4x4 Grand Slammer

Day #4 & 5 - Tony's Birthday Hunt & the "Helicopter" Gobbler
At Florida Wildlife Unlimited)
Day 4 was Tony Duke's birthday, he set up in the Grove again. He heard gobbles and a hen flew down near the blind. 
At 9:00 he had 5 longbeards coming to his calling. And the most incredible thing happened.
   
Day 5 - Tony returned to the Grove and started seeing gobblers and hens again. And he met the "Helicopter" gobbler. 
   
   
Day #5 - Last Hunt
At Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch

Day 5 - I set my blind up in the closest brush to the area with the small pebbles the turkey are picking up. 7 hens came through, every one passed by my blind. I took some cool pics of them. My favorite is the one of the hen in pic 5. At straight up noon I saw the first gobblers...

Day #4 - One Legged Gobbler & the Double Beard

At WulffCedar Creek Ranch
Two groups of deer started my day off. Two hens came by me. Then I saw a gobbler in the road. I took pictures as it approached the hens. To The Hunt & Pics...
Soon 3 jakes walked in front of my Double Bull blind and went to the area with the small pebbles and picked away at them. Two more jakes joined in. Then 3 longbeards came walking up the road. One was the Double Beard bird. To The Hunt & Pics...

Chasing The Osceola...
At Florida Wildlife Unlimited in Central Florida

Tony Dukes & I are bowhunting for the Osceola wild turkey at Florida Wildlife Unlimited. We've been to the Badlands, the Barefoot & the Grove. To The Hunt...

 Day #3 - The Gobbler Brawl
Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch - Afternoon: Downhill 200 yards a few hens and longbeards appeared. Six jakes walked up and the longbeards charged them. This happened several times and twice two gobblers fought. I took pictures but they were blurry due to their excessive movement.
More longbeards came. I began calling softly and a gobbler blew up. Several Toms came closer and I got some swell pics. To 12 Pics...
I put my camera down and concentrated on calling softly and clearly. I needed to get them within 20 yards. And I did ...

More Day #3 - Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch
Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch - Afternoon: I glassed 2 longbeards 200 yards down the road and called at them. They leisurely changed direction and walked toward me and I got some pictures of them. At 80 yards they cut into the woods on the opposite side of the road. Then they appeared by some cedar trees and let me get some more pics. From their vantage point they could not see my decoys. I kept calling but the birds hung up and camped out, one even laid down. I range findered them at 43 yards. To The Pics...

Florida Wildlife Unlimited - The Missing Picture Of Fred Lutger & Doug Crabtree with their longbeard Osceola wild turkeys. To The Hunt...

Fred Lutger Takes #2 Of The Grand Slam 
Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch
At dawn Fred heard more gobbling than he has "ever heard before." It was coming from every direction. Later he saw a gobbler coming. He closed all the Double Bull blind's windows except one to shoot out of. Two gobblers ran up and went into full strut by the decoys. Fred dropped a shooting window open and one of the birds saw it and ran 50 yards. 
Fred used his Knight & Hale slate and the smaller gobbler started back toward the Montana decoy Tom and a hen. To The Hunt...

Tony Dukes Gets His 1st of the 4x4
Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch - Tony returned to a mesquite flat and moved his Double Bull blind 200 yards to the location where where he had seen lots of birds. He set out the Montana Decoy's Gobbler Mounting A Hen and hen decoys. 
Gobbles filled the air and at first good light 2 hens wandered toward the decoys. Back where the blind had been yesterday, 3 longbeards appeared. 4 more hens came up.
Strutting' Tom Carroll (of Double Bull Archery) called with purrs and the hens circled the decoys. He saw gobblers coming and whispered, "gobblers". To The Hunt...

First Gobbler Of The Hunt
At Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch
Tom Holmes "Greenfletch" Bags Gobbler #1
Late afternoon Greenfletch called up 4 Toms, they hung up and he worked them hard with a mouth call. Movement to his right got his attention. Two excited gobblers were coming in 20 yards away. He drew, aimed and released. To The Hunt...

Photo to right:  (L) Tom Holmes "Greenfletch" and (R) Mike McCullar of Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch 

Day #3 - Gobbler Brawl
Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch - Morning: I moved 250 yards South. It took two trips to carry everything. I picked up the decoys and called. Answering gobbles were dangerously close, I chunked the decoys behind a cactus and grabbed the blind. It's a good thing the Double Bull blind sets up in seconds because right after popping it up 4 nice longbeards came through 40 yards away. To The Hunt...

Day #2 - Fred & Robert's Hunts
At Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch

Bubba Gibbs checked the field for turkeys. He held up 5 fingers indicating there 5 gobblers. Fred began calling. No replies. 30 minutes later Fred heard a Tom spit and drum. The sound got louder as a big longbeard walked right to the Montana Decoy strutting Tom, broadside ... 20 yards. To Hunt
Robert - I had an active day and took some cool turkey pics and made a short gallery of them. To Hunt

Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch - Day#1

Fred Lutger described the morning hunt as, "the most gobbles I've ever heard." And it was. And plenty of wild turkey action followed too. To the Hunt...

Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch - Arrival Day
We all met at the Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch this afternoon. Joining the hunt are Tom Carroll from Double Bull Archery and Tom Holmes. Randall Gibbs and Mike McCullar used a Topo Map to show us the 5,200 acre area we will be hunting. THere is this hunt's Home Page.

Rio's - Opening Day 2004 - Never been one quite like it !!!
Huntin' At Home - My Double Bull blind was already in place on the dam (where I got my Grand Slam Rio last year). It was fogged over big time and daylight came without a sound. I called with no response and waited an hour, listening for a gobble. 
Suddenly I noticed something standing on the dam looking at my Montana Decoy strutting tom. It was big bird, but it was not a turkey. To The Hunt & Pics...

