Steve Metzger friend of RCAI Took this nice Tom on May 18th during a 3 day hunt in Southeastern Minnesota. Frothnag jumped behind the camera and kicked in his guiding skills to put Steve in position to take his first gobbler ever. Catch all the exciting action of this hunt coming up in our Semi-Live Hunt Section in July!

Steve’s Tale of the Tape: 8″ beard - 1/2″ spurs - 19 lbs.

After a frustrating but fun April hunt at Workin’ Man’s Guide Service in Southeastern Ohio, my brother-in-law Pibweir and I headed to Wisconsin for yet another exciting turkey hunt. It was about 7:00 pm when Pibweir left on a five hour drive from Jamestown, ND to my home in Eagan, MN. Pibweir rolled into my driveway at around midnight, we threw his gear into my vehicle, then jumped into the jeep and immediately headed for Waupaca County, WI.

Although we had another four hour drive ahead of us I was excited and appreciative that Pibby had come all this way to film my 3 day hunt. When you have the passion for this awesome sport, you will go to great lengths to get the job done and not even think twice about it. We arrived at the cabin around 4:00 am with no stops and not a minute of sleep…….well for me anyway! Pibby nodded off several times on the last stretch of our drive, however if you ask him he fully denies it. I suppose he needed to get some sleep so he could effectively run the camera when the moment of truth was upon us. With one hour to spare before sunrise we immediately unloaded the jeep and got geared up before heading into the woods. There would be no time for sleep, after all we can sleep when the turkey season is over!

The set-up was simple, we were stationed in a ground blind on the Northwest corner of our clover field. I knew the turkeys had been working the field on a regular basis so I went in and set up the blind a few weeks prior to our hunt. This is a private piece of property, 40 acres in total owned by my family. On the east end of the property is the clover field which has a large amount of hardwoods surrounding it where the turkeys love to roost. By the time we set up our two hen decoys and got settled into the ground blind daylight was breaking and we were anticipating that the gobblers would soon be sounding off. I could just feel that the timing of our arrival was perfect!

After securing a diaphram call to the roof of my mouth, I began calling softly in hopes of making contact with any longbeards in the area. Initially it was very quiet and I was a little surprised, but I knew that they were around and it would only be a matter of time. After about 30 minutes, the gobblers started responding to my yelps and some light cutting. This was the start of what makes all the long hours on the road well worth it. Outside of a big bull elk bugling and literally raising the hair on the back of your neck, there’s nothing better than a big gobbler sounding off as it cuts off your calls. This was exactly what we had going on at the time and I could tell that they were on the ground and headed in our direction. It was about 6:00 am and there were a couple of gobblers behind us, one out in front of us and a couple more just off our right shoulder to the Northwest. They all were about 100 to 200 yards away but all I needed was one of these big boys to close the distance and this hunt would be over. But as hunting goes they quit gobbling and all of a sudden it seemed as though there wasn’t a bird within 60 miles of us. We wanted to pick up and go after them, but with only 40 acres to hunt on that was not an option.

So, we sat there and waited. Then it happened……I dozed off! Yes, I dozed off! Pibby however, was awake and watching. He decided to grab my Primos Spring Hen call and hit it a couple of times. Immediately a gobbler sounded off at only 40 yards behind us and off our right shoulder. I think I almost jumped through the top of the ground blind and on the way down I grabbed my gun and shooting stick and was immediately into shooting position. Pibby smiled and said he had never seen me move so fast. The gobbler made his way around behind our blind with one of his other peers. After circling around us one of the longbeards finally decided to come into the clover field in front of us at about 35 yards. The other gobbler must have decided to go on and we never saw him again. However, we had the one we wanted in our sights. He was behind a small knoll in the field so initially we couldn’t get a good shot at him. He knew our hen decoys were out in the field but made no attempt to close the distance on them. Moving from right to left, he made his way over the knoll and then everything opened up for me to take the shot, but Pibweir was telling me not to shoot yet. It turns out the decoys were blocking his view of the bird. Once the bird came out from behind the decoys, I got the green light and the gobbler was mine!

My shot was right on and the bird went right down! It all happened so fast. The total time in the field was just about three hours and we were done. But, it is those three hours that I will remember forever. Thanks for the memories Pibby! Great job on the camera work. Praise God for another great hunt. Our God truly is an awesome God! It was my first Tom ever and it sure is a trophy to me!

