As a young man, I killed Rio Grand turkeys at will and considered myself a "good enough" turkey hunter.

Then I started hunting Easterns.

It took me ten years of hung up birds, dead silence and blown opportunities to get the first one. I've been successful the last three years and now I "get it".

I love turkey hunting.

Thank God!

I'm a good listener.

I got my first eastern on saturday. I think I may have to go for the grand slam for turkeys, just because it will be a lot easier/cheaper than sheep!

I'd like to do the slam in one season.

I've got 3 registered at the NWTF--all I need is the Florida bird. I doubt I'll try for it because I can do 3 or 4 hunts for the cost of the Florida bird.

Nice gobbler. Maybe we can do a turkey hunt next year at Picky Pear, are you interested?

I've hunted easterns all my life. Finally figured it out in the mid 90s and killed a pile of them for about 10 years. Then got busy with life and work and couldn't hunt as much as I'd like for a few years. Getting my mojo back the last 3-4 years has been a real challenge. I'm making progress but not where I want to be yet. It can be a humbling sport but I love it

I was 27 before I ever turkey hunted, killed on on the first day of my first season. It was down hill for 2 years after that.

I wish I got into it earlier, but I'd always 'read/heard' how smart they are and how tough they are to hunt. Once I got into it I figured out that the only outsmarting being done is when you try to outsmart yourself.

The only thing turkey's are is wild, there ain't no smarts to them. As with most critters, fish and furry, being where they want to be is 90% of it.

Good going Lt.

Well, lay some a dat knowledge on the masses.

Always willing to learn knew tricks. Last one, I had to literally march into his "living room" to kill him after 3 years of chasing him, and called every flunky and minion of his down before I flamed him.

I have learned that every day is different, every bird is different and they are too stupid to outsmart. That pretty much sums it up.

Exactly the point. How do you 'outsmart' something that doesn't know WTF it's doing in the next 10 seconds.

Sums it up nicely. My experience as well.

Where I hunt easterns in western Iowa which is a bit woolly with deep ravines, coyotes, bobcats, and reputedly lions they are beyond nervous. Interestingly enough I don't think they get pushed by the two-legged kind there much but in my experience they are Olympic class paranoids besides their inherent dose of skittishness.

I still get blanked some years depending on how many times I get out, the weather, the vagaries of the seasons and where the hens are in their breeding cycle as so go the toms.

But as it looks like I can quit working on the Ark for day I plan on going out tomorrow.

My friend refers to a fish's brain as an "off-on" switch. Turkey's probably aren't that much more complex and all the difficulty in getting them is that easterns just have the "beyond paranoia gene."