Day #3 Afternoon - Doug Gets #1
Florida Wildlife Unlimited - Inside the blind, Doug Crabtree clicked his cell phone on. He had a signal. My phone rang and Doug told me what had just happened.

"I've never seen a gobbler react like that to a decoy!" Doug Crabtree was elated, "They were totally convinced the Montana Decoy was a turkey, 100%. They did not hesitate, they raced in, ran past my hen and stopped nose to nose with the Montana Decoy gobbler. One went into full strut and the other stood up tall." 
Both Longbeards were only 4 yards from Doug's shooting window. To The Hunt...

Day #2 Afternoon & Day #3 Morning
Florida Wildlife Unlimited - Mar 31 Morning - Doug returned to the Looney Field. A big gobbler strutted in the field but would not come over to the decoys. Fred returned to the "bus" spot and zipped. 
Mar 30 Afternoon, Fred's Hunt - Fred hunted the "bus" area. "Never heard a bird, never saw a bird," he told me on the cell phone.

Day #2 - March 30 - Morning Hunt
Florida Wildlife Unlimited - Before daylight Doug and Fred sat up the Double Bull blind near a few trees on a high area on the Looney Field. At dawn they heard faint gobbles. Doug called for an hour and a half. Suddenly a bird spit and drummed right behind the blind. Doug purred and hen yelped. It gobbled and circled left and came into view 60 yards away, strutting, a big Osceola longbeard. To The Hunt...

Mar 30 - AFTERNOON HUNT:  Doug's hunt
Florida Wildlife Unlimited - Doug called a hen in at the Indian Mound. She yelped and clucked for half an hour. No gobblers showed all afternoon. Doug pulled the blind at quitting time and started out. He heard palmettos rumbling and grunts ... and nocked an arrow. MORE...

Day #1- The Osceola - A Big Start
Florida Wildlife Unlimited - Mar 29 - Fred Lutger and Doug Crabtree began their Osceola bowhunt with Florida Wildlife Unlimited in an area nicknamed the Badlands. At dawn they heard a gobble and walked 800 yds along the edge of a field. When they were in the gobbler's area they put up the Double Bull blind (a Green T5 Pro Staff model) on a road bed near the edge of big woods.
Doug did two sets of yelps. The Tom gobbled back. Doug switched to cutting. The bird triple gobbled. They waited. 
Ten minutes later Doug made a plain yelp, one. A Tom answered 80 yards away. Doug clucked & purred and the Gobbler saw the decoys at 50 yards and puffed up and strutted towards the decoys. Doug quit calling. To The Hunt...

Montana Decoy - If these turkey decoys moved you'd shoot 'em!
These decoys look like Longbeards Gobblers, hens and jakes. Exactly like 'em! The 3 decoys I received from 4x4 Grand Slammer sponsor Montana Decoy are made from a tough, polyester fabric. An actual picture image is printed on both sides of the decoy. The printing process gives the decoys a 3D look, too. To give you an idea of how realistic these decoys are I made the picture above into a Larger Picture and also a even larger Wallpaper sized picture -- so you can see how good they look. DECOY PICS & MORE,,,

4x4 Grand Slammer
TO HOME PAGE of 4x4 Grand Slammer...
"Where You Go I'll Go"

Today I got a pic of a gobbler that's hooked up with this hen. He's going where she goes, at least for now. I think I've scouted myself up a pretty good place. To The Pic

Fred Lutger Scouts our Illinois Turkey Woods
Fred reports in from his scouting trip in Brown County, Illinois. 
"Today Bob McNeff (of Wells Creek Outfitters) took me to a new farm where we will hunt turkeys for the 4x4 Grand Slammer this year. We drove slow around it for an hour. The turkeys co-operated." MORE...

More NWTF Sport Show
Team Calling Competition

Every year the Calling Competition is one of the biggest events at the NWTF convention. Here is a photo gallery taken in the order they competed. Team Competition.

4x4 Grand Slammer
TO Home Page of 4x4 Grand Slammer...
Scouting: A Fighting Gobbler (9 pics)

This morning just before 8:00am I got lucky and took pictures of a gobbler strutting along behind 2 hens. He's missing some tail feathers, so he's been fighting, but he's none the worse for it. Gobbler Pics
Wanted - Online Wild Turkey Field Reporters
You are welcome to participate. Report your own hunts online in our Wild Turkey Network. 

Recognizing Hens & Gobblers 

The heads of hens and gobblers are different and their overall appearance has a different purpose. GO

Differences Between Wild & Domestic?

Webster’s Dictionary defines "turkey" as: a theatrical production that has failed, three successive strikes in bowling, a stupid or foolish person and a large North American bird that can either be domestic or wild. 

The OUTFITTERS
A project like this takes some help from folks who know where gobblers are the areas we will have to hunt. Here is the list of the outfitters and a little about each one. To The Outfitters.

WILD TURKEY ARTICLES
Helpful articles and tips about wild turkey & hunting them. Turkey Call Basics, Turkey Decoy Tips, The Bow & Arrow Shot, & Tips For Recovering A Turkey.

4x4 Grand Slammer Hunt Dates & Places
It's a wrap. This Spring Bowhunting.net is going for four! That's 4 Grand Slam Wild Turkey Bowhunters trying to get the wild turkey Grand Slam ... in one Spring season ... with the bow and arrow. Online! Use the link above to check the schedule and places we will hunt.

Getting The New Gear Ready To Go
Mar 18 - Sighting In & Practicing For Turkey
..
(L) Double Bull blind in my front yard, (R) My custom made cardboard turkey target (and a good group)
At 31 1/4 inches the BowTech Justice is a shorter bow than I've shot before. I wondered if it would be rough to shoot -- instead it is very smooth to draw and nice (as in quick and smooth) when I release the arrow. I lined the pins on the Timberline Archery Power Glo sight up with the bowstring and my arrows were on dead on vertically from the first shot. My arrows hit high so I moved the pin upward in increments until it was right on. My new release, a Carter Two Shot wrist strap release, worked perfectly without any adjustments.
Then I set up the Double Bull blind in my front yard next to my practice tripod, put a folding chair in it, and got down to shooting through a shooting window. To practice for turkeys I cut a piece of cardboard 12" high and 5 " wide and tapered the top half -- a homemade turkey target. Then I used a marker to make a 2" circle to shoot at. A couple of fine adjustments to the bowsight and I was shooting strong (turkey target pic). Now I will practice with this new rig every day so I'll be used to it when the hunt begins next weekend.