Frothnag’s Tale of The Tape: 9″ beard - 3/4″ spurs - 20 lbs.

DAY 1 – May 7th 2008

Well we made the 600+ mile trip yesterday from Midland, MI to Dave Peil’s Buffalo County Buck Connection in Mondovi Wisconsin. It’s the 3rd season of Wisconsin’s 2008 Turkey season and my camera man Tom Kaminski (field staff/brother) and I were pretty fired up about this week long hunt with good friend of RCAI Dave Peil. The “Livin’ The Dream Team” has bowhunted whitetails in the fall with Dave twice now and I can tell you that Dave has some the best fair chase whitetail hunting I have ever seen! He has over 3,300 private acres in the heart of big buck country, Buffalo County Wisconsin. It’s hard for me to get those big buck’s that roam this land out of my mind but it’s turkey season and this weeks goal is to put down one of those big ol’ Wisconsin gobblers!

Just on the East side of town we stopped at this little diner called MR. T’S. Folks if you want a huge burger, fries and a great big thick chocolate shake than this is the place to go! We had a great conversation with Mike the owner who is also an avid turkey hunter himself! Great family owned place! Thanks Mike for the awesome burger and we’ll see you in the fall!

We rolled into Dave’s farm around 9:30pm, unloaded our gear, went over some aerial maps with Dave for the mornings hunt and then headed right to bed. (3:30am comes awful early!) By the way, Dave’s son Jeff hunted the week before me (2nd season) and harvested a very nice 2 bearded Tom. Congrats Jeff!

I want to let you guy’s know this is only my second year of hard core turkey hunting so I am on somewhat of a learning curve here. Add to that the fact that all the turkey hunting I have done to this point has been out of a ground blind and this one will be done without one (unless it rains) is only going to add to the challenge, so let’s see if I am up for it!

Enough of the chit chat; I have a turkey to harvest, so let’s get the camera rolling! This morning we were set up on drainage between two ridges. The area is about 70 yards wide and 300 yards long, it dumps into the main valley that is covered with corn and bean fields. On a side note: three years ago I bowhunted this spot one morning and had a beautiful 150 – 160 class 11 point come by me at 20 yards but it was still too dark to get a good bead on him through my peep sight and all I could do was watch him walk up over the ridge and out of sight! Ah….the memories! I warned you I would have trouble getting those big whitetails out of my mind! Got to get back to my turkey hunt! At the crack of dawn we had a couple of gobblers sounding off on the other side of the drainage and about 200 yards to our North. It wasn’t long before two toms and two hen’s flew down into one of the corn fields where they proceeded to strut their stuff in front of the ladies!

Click on the photo to watch the video

I did some yelping and cutting on my slate call but I could tell already that as long as the real thing was right in front of them it was pretty hopeless. Over the next 45 minutes or so all Tom and I could do was watch and film them before they made their way up the ridge to the west and in behind us.I knew that there were plenty of turkeys using this area so I hit my box call about every 30 minutes over the next couple of hours in hopes of bringing a long beard into shooting range. At about 9:30am I had a couple of toms answer my call from on top of the ridge across from us. They slowly made their way down the ridge toward the drainage answering my calls the whole way. One of the toms got within 20 yards of the edge of the drainage and hung up. This is where I made mistake number 1; I did not have a decoy out! He paced back in forth trying to find the hen he thought should be out in the middle of the drainage and when he could not see her, he knew something wasn’t right and headed right back up the ridge. I brought a decoy out with me this morning but decided to go without it. Maybe if I would have had the decoy out there, I would have got a crack at this bird, or maybe not, that’s hunting! (unfortunately it’s so thick over there that we were not able to get any real good footage of him)

A little later in the morning we had a hen with about an 8” beard come by us at about 60 yards to the South, no shot, but made for some pretty unique footage.

Click the photo to watch the video

AM weather report: Overcast & wet, windy and temp in the high 50’s

We saw a few more birds over the rest of the morning than went in to get something to eat around 11:30am and were back out by 1:00pm. Saw one more tom tonight, but he was way on the other side of the big valley. He would fan right out when I would hit the box call, but no interest beyond that. We also saw a few more hens cruising back and forth across the drainage; I think they must be nesting nearby. We watched a group of about 7 turkeys fly up into the roost on the ridge across from us, so we decided we are going to come back to the same place tomorrow morning and be ready for them when they fly down!