Day #4 Continued - Fred's Last Hunt ...
At Florida Wildlife Unlimited in Central Florida
They stopped and called at two locations before they reached the Indian Mound. Once there, Doug called. A Tom gobbled in the distance.
They grabbed the blind and hurried 200 yards and set the blind and decoys up in a bend in a road bed bordered with palmettos. By the time they were ready the Tom was gobbling regularly 400 yards away.
Doug called. The gobbling stopped. So Doug game the gobbler his no holds barred, down and dirty, "Victoria Secret" calls. To The Hunt...

Day #4 Morning - The 40 yard gobbler
Florida Wildlife Unlimited - Fred's Hunt - Fred & Doug were back in the flag pond blind well before daylight. Daylight broke. 4 other birds gobbled, but not the Tom that roosted 40 yards away yesterday. Doug waited for good enough light for the gobbler to see to fly down and made a soft tree yelp.
The roosted Tom gobbled 4 times. When he hit the ground Doug started calling. Woops, a hen came into the field and ran straight to the gobbler. She squatted down and he bred her. When she left the Gobbler circled toward the hunters position. To The Hunt

Day #3 Afternoon - Doug Gets #1
(Hunt compliments of 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
(Hunt compliments of Florida Wildlife Unlimited)
MORNING HUNT: 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...

AFTERNOON HUNT: 
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 Osceolas Show Up
(Hunt compliments of Florida Wildlife Unlimited)
Mar 29 - This morning Fred Lutger and Doug Crabtree began their Osceola bowhunt 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 Full Story...

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,,,

"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

Scouting: Fred Lutger Scouts Our Illinois Turkey Woods
Fred reports in from his scouting trip in Brown County, Illinois. 
Mar 23: "Today Bob McNeff (of Wells Creek Outfitters) took me to a new farm that we will hunt turkeys for the 4x4 Grand Slammer this year. We drove slow around it for an hour. The turkeys co-operated." MORE...

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

Recognizing Hens & Gobblers 

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

The Difference 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 large bird is the turkey we're talking about and here is the difference between Domestic & Wild Turkeys

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.

Getting The New Gear Ready To Go
Mar 19 - I shot for an hour today. I'm really grouping good and hitting accurately out to 25 yards with my first pin. This weekend I'll sight in a 35 yard pin. 

Mar 18 - Sighting & Practicing In For Turkey
.
(L) Double Bull blind in my front yard, (M) Inside the blind looking at the target
(R) My make shift 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 up with the bowstring and my arrows were dead on vertically from the first shot. My arrows hit high so I moved the pin upward in increments until it was 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.

Mar 17 - Today I took my new bow gear from the Grand Slammer sponsors to Peacock Archery to have Roger Peacock set everything up right. So far I had resisted carbon arrows but I admit the Easton Epic carbon arrows look great and the BowTech Justice shoots them faster than any arrow I've ever shot. So I'm happy with them The pins on the Timberline Power Glo bowsight are really bright -- an definite asset inside the Double Bull blinds we will hunt from. The Fine-Line bowquiver and Peep Sight finish the bow off nicely. The big hole in the peep is a good thing. I can not wait for this hunt to start.

ARTICLES: 
Informative articles and tips about hunting the wild turkey.

• The Bow and Arrow Shot

Bowhunting for turkeys is a different game altogether than shotgun hunting. Here's what you're up against and where to aim ... and when.
• Tips For Recovering A Turkey

Do you run after an arrowed Tom? Or wait? What do you do if he flys? And more...
• Turkey Call Basics

What kinds of turkey calls are there? What are they used for? How do you keep them working properly? 
• Turkey Decoy Tips

While not every hunter swears by decoys, they can be a great asset in many situations. Here is what kinds there are and what they can do for you.

Eastern

Merriam's

Osceola

Rio Grande

4x4 Grand Slammer 2004 Bowhunt ...
It's a wrap. We're all ready. This year 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!

1. The Osceola:  Doug Crabtree starts the hunt in Florida on March 20 at Florida Wildlife Unlimited in central Florida. Fred Lutger goes the next week and we follow on April 11.
2. Rio Grande:  April 5-8 we go to Texas with Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch midway between Brady and Brownwood. Plus I will, as always, bowhunt Rio's on my own place.
3. The Merriam's:  On April 20 we hunt Merriam's in South Dakota with Dave Keiser at Double K Guide Service.
4. Eastern:  We got drawn for Brown county, Illinois and start hunting on May 6 with Fred Lutger's Wilderness Hunts at Wells Creek Outfitters. Then we go to Ohio and hunt Doug Crabtree's turkey haunts.

SPONSORS

- BowTech - bows - Knight & Hale - turkey calls - Barrie Archery - Rocky   Mountain broadheads - Timberline Archery -   bowsights - MyTopo.com - maps

- Double Bull - blinds - Carter Enterprises releases - Pro-Ears hearing   enhancement & protection - Fine-Line Archery peep   sights & bowquivers

- Montana Decoys - decoys - EASTON Archery - arrows - Freddie Bear Sports   Assorted bowhunting gear - KBA Knives custom knives - Sticks N' Limbs camouflage

OUTFITTERS:

- Wulff Cedar Creek Ranch - Rio Grandes - Florida Wildlife Unlimited - Florida Osceolas

- Double K Guide Service Merriam's - Fred Lutger's Wilderness Hunts Illinois - Wells Creek Outfitters Easterns