As you may remember from earlier blogs about my sons, my middle son, Alex, who is 15 years old, loves and plays baseball. He is currently playing on the JV team and his time is consumed with baseball, friends, SportsCenter and sleeping. Pretty typical huh?

You may also remember that he has enjoyed going on hunts with me in the past but it has always been more about the “social” aspect of going on a road trip with Dad, and I think that’s pretty cool. Is Alex a hardcore hunter? Nada.

So you can imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when, on a Saturday night, Alex tells me he’d really like to go turkey hunting in the morning, before church. My response was, “I’m sorry son, we’ve got a bad connection. Say that again.” Harman, my oldest son who was within earshot, laughed out loud which in turn made Alex laugh.

“I’m serious,” said Alex. “Let’s go hunt in the morning.”

When I went to get Alex up the following morning at 5:30, I was totally unprepared for what happened next. HE GOT UP OUT OF THE BED!

We got dressed, left the house with Alex driving (another story for another day), swung through the McDonald’s drive-thru at his insistence, and with daylight breaking, drove 5 miles out of town, pulled off the highway, parked, got out of the truck still chewing my sausage biscuit and almost choked when the tom gobbled!

The turkey wasn’t 200 yards from the truck and he kept gobblin! Alex and I were fired up!

We set up on the turkey and had a blast listening to him gobble on the limb, heard him fly down and continue to gobble. We made a couple of moves on the turkey, being careful not to spook the bird. This was easier to accomplish since we did not have a camera or a cameraman with us. At this point in the hunt I was kind of kicking myself for not bringing a camera!

Finally, we changed position and I felt like the bird would come in. We set up on adjacent trees about 5 yards apart and I started calling. The gobbler was coming!

I whispered to Alex to get ready which he did by shouldering the Benelli and pointing it in the direction directly in front of us. The bird gobbled again and I knew we may have a dilemma. The tom was circling around to the right putting me directly in line with Alex and the approaching bird.

He gobbled again, I cut my eyes over to the right and there he was in full strut walking directly toward me. When he walked behind a big oak tree, I looked back at Alex who had not moved the gun at all (thank goodness).

Alex whispered, “I can kill him!” My response, “Don’t even think about it!”

Alex just smiled and we enjoyed the show as the bird continued to gobble as he strutted directly behind us. Eventually, the bird gave up and gobbled his way over the ridge. What an incredible morning! What a show!

Even Alex was fired up and we had a good laugh about me “messing up” his turkey hunt by getting in the way. We bagged no turkey, hence, the picture of Alex playing ball. Maybe next time!

Hey boys and girls, Bill Jordan here interupting Blanton's Blog for a special segment. I hope everyone knows how important family and friends are to us at Realtree, and if you have ever watched Realtree Outdoors, you know that I close every show with a challenge to take a kid hunting or fishing so they too can enjoy the outdoors. Having said that, I wanted to share a special essay I received from a friend of mine.

I hope you enjoy it and have a great spring in the woods.—Bill Jordan

My Dream
By Kyle Cox

When I was little I always went hunting with my dad and we would sit and wait for deer in the woods. When I was 3 we killed our first deer so when I was 6, I killed my first deer. My dream when I grow up is that I want to work for Realtree so I can film different hunts like deer, turkey, ducks, and other things, and I can make hunting cloths and hats. My other dream is to have a deep-sea boat to go out in the ocean to catch big fish. I will have a life like whale that holds the fish you catch in the boat, so when I catch minnows I can put them in the whale to keep them fresh so when I go out I can catch bigger fish like marlins and sail fish.

I’ve been so busy this spring putting the final touches on Monster Bucks and Monster Bulls I have not had time to hunt very much around the house and I certainly have not had the time to travel anywhere to turkey hunt. And it’s a shame because I love to turkey hunt! And one of the things I treasure so much about the spring is spending quality time with either the boys or good friends on a gobbler getaway.

But that’s OK because I leave tomorrow on my only scheduled trip. What’s even better is the company I’ll be keeping on this much anticipated adventure. Joining me will be the “always entertaining” Michael Waddell. Michael and I unfortunately don’t get a chance to hunt together as much as I’d like. Our schedules are crazy and it takes an effort to set aside some time and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Also going along on his first trip out West to hunt Merriam's is my good buddy Hugh Nall. Hugh is the offensive line coach for the Auburn University football team and is a die-hard turkey fanatic. Nobody likes to slam a turkey more than Hugh and his schedule, with spring football practices and recruiting, can be as hectic as mine and Michael’s!

Also joining the circus is one of my best buddies, Dr. Chris Robinson, an orthopedic surgeon from Dothan, AL. Chris is bringing his 11-year-old son, Jeffrey, as well. I don’t think Jeffrey has slept much over the past few weeks due to the excitement of the trip.

We are flying into Rapid City, SD, will rent a vehicle (or vehicles) and drive an hour and a half to Sundance, WY where we will once again team up with Jeff & Deb Smith of Seven J Outfitters and head guide Kenny Morga.

We’ll hunt the Black Hills for a couple of days then Michael, Hugh, cameramen Phillip Culpepper and Dan Johnson, and I head up to the Powder River in Southeast MT to hook up with the infamous Bill Perkins. Bill is a world famous outfitter who specializes in mule deer, antelope and whitetail in that part of the world and just happens to have a ton of turkeys on his properties. Harman and I had a chance to spend a couple of days with “Dr. Perkins” last spring and enjoyed it immensely!

We’ll hunt MT for 3-4 days and then head back to Rapid City to fly home next Friday!
I can’t tell you how much I need a break from the office and I hope to report some head-bustin' action!

Peace.

I want to get a report on how our turkey hunters are doing this year. Georgia birds haven't been easy, but a few of the Realtree boys have put one down. I've also heard many reports that Texas turkeys are tough to kill this year because there are NO 2 year olds. But then some hunters are reporting good luck in a few states.

So here's what I'd like to do: Post a comment on how many birds you've taken so far and what state you killed it in. Feel free to post multiple kills. Will do a nationwide comparison when the season is over. And I do realize that not all states have opened.

Thanks
David

I am