PM weather report: Sunny, calm and temp in the mid 60’s

Great hunt today! 5 toms, 15 hens (one bearded) and we saw around 30 deer, but I am trying to keep my mind on turkey hunting! Oh ya, plus a couple of sore butts!

Thank you Lord for another beautiful day in Your creation!
Hey we still have 4 more days! See you all tomorrow!

DAY 2 – May 8th 2008

Well we set up right back where we were yesterday and remember those birds that we roosted last night? NOWHERE TO BE FOUND! I don’t know what happend to them? An owl could have come in here and chased them out, there are a lot of them around here and turkeys don’t like them. We heard several gobbles at 1st light but after they were down on the ground they shut right up! Nothing! Felt like there was not a turkey for several miles around us! I thought we would be in them thick this morning, but that’s how hunting goes sometimes. We decided to get up and move around a little this morning so we gathered up our things and headed across the drainage, up the ridge and on to the top. When we got up there I hit the box call and right away a gobbler answered back. He sounded like he was several hundred yards away so we moved toward him and continued to call, he would answer us but he did not seem to be that interested. We moved even closer and I called again; he answered but this time it seemed like he was moving away from us. Finally he just quit answering and we did not hear another peep out of him. That was pretty much it for this morning; we did see one hen and 5 deer, what a blessing to be out here in God’s country!

Oh buy the way, while we were running and gunning this morning we ran across this nice buck rub! These things are everywhere! I know that I am supposed to be turkey hunting, but why not use this time to do some scouting for this coming fall! This place gets me fired up!

Click on the photo to watch the video

AM weather report: Sunny, calm and temps in the mid 60’s

We went in around 12:00pm to grab a bite to eat and then headed back out around 1:00pm. Dave had a spot he wanted us to try for tonight’s hunt but he had to run into town and take care of something urgent and we did not get a chance to talk to him so we decided to head back to the same spot even though we did not see anything there this morning; I know that there are turkeys around there so we have to see something right? We did! 8 hens, 2 jakes and 4 deer, but nothing we could take a shot at. My camera man Tom started getting a real bad headache so we decided to cut tonight’s hunt a little bit short, hit the hay a little bit earlier and get some much needed rest!

PM weather report: Cloudy, calm and temps in the mid 50’s (starting to cool off)

Well day 2 is in the books, tough day today, not much moving around but there’s always tomorrow! God bless and see you then!

DAY 3 – May 9th 2008

Day 1 was awesome, seen tons of birds and had a couple of close calls. Day 2 was a whole different story, back to hunting reality we should say. Its day 3 and we are making a location change. This morning we were set up on the edge of a corn field on the top part of the ridge we were at the base of the first two days. As daylight breaks gobblers are sounding off in every direction! I think this might be the day we connect on one of these wily birds! At around 7:00am I see movement out of my left eye heading toward our decoy (that’s right, not only a change in location but a change in strategy also!) which is out in front of us at about 20 yards into the corn field. My heart starts racing, there is some thick brush to my left so I can’t tell if it is a hen or a tom, but it’s coming from the same direction as one of the gobbles we heard this morning. The gun is up, the camera is rolling and I am ready to put an end to this hunt. As the bird gets past the brush and comes into view I realize all the excitement was for nothing, it’s a HEN! Got some great footage of her but the only shot taken was by my camera man!

Click the photo to watch the video

After she left I waited about 15 minutes and then started to hit my calls about every 20 to 30 minutes. At about 8:30am I got an answer back from a gobbler that was down in a valley to the West of us. He was fired up, cutting off my calls and I could tell he was on his way in. All of the sudden I hear a live hen yelping just to the south of us. Guess what? She cut us off! Dang it! That was all it took she had him and I didn’t. Back to the drawing board!

