After many months of scouting, planning (and irritating all around you with your calling practice) and many early mornings, your dedication has paid off with you bagging your first…or possibly second…wild turkey of the season. But now that you have that trophy gobbler (all are of course), many of you are thinking and asking…what do I now?  How do I make sure that tasty meat makes it to the dinner table? Read more

By Glen Wunderlich

Opening morning of the late turkey season began at 5am with a walk in the dark.  Heavy dew, a crescent moon amid a starry sky accompanied me on the way to my chair blind a quarter mile from my truck.  With calls, binoculars and assorted paraphernalia at the ready, and a hen decoy positioned some 27 yards from my hideout, a rousing chorus of gobbles from nearby roosting toms began at 5:40 am.

My Day 6 PlotWatcher Pro surveillance camera had provided 10,000 photos daily of the activity in the winter wheat field, and as scheduled, my first glimpse of a hen turkey came within the hour.  Atop a camouflaged tripod sat a Cannon Vixia HD movie camera just outside the blind to capture the anticipated action.

For the next several hours, only hens were spotted along with a few crows out for morning breakfast.

Sneaking a peek

But, I was in it for the long haul in secluded comfort waiting for a good tom knowing that a majestic gobbler could appear at any moment.  Then, a distant hen was in high gear as it raced back toward the security of the woods.

Obviously, something spooked it and at precisely 9am I learned the cause.  It was a Deere, as in John Deere.  The massive field sprayer rig barged right in the field a thoroughly covered every inch with fertilizer.  Before it could run over my decoy, I ran from the shelter and watched my highly anticipated opening morning get destroyed. Read more