The Maine Boys Strike for the 1st time!
One of the things I wanted to do this year was get some hunts from other parts of the country. Here is a blog from my good buddy and fellow OC franchise owner Joshua Slingerland from Maine. Joshua and friend Tim Pepper recently invested in the future of hunting by helping Tim’s nephew, Josh Fournier, get a bird:
The plan was for my friend Tim Pepper and I to take his 14 year old nephew Josh Fournier hunting. We had glassed the birds the night before, seen witch trail they entered the woods on to roost and made a plan to set up nearby at first light the next day. 3am found us all to soon getting ready to go, with a ton of gear to haul and set up, we were in the field and setting up by 4am and set up by 4:30am. I truly believe the best way to be successful in the field with youth hunters is to use a ground blind, thats how we hid two grown men and big 14 year old plus two video cameras on tripods. Everyone had their own chair and we were very comfortable. The first bird gobbled from the roost behind us at 5am, our excitement went through the roof because he was only 40 yards away. Then 2 more birds gobbled in side 50 yards! 5:19 a jake landed 15 yards from the blind and went straight for the pretty boy decoy set. Not long after two more jakes came by the blind(you guessed it, on the exact trail they used the night before) inside 20 yards. With 3 jakes spitting and drumming at the decoys and two more birds gobbling at my calling, it was awesome. One of the jakes mounted the hen decoy and stomped it for 20 minutes. During that time a tom had been answering the calls and steadily getting closer, he entered the field behind us a hundred yards away full fan. When he seen the jake attempting to breed the decoy he started running right at us, having a big longbeard cover 90 yards in about ten seconds had Josh pretty excited. I cut sharply on the call, stopping the strutter at 20 yards and the gun went off. The bird spun around and stopped and the gun went off again, this time he went straight down and never moved again. To say it was a good day is an under statement, when we checked the bird in it weighed 19.8lbs,1inch spurs and an 8 inch beard. We also took Josh hunting on youth day last year and he shot an 18lb long beard, in total he has hunted turkeys exactly twice and killed two great birds. Now he’s hooked for life. Opening day for Tim and I is Monday April 28 I will keep everyone posted.
Gear list:
Double bull matrix 360 blind
Pretty boy and girl decoys w/real fan
Mossberg 835 tactical w/ red dot scope
Winchester Supreme 3in.#5 turkey loads
Primos diaphragm calls
In the outdoors,
-Joshua Slingerland-
Owner/AgentOutdoor Connection
(518)339-5199