At around 9:00am I catch movement to my right, it’s a group of 5 deer making their way down the North end of the corn field then they turn and head down the middle right in front of us. All 5 are bucks! I can see the new growth on all of them but there is one that is starting to branch out a little bit and has some good body size, I bet he will be a nice one. I hope you come back by me in the fall buddy so I can get a crack at you! (I will be back here bowhunting Nov. 9th thru the 13th)

Click the photo to watch the video

Time to get back to my turkey hunt! I start calling again and at about 10:30am a gobbler starts answering back! He is still around 200 yards off to the North but I can tell he is on the move and getting closer. It’s on again! I am calling and he is cutting me off, he’s hot and on his way in! All of a sudden I hear a yelp coming from the Northwest. I can’t believe it, cut off again! Twice in one morning, that’s turkey hunting folks! There are a lot of hens around that are looking for a suitor and its making things tough. The toms are definately out looking but so are the hens and there are not many times a tom will pass up a live hen coming right at him for one he can only hear and not see. (can you blame him?)

Well from that point on things got real quiet and after sitting another hour without any noise at all we decided to head back down to the farm and grab some lunch. This is frustrating but at the same time I am having a blast! What a great hunt we’ve had so far! Lots of action from both the turkey’s and the deer!

AM weather report: Sunny, calm and temps in the 50’s

During lunch Dave popped in and asked how things were going. After going over all the details of this mornings hunt he suggested going to a different spot for the evening hunt. Dave and his wife have been seeing a nice tom strutting up and down a part of his driveway (which almost a mile long) between two corn fields for the last 3 nights in a row at around 7:00pm. Tom and I head over there to get set up, were not using a decoy tonight because this boy is showing up on his own. As we’re walking toward the chunk of woods we are going to sit in I look down and I can see the strut marks in the dirt, he has definately been using this area as his own little strut zone. We were settled in by 4:00pm and I am pumped up man, this has to be the night! Over the next couple of hours 3 hens have worked their way through the corn field to the North of us on their way up the ridge. As I look over to my right and across the corn field next to us I can see a red head coming down the ridge. Could this be the tom were looking for coming out a little bit early tonight? Nope, it’s a jake and behind him are two more. One by one they filed out into the corn field to the East of us and made their way to the other corn field to the North of us.

I harvested a nice tom in Southeastern Ohio at Workin’ Mans Guide Service a few weeks earlier so I had no interest in taking one of these jakes and made no attempt to try and coax them over our way. (as you can see in the footage the lead jake had about a 4 or 5 inch beard on him. He will be a nice bird next year.)

Click the photo to watch the video

Well, it’s now nearing the 7:00pm hour and I am patiently waiting for our guy to show up and start doing his thing. Next thing you know 7:00pm turns into 8:00pm and guess what? He’s a no show! I tell you what; luck is not on our side. The frustration is mounting, but we still have 1 1/2 days left to connect on one of these Wisconsin gobblers so we need to hang in there. It only takes a few minutes for everything to come together and turn the whole hunt around, so we must remain confident! Well that’s going to wrap it up for day 3; we will be back out tomorrow to take another crack at it. See you in the morning!

PM weather report: Sunny, calm and temps in the mid 60’s

God bless and good night!

DAY 4 – May 10th 2008

Its day 4 and time is starting to run out. We have all of today and a few hours tomorrow morning to get the job done! This morning we went back up top to the same corn field we sat on yesterday morning only this time we are set up on the North end. Right off the bat we had three gobblers sounding off, two were behind us, one to the left and one to the right. The third bird was in front of us in that same valley as yesterday morning. I started doing some light yelping and they were answering but not cutting me off. They sounded interested but it seemed they were staying put and wanting us to come to them. I leaned over to Tom (camera man) and said “let’s go after the one down in the valley in front of us.” They say things happen in three’s, well here’s were I start making a series of mistakes that turned out to be very costly.

We headed across the field to the start of the trail that runs across the top of the ridge. (I bowhunted this same ridge three years ago so I am familiar with this area) Once we got to the start of the trail I took out my box call and made a couple of yelps. Right off the bat he gobbled back and he’s wasn’t that far off, around 100 yards I’d say. I told Tom “let’s go up to that tree about 60 yards in front of us and I will hit the call again.” So, we got to the tree and I hit the box call again. He answered right back only this time it sounds like he is right on top of us. He must have been less than 50 yards away and just down over the ridge. I looked over at tom and we both had the same thing on our minds. We have to find some cover and find it quick because this guy is coming fast! We scrambled around to try get behind some kind of cover. Tom sat down in front of a tree and I tried to get behind a small tree and an even smaller log lying on the ground. We were still trying to get set when I looked over and there he is coming up over the ridge! Man what a beautiful bird! As soon as he came over the top he went into a full strut and was looking to see where the hen was at. Guess what? I did not bring the decoy! I wanted to travel light, so back when we left where we were setting I told Tom to bring just the camera and I was going to bring my calls and gun. Why in the world I did not bring the decoy is beyond me, now you would think that I would have learned my lesson from what happened on day 1. NOPE!

