Opening Day of Turkey Season

Turkey season started yesterday here in my neck of the woods, and my dad and I gave it our best shot to lure in an unsuspecting gobbler, but to no avail. We tried calling and setting up decoys at multiple locations on the property we hunt, but we didn't see or hear a turkey all day. We only saw a few tracks and it just seemed the birds were nowhere to be found. But, that's why they call it "huntin'" and not "killin'". Here are some pictures from the hunt.

This was our first decoy set, along the edge of a wheatfield in a spot where I shot a really nice gobbler a few years back. There is a creek bottom directly behind us that meanders through the property with a good stretch of woods where the birds have roosted in the past.

This was our second set, in an area that I would consider a mesquite savanna. That's my dad over there on the right.

This was the last place we tried, on top of a ridge where there is a nice stand of post oak and blackjack oak trees.

Some tools of the trade: a slate call and a Remington 1100 shotgun.

With no turkeys responding, I took the opportunity to take a picture of myself in action.

I saw this interesting-looking little cactus while we were hunting and snapped a picture. Anybody know what kind of cactus this is?

After we got done turkey hunting we put some protein pellets in a free-choice style feeder that we have positioned in the center of the property - in an area that we have designated as a "deer sanctuary" that is off-limits to hunting. We've had a game camera running at this site for quite some time, but we try to stay out of this area as much as possible so the camera has not been checked in about four months. I pulled the memory card and took it with me to view the pictures when I got home. While viewing the pictures I was tickled to death to see this:

I haven't gotten pictures of this deer since late October, and I had pretty much come to the conclusion that he had been shot on a neighboring property. This was the deer that I had nicknamed "Slingblade" because of his left G-2 being bladed like a knife. Much to my surprise, he made it all the way through the archery and gun seasons, and was photographed on our property in mid-February. I guess our little sanctuary might be paying off because we also got this picture of him in early December.

I can't wait to see what this deer looks like come this Fall! Hopefully he will just hang out on our property and show up on some more pictures before archery season rolls around.

Now on to the important stuff. We couldn't make a trip to the lease without stopping at this place!


I plan to do some more turkey hunting in the next month, and I've been busy working on a new trail camera that I hope to have completed in the next couple weeks, so check back for updates.