In the fall of 1992 my grandpa came to do some pheasant hunting.  After a week he headed home leaving me with his trusty old Ithaca shotgun for my first year of hunting that fall.  In the spring of ’93, I called in my very first long beard just minutes into the season and killed him with that very Ithaca!

Fast forward to last weekend some 18 years later.  I’m at home packing my stuff to go watch my son play baseball and do some turkey hunting if we have time.  I’m loading all the usual stuff like:  blinds, bows, and decoys.  That’s when I notice the old Ithaca in the gun case and that gets me thinking about my grandpa.  You see grandpa lost his life after a long fight with an illness on Christmas Day 2006.  I instantly put my bow back and loaded the shotgun into my truck.

Two days later we would find a break in baseball to hit the turkey woods.  As I leaned back against a tree just feet from my son and no more than 100 yards from the tree I shot my very first turkey from, my head was filled with memories.  Well that and the sounds of turkeys as my son tried every note he could on the six calls he had.  Heck I couldn’t even catch a minute of shut eye.  After a slow evening the sun was hitting the treetops, when movement caught my eye.  Out from behind some trees 200 yards away, two gobblers and six hens emerged.  They seemed to pay no attention to Cade’s sweet music until the gobblers could see the full strut decoy.  The race was on and in a matter of seconds they were in easy shotgun range.  At 10 yards their heads became aligned.  I flicked off the safety and let grandpa’s Ithaca eat.  I dropped one in his tracks and the other, hit hard was brought down with a follow up shot or two.

It has been eight years since I carried a shotgun after turkeys and shot one without a blind or bow.  Cade was speechless followed quickly by high fives.  As we got ready to take pictures, Cade asked about the shotgun.  He knew the story and as he held the gun I told it to him yet again.  That’s when he said “Well maybe next year for my hunt I could use great grandpa’s old Ithaca on my first turkey and we could sit right here?”  I wouldn’t want it any other way and neither would he.  We miss you Grandpa CE!!!!!!    

~ written by Robbie Dockter

  “This is the spot I was thinking about!  It has the potential of being one of our prime hunting spots!…. its pretty open, decent sun light, clear a few trees and oh man, I can see a big buck goin’ down here!…”  Brian says to us as we were looking at the new home of our “Pine Tree food plot”.  About 60 yards to the North of this plot, lies our original pine tree food plot.  In year’s past, we’ve always seen deer in there but we’ve always seen more deer skirt around and use the back side of this small ridge.  So this year, we are breaking ground on the new pine tree food plot!

This plot will be an “L” shaped food plot approximately 1/3 of an acre which will be planted in Antler King Fall/Winter/Spring. 

 Brian got to work by removing all the big debris from the food plot while my dad, the kids and I removed smaller limbs.

 We didn’t have much time to work on this plot because my dad needed to get back in the woods turkey hunting, so we cleared what we could and called it a day but not before the kids had some fun!

Josh and I hit the timber again last weekend. And yet again, it was windy as can be. We headed over to one of Josh’s farms that he has killed many birds in the past. We got on top of the ridiculously tall ridge right at sun up. After trying every call in the vest, we finally got a bird to strike way off. We backed up and swung wide, hoping to give the bird an easy route to us. After setting up, the bird sounded off right where we were just standing! Problem was, he was on the other side of 2 barbed wire fences! We could hear a hen with him and knew that the odds were stacked against us. I figured we would do what we could do to get the hen to come to us, seeing how we knew the tom wouldn’t leave her. Josh and I went nutty on the mouth calls and sure enough she come right in. She walked right up to the decoy and at some moment was only 10 feet away! Lucky for me she started yelping and sure enough he started heading our way. He was about to come through the small opening in the fence and step in front of my Benelli just as another hen joined him and detoured him to about 3 yards behind me. These birds we a little too close! We both were afraid to even blink. Finally after about 25 minutes of strutting and gobbling at 3 yards, the turkey’s started making there way off. I decided it was now or never. I swung and shot that joker at about 40 yards. The rest of the day was filled with action immediately following my shot. We came super close at getting Josh a bird but we just couldn’t close the deal. Good times with good friends and man I cant wait to start putting in food plots!!!! ~ Jeff Kaye

The first day of my five day turkey hunt, Chad and I went out to scout some turkeys.  We were having a hard time locating any due to the crazy weather we’ve been having.  We decided to check out some public land where Chad has had some luck with turkeys in the past.  As we were driving past we spotted a couple turkeys, Chad got out the Nikons and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.  He spotted two normal colored hens, two normal colored jakes, and two grey toms!  I couldn’t believe what he said!  “Grey, are you sure?”  I had to look through the binos myself and sure enough he was right.  Both of us had never seen a turkey of that color phase in Minnesota.  Chad said “we have to go after him!”

As we walked to the area where we thought the turkey might come in to our setup I thought, this is going to be a miracle if we can call this bird in.  Chad started calling and the turkey was not very responsive at all.  As the next two hours passed we could never get the turkey called in.  We had to pack up our things and head out cause it was getting dark.  I was really disappointed not knowing if I would get a chacne to get back out into the woods due to work and our six month old baby girl.  The next day we decided not to hunt, it was raining, cold, and windy.  I decided I would go out the following morning on my birthday.  When Chad and I work up I didn’t feel too optimistic about the hunt because it was again really cold and windy.  I really didn’t think we would see or even hear any turkeys.  Boy was I wrong!  We loaded up the truck and headed back to where we saw the grey turkey two days before.  When we got set up Chad spotted the turkeys a long way off.  He was pulling out all the stops with his calling because he wanted me to get this bird!  They were over a half mile away and I could not believe it but they heard his call and did a 180 and started to head our way.  We were sitting in the blind for maybe 10 minutes and sure enough here they came over the hill heading straight for our decoys.  My heart was racing, hoping I would make a good shot.  As the grey tom came closer I thought for sure he would stop at the decoys and put on a little show but with the high wind, he just kept walking and so I shot an arrow at him at 8 yards.  After the shot, I thought I had missed!  I could not see my arrow and he kept walking away!  Quickly, I tried to nock another arrow and Chad said aim for 40 yards and so I did and “Wham!”  I knew I smoked him this time!  I was pretty much speechless at the time.  I just shot a color phase turkey, with a double beard, in Minnesota, on public land, on my birthday!!

I could not believe that Chad and I made this happen!  We spotted the turkey, Chad called him in, and I made the shot…it will be the most memorable turkey hunt I will ever have and I got to share it with my favorite hunting partner!

~Jennifer Nolte

The winner of the Blazer Helix Fletching Kit is……………. Kris Lewis!!  Thank you to everyone that participated in this month’s giveaway!!  On Monday morning, we will be updating our contest page to reflect May’s giveaway package.  Be sure to check it out!  Thanks everyone and don’t forget  Mother’s Day is right around the corner.  Your “diva” would look great wearing our Droptine Divas hat or maybe she’d like to watch our 4 DVDS  which are only $20 plus shipping!  Click our store icon to check out all the great deals!