Tom (my camera man) must have seen him right about the same time I did because the gobbler had just came over the ridge when I herd Tom say “he’s to your right.” I am not sure if the bird heard Tom or saw us (because we had hardly any cover in front of us) but he did not like something and in an instant he turned around, gave some warning clucks and went right back over the ridge! Gone never to be seen again, (by us anyway) it was over that quick! We got a very small amount of footage and you have to look really close to even see him, but he was a really nice tom, great fan and his beard was like a rope! (as you can see in the video clip I made a horrible choice when it came to finding cover)

Click the photo to watch the video

I truly believe that had I done a few things differently my hunt would have ended right there with one heck of gobbler to put on the wall. Let’s take a look at the mistakes I think I made and what I think I could have done differently.

Mistake #1: Remember when I called from the start of trail and he answered right back? At that point we should have found good cover and got set up before I did anymore calling. Instead we walked up another 60 yards and called again. He was probably already on his way after the first call and now because we moved and called from a different location he thinks that the hen is on the move and this causes him to try and get up there even quicker before she is gone which gave us no time to get set up properly.

Mistake #2: NO DECOY! This one could go either way. There is no guarantee that the decoy would not have scared him, but this boy was hot and he covered about 100 yards in just a few minuets. Turkeys are like elk, they can pretty much pin point right where the call is coming from and when he came up over the ridge he knew the hen should have been right there. When he did not see her he knew something was not right and got nervous. Had the decoy been there at the very least he would have keyed in on that which would have helped us with our lack of cover. I have one piece of advice for you, remember the Boy Scout Motto: Always be prepared!

Mistake #3: We should have done a better job planning out what we were going to do before we even got started. When you are filming hunts, it’s very important that you and your camera man talk about how you are going to communicate throughout the hunt. Like I said I don’t know if the bird heard Tom talking or seen us moving, but when I watched the tape I could clearly her Tom when he said “He’s to the right”. Turkeys can hear and see very well, it doesn’t take much of an unfamiliar sound or movement and they are out of there. Filming hunts is not as easy as they make it look on tv and if you don’t think so, give it a try, just like us you will find out the real truth.

What an exciting morning! Like I said, I don’t have a whole lot of experience hunting turkeys so I am learning as I go and it’s cost me a couple of times already. But hey, you can’t learn if you don’t try! Plus I am having the time of my life; this is one of the best hunts I have been on! We did try and go around the other side of the valley to see if we could get him to come in again, but he was having none of that. Just like a mature buck, you usually only get one crack at them, that’s how they get so big!

Well, on that note we headed back to the cabin to regroup and get some lunch, what an exciting morning! Praise God!

AM weather report: Cloudy, calm and temps in the 60’s

The weather forced us to change our plans for tonight’s hunt, it looks like rain so we had to take the pop-up blind out with us. (water and cameras do not go good together) Due to the possibility of rain we decided to set up on a point that comes down into the big valley behind the cabin. (close to where we were the first two days) Just before we left a gobbler had came out of the woods, walked down the edge of the corn field then up and over the dam wall. According to Dave turkeys travel up and down this valley a lot but it’s big and hard to get a close shot. I take that back, it’s huge, better than a couple hundred yards across and several thousand yards long. Beautiful piece of land though!

