My fascination with videoing turkeys and turkey hunts can be traced back to 1987 when I opened and operated, with a partner, a full-line hunting and fishing pro shop. We decided to “rent out” hunting videos to our customers. Back then, the pickings were slim and in an effort to offer the best in turkey hunting videos, I watched what was available. One day, I popped the new video from Paul Butski and the late Billy McKoy into the VCR. I was amazed at how close they could get their cameras to strutting gobblers! The footage was awesome! I was hooked. “How can I do that?” I wondered.

Here we are, 20 years later, right in the middle of turkey season, and I’d say so far this spring, the Realtree cameras have recorded 12-14 “good” turkey hunts that will certainly go on next year’s DVD.

That means we’re on pace to wind up with our usual 25-30 hunts. And there’ll be hunts from all across the country with all four subspecies being taken on video. It will be our 17th turkey hunting video and if you figure an average of 23 hunts each, that would give you a total of around 390-400 hunts that have made the final cut — Probably another 100 that didn’t.

Anyway, close to 500 turkeys have died in front of our cameras and yet . . . we have NEVER videoed the PERFECT turkey hunt! (In my opinion.)

As a matter of fact, I have never seen the perfect turkey hunt videoed in ANY of the productions throughout the hunting industry. I’m the first to admit that plenty of companies do a fantastic job when it comes to capturing exciting turkey hunts on tape… Primos, Hunter’s Specialties, Knight & Hale, etc., but once again, I’ve never seen the perfect hunt.

I know what you’re thinking, “Just what is the perfect turkey hunt?”

My next blog will reveal the answer.