We showed up at the club on 3/16/12 at about 7:00 p.m to check the cameras and see if we could get one to gobble on the roost. We pull to our first spot and I owl hoot and to my suprise one gobbles about 100 yds to our left. We leave him and go check a camera on a road leading to a chufa field and weren't very pleased with the results due to not many pictures of turkeys and the ones we did have were in the afternoon. We left the club with high hopes because we did at least get one to gobble! The alarm clock sounded and it was no trouble getting up and getting out the door since we knew where one was. Now I need to rewind just a little bit...Tara (my fiance') was given a Rem. 1100 for Christmas by her Dad which was his Dad's. This gun is very nice and the action on it is awesome, considering it was manufactured in 1968. Well Tara said then that she would like to kill one turkey with it and then retire it. I thought that was pretty cool and knew I had to do my best to give her an oppurtunity. Let's fast foward to just a few weeks before Turkey season. I get a call from her Dad one day asking us if we would be interested in participating in a turkey contest in Maplesville. "You have to be at the church by 11:00am & I'll pay your entry fee," he told me. I said we will give it a try, knowing that it would be difficult to kill a turkey and drive the 2 hours to Maplesville. 60 two man teams and 1 man and woman team (yours truly)...I knew it had to be a good one to win. Ok now fast foward to the hunt. We get to the camp and load all our stuff in the golf cart to go to our setup and the golf cart doesn't work. Im thinking great start to the morning! We load the stuff back in the truck and head to our parking spot. Off we go to our set up, Tara has her Grandad's gun and i have the video camera. We get set up about 6:15 and wait. Our turkey sounds off and he is a little farther than we had remembered. He continues gobbling and 3 of his buddies join in!! Then I hear the hens. I do a couple of fly downs and they all hammer back! Well they hit the ground and they sound like they are going away from us because those dang hens heard me and are leading them away from me. We give them about 30 min and go after them (they are gobbling at a crow call every time i blow it). We get to our next set up and call and they hammer back. After about 10 min of calling and gobbling they sound like they are getting further away. I figured I could out smart the hen leading the gobblers away from us by going around them and heading them off. Off we go! We get set up and crow call and they gobble (sounded like right where we had just been). By this time it's about 8:05 a.m (remember we are on a tight schedule). I get up and ease in to the field they were in. (Circle shaped field with a road going out either side of it). They aren't on the road we are on so we ease closer and call. They hammer back about 75 yds but we can't see them. The next time I call they gobble but sound like they are going out the other road. We ease through the pines hoping to catch a glimpse...nothing! I tell Tara to stay right behind and we were going to ease in the field and see if they had gone. (8:25 a.m) I am peeking in the field looking for the slightest hint of a red, white or blue head when I get to where I can see down the road and I see them blown up. I yelp one time with the mouth call and one breaks out of strut and I see him heading our way. Tara and I hit the ground and we are stuck out in the field more than I would like. We start easing to the woodline and I see a head pop up over the brush (hen). She puts her head down and we scramble a little closer to the edge. Tara is trying to get a little more comfortable and I just make her sit down and tell her we don't have time they are coming...about that time the hens show up, 5 of them, they see us but put their head back down and I give them a few little soft clucks and purrs. I tell Tara to shoot the first long beard and red head she sees. Here he comes in full strut right behind the hens, he comes out of strut and booooooom! Never flopped! It's 8:35 now and we hug and I tell her congrats and we decide we are going to take him to the contest to enter him even though he wasn't a monster, he was good and she shot it with her Granddad's gun! Right at a 9 inch beard and 7/8 inch spurs but the were sharp! We snap a couple of photos and off we go to make the 2 hour drive to the contest. We get back to the powerline and i look on top of the next ridge and one is strutting all by himself! I ask Tara if I have time to go kill him and she say you have about 15 min, HURRY! I tell her to stay there and keep me updated with texts of his locations and off I go in a sprint! I get to the bottom of the ridge he is on and I start making my way up. I near the top and Tara tells me which side he is on. Then next text tells me that a hen has come out there with him but she didn't pay him attention and he is still strutting. Next text says "Your close enough, stand up and shoot!" I ease up and can't see him, so i put the phone down and start belly crawling until I see his fan. He is a lot farther from the crest of the hill than I originally thought so I belly crawl a little further. Now I can see his head but he wasn't as close as i would have liked. No call in mouth at all! He looks my way like he saw something he liked and blows back up...I'm thinking, he can see my hat and he thinks it's a hen, so i yelp with my mouth real soft and he hammers back at me!! He starts easing closer and closer and closer with me still yelping at him every now and then until I can see his beard all the way up to the top of his head and I say to myself, "it's now or never, I am out of time!" I click the safety and squeeze the trigger...Boooooooooommmm!!! (9:22 am) He starts flopping and I haul butt up there to get him. As soon I see him I say out loud, "he can win it!!!" I grab him and start running back down the hill and call Tara on the way and tell her to come pick me up at the bottom of the hill. We load him up and grab the rest of our gear and off we go to Maplesville to enter him in the contest! I probably broke several traffic violations besides the most obvious, speeding, but the Lord was looking out for us because we made it to the Maplesville church at 10:56 a.m. Tara's dad meets us at the truck and grabs the bird and everyone's jaw dropped. I knew we had one the contest then! They put him on the scale and he weighed 23.25 lbs, 11 1/8 inch beard and 1 3/8 inch spurs...My best bird to date! So Tara shoot's a nice one with her Granddad's shotgun, I kill my biggest bird ever, we make it in time for the contest and win it! We won 2 Mossberg 535's, fully camoed, 3.5 inches. To say we were blessed by the Lord yesterday would be an understatement, but we are still thanking him!!! To top it off we had great food, fellowship, and an outstanding message by Justin Nelson. Thank you Lord and thank you Jimbo (Tara's dad) for entering us in the contest. Tara was gracious enough to give her Dad her shotgun and she now has the one I won, but it fits her better!!! Our season is made now. Sorry for the long post but I felt like ya'll might like the read!

Tara's turkey!

She even carried her own bird out.

Our birds together with our new guns.

Hooks!

Wow. Those are some good hooks. Congrats on a great day.

congrats

FANtastic!! It's get when a plan comes together!!

Awesome story and great birds! Congrats to you both.

Nice! Congrats to you both.

Great morning! Congrats!

Congrats to both of you Hunter, thanks for stopping by and hanging out for a while! Yall did good!

That is an absolutely awesome story man. Congrats to both of you on your birds. I know neither of you will soon forget the hunt and contest.

Great story great results!

Great hunt. I wish my wife would go with me again to the woods, but those days are over. She was a good luck charm every time she went.

congrats to you and your fiancee,I have been trying to get my wife to go with me for years,but its just not gonna happen.must be nice!

Congrats!!

congrats!

Great story and nice birds.

Two fine birds. Congrats on the guns also.

Great story. Congrats to both of yall

1 3/8"???? What kind of tape are you using? Those look 1.5" easy to me.

Don't get better than that! Congrats to you and Tara on an awesome day!

Awesome very good.