We no sooner got out there and here comes the rain. Now I’ve had good luck in the rain over my couple years of turkey hunting so as long as the camera is not getting wet we’re good to go. I set out my decoy and started into my usual routine of yelping and cutting every 20 to 30 minutes. Right away we had a hen come from the South and feed in front of us at about 50 yards. She stayed around for 15 minutes or so and then made her way across the field and up the ridge to our North. Not long after that I looked up and there was a bird standing on top of the dam better than 150 yards in front of us. Tom got on it with the camera and low and behold it’s a tom! Probably the same tom we saw go over the dam just before we left the cabin. I threw out a couple of yelps to try and get his attention. It worked! He saw the decoy, started down the dam wall and was heading our way. All of a sudden we heard some yelps coming from the Northeast and the next thing you know, here she comes, straight at him. I can’t believe this! We’re getting cut off again! (The hens around here seem to be very territorial) As we’re watching this take place something weird happens, he ignores her and keeps coming toward us. (I think I am going to get a crack at him after all) He got about 80 yards out, stopped and then started angling toward the corn field to his right. He walked to the North side of the field and over the next several minutes he continued along the edge heading West. I started to do some light calling which would get him to stop and go into a half strut but it seemed like he had lost interest. He continued up the edge of the field until he was about 60 yards past us and then he started to head up the ridge. I hit my box call as a last ditch effort to turn him around and it worked! He stopped turned around and started to come back toward us, but he only came a few yards and stopped again. It was like he was thinking “I’m interested if you come to me but I am not coming to you.” After a few minutes he turned, headed up the ridge and was gone. Another opportunity lost!

Click the photo to watch the video

When he blew off the real hen and kept coming, I thought for sure that I was going to get a shot at him but it sure didn’t work out that way. This turkey hunting is challenging stuff! As you can see from both hunts today there is not much room for error and everything has to come together just right to get a crack at one of these boys. The next hour and a half was pretty uneventful and it was still raining when we left the blind. It’s supposed to be raining in the morning also so we left the blind there to use in the morning. We have to be on the road by 11:00am so we don’t have much time left to get this done, but we are going to hunt right up until the last possible minute. We had a great day afield today and I feel blessed just to be out enjoying God’s country! See you in the morning!

PM weather report: Rainey and temps in the 60’s

DAY 5 – May 11th 2008

It was cold and rainy this morning when we made our way out to the ground blind. As Tom got the camera ready to roll I went out and set up our decoys. Not much moving this morning, we had three hens come by us in the span of about 2 hours along with a couple of deer and a good size coyote! As this hunt ends I could share my feelings in writing but I might as well just tell you, so here you go!

Click the photo to watch the video

I want to thank you all for joining me on this hunt! We did not harvest a turkey this time around but you know it’s not always about the harvest. I had one of the best hunts ever! I got to experience the great outdoors that our Father created, learn more about the challenge of hunting the Eastern Gobbler and I had the opportunity to spend time and make some memories with my brother (camera man) whom I dearly love! Thank you Tom for taking the time out of your own life to support and help us make this dream become reality! I would also like to thank Dave Peil from Buck Connection for having us here this week. Dave, you have been blessed with an awesome piece of God’s country! (I can’t wait until November!) If you would like to contact Dave about hunting here at Buck Connection check him out in our “Helpful Links” section, you won’t be sorry!

Until next time, this is Iedwd saying God bless and good hunting!

It’s spring time and once again we started the turkey season off at one of our favorite places, Workin’ Man’s Guide Service in Southeastern Ohio. (for more information on booking a hunt with Workin’ Man’s Guide Service click on their link in our helpful links section) We arrived in camp on Friday afternoon unloaded all our gear and got the cameras ready to roll for the two day youth season which started on Saturday morning. Along with Kyle (RCAI junior field staff member) and Taylor Montgomery, Ian and Alec Foos were in camp again this year to take part in this spring time madness. I would be filming Kyle who was trying his hand at taking one of these crafty birds with his bow while Frothnag would be filming Alec and Taylor. Kyle and I had some close calls with a couple of jake’s and a tom but could just not get the right shot needed when using a bow. Frothnag, Alec and Taylor saw some birds and got a lot of great footage but the birds were not cooperating and stayed just out of range. Meanwhile everything came together for Ian and as the Jake strolled by his blind…….. I think Ian put it best when he said “I put him the dirt!” Good job Ian and congratulations on harvesting your first bird in only your second year of turkey hunting.

