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.

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!

Iedwd

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