till 6 due to other commitments and knew I wanted to take Beau this morning. I heard more turkeys gobbling yesterday morning than I have on any other morning in a long time. It gave me high hopes for this morning.

turkey Responsiveness: knew we were in for a tough assignment when a hen fired up between us and the gobblers almost as soon as we sat down. They followed her around for almost an hour before deciding they were going to play the game right.

Hunters: my 4 year old son Beau and I. My Dad was hunting about 500 yards down the ridge from us. He’s already killed a bird this year, so he kind of knew he was being gar holed but was fine with it as it was a shorter walk.

Guns: M2 12 gauge. It throws a turkey load 6-8” high at 40 yards. I think I finally have the kentucky windage figured out on it after a couple misses years ago.

Malfunctions: Beau wanted to hunt with my dad since Grandaddy had recently killed a turkey, so in Beau’s mind he had a better chance with grandaddy. Got him all set up in his gobbler lounger and low net blind with grandaddy and beau decides he’s hunting with me, so we leave the lounger and blind and I take off through the woods with him slung over my shoulder.

Special Equipment: diaphragm mouth call

Curses: zero

Kudos: little man got to see most of the process. It was really cool to experience it with my boy. Having my Dad there, who started me turkey hunting at 5 years old, was just icing on the cake.

Birds By Species: 1 eastern turkey. 2 beards (my first double beard) 10” and a 6” pencil beard, 1 1/8” spurs.

Photo Ops:






Lagniappe: turkeys flew down not long after we got to our setup. We made a move to where I wanted to be once they were on the ground and out of sight. Beau got to hear some good gobbling on the roost, so that was cool. I soon briefly saw the gobblers following a hen from right to left about 200 yards away. Pretty soon Beau was leaning over on my shoulder and by 630, he was sound asleep in my lap. By this time, the gobblers had followed the hen off about 600 yards and I thought we were done for. I made some more calls and heard dad crank up behind us on the ridge. The next gobbles were progressively louder. Wasn’t long and I saw a fan glint in the sunlight 200 yards away. The 2 gobblers disappeared behind a tree and I went ahead and got my gun in position. Next time I saw them they popped out at 80 yards. They eased up to us and stopped at about 40 yards. I looked down at a still-sleeping Beau and kind of laughed, thinking about how my Dad did the same thing I was about to do to him 29 years ago. KABOOM, a turkey went down and Beau was suddenly wide awake. I thought he’d be scared but he just laughed and ran out to the turkey with me, saying “Daddy I was so still!” (I’d been preaching being still to him for the past month he’d been asking to go). Dad walked up and the story telling began. A whole lot of fun packed into one morning.

That picture with Beau holding the feather, Priceless...

"Daddy I was so still" Awesome!


The story! Mighty fine...

'Bout the only way that could be any neater will come when it's Beau pulling the trigger.

What a great memory for you guys! Thank You for sharing!!

Excellent report and pics dad
Buddy of mine used to put his boy in a croaker sack up to his neck, as he sat next to him on a turkey hunt. Said it kept the turkey's from seeing him fidget.

Deltaman wrote:Buddy of mine used to put his boy in a croaker sack up to his neck, as he sat next to him on a turkey hunt. Said it kept the turkey's from seeing him fidget.

May gave learned that from the fall turkey hunters who use dogs to break up flocks, they then "key, key" back to the gun. (Turkey was by far the most frustrating thing I've guided, because adults couldn't control themselves, either.)

Thanks fellas. It was one I’ll never forget.

I look forward to the day he shoots one for himself but Beau is already telling everyone that will listen that he shot this one anyway, and that’s fine by me. I’m glad he enjoyed it. He asked me last night if we were going again the this morning. I told him Daddy was slap worn out and we’d have to wait for the weekend. I need to be in better shape if I’m going to carry him through the woods again like it did yesterday.

Deltaman wrote:Excellent report and pics dad
Buddy of mine used to put his boy in a croaker sack up to his neck, as he sat next to him on a turkey hunt. Said it kept the turkey's from seeing him fidget.

I like that idea! Would be a lot less hassle than the little stake netting contraption I have.

How great is that hunt!!?? Congrats !