Ian’s Tale of the Tape: 1 year old Jake

When Monday morning rolled around it was time for Frothnag and I to get our 2008 turkey season started. I was still trying to get that first turkey under my belt so Frothnag told me to go first while he would man the camera. As dawn broke and the crows started to cackle we had a couple of gobblers sounding off to our right but they didn’t seem too interested in our calls and never made it over our way. Around 8:30 we heard a gobble from behind us and too our right. Frothnag hit his mouth call and the tom answered right back. He hit the call again and when this bird answered this time we could tell he was already on his way in to our setup. It wasn’t long until we spotted his red head popping above the ridge in-front of us and when he spied our decoy he never looked back. I waited for my cameraman (Frothnag) to give me the ok to shoot and when he did, I let him have it! The shot knocked him right over and I let out whoop! I had just taken my first turkey and man was I fired up! I looked over at Frothnag and saw this strange look come over his face as he was just realizing that he forgot to hit the record button. As you can imagine he was pretty upset with himself, but hey folks it happens. It’s not as easy as they make it look on t.v., I know from running the camera myself its very easy to get caught up in the moment of the hunt and forget to hit that little red button. Don’t worry I forgave him. Besides it’s forever recorded in my mind anyway and until I loose that, I am good to go.

Iedwd’s Tale of the Tape: 9″ Beard - 3/4″ spurs - 20 lbs.

Frothnag also had a tag so we switched places and continued on. We hunted hard the rest of the week with plenty of bird sightings and Frothnag passing up some jakes in hopes that a long beard would make that fatal mistake and slide into our set-up. As it turned out luck was not on our side and although we heard plenty of gobbles we just could not seem to close the deal on any of them.

Later in the week we were joined by a couple of other hunters, Anthony Infante from P.A. and Ned Colburn from M.D.. Both of these gentlemen share a passion for the sport of hunting and it was a blessing to have in camp. On the first morning of his hunt Anthony got a crack at a nice tom but he had a gun malfunction and wasn’t able to connect. Ned on the other hand harvested a very nice bird the second morning of his hunt which I believe was his very first long beard. Congratulations Ned from all of us at RCAI!

Ned’s Tale of the Tape: 10″ beard - 1″ spurs - 22.5 lbs. Nice bird!

For me any amount of time that I am able to spend hunting in our fathers creation is a true gift from God. Being able to share these expericnes with people like the Montgomery’s, Anthony Infante, Ned Colburn, the Foos and of course Frothnag makes the blessing even that much more special. Hope to see you in the woods sometime!

God Bless and happy hunting!

On Saturday February 23rd we were honored with the opportunity to speak at a wild game dinner in Clare Michigan at Our Father’s House Clare Assembly of God. There were around 25 men in attendance and we were looking forward to sharing with them the message that God had given us. During their monthly men’s meetings over the last year they had been talking about “Becoming Men of Godly Character” and the message that God had laid on my heart fit perfectly with that same theme. Isn’t it amazing how God works, I just love it when he confirms things that way. After we had been asked to speak at this function I started to pray about what God wanted me to share with these men. He clearly spoke to me and put on my heart to talk about the subject “Our Legacy” and what kind of impact the legacy we will leave behind will have on those around us.

I took the stories of 3 of the most famous whitetail buck’s ever harvested (the James Jordan Buck, the Milo Hanson Buck and the Mitch Rompala Buck) and showed the impact they each have had on the hunting world and related it to what kind of impact our own legacy can have on this world. What a blessing it was to be able to share this message with each one of those men in the room. We here at Rugged Cross Archery want our legacy to be one that impact’s people’s lives in the name of Jesus Christ and to do all we can to reach out to the outdoor/hunting community and further His Kingdom.

Frothnag and Linus put together and awesome 40 min. video that showed some of our hunts over the last couple of years and the start of the legacy that RCAI will eave behind. It truly was a special time for us. The food and fellowship were awesome, we got to see some people we have not seen in awhile and most importantly the Holy Spirit’s presence’s was among us.

We want to thank the men’s ministry at Our Father’s House Clare Assembly of God for the privilege to participate in this awesome event and we hope that each one of those men were blessed as much as we were blessed by this opportunity. If you happen to be in the Clare Michigan area on a Sunday morning and need a place to worship we encourage you to stop in and catch one of Pastor Harless’s messages. It will change your life!

May God Richly bless you!

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OFH Clare Assembly of God is located at: 3557 East Colonville Rd - Clare, Michigan Phone: 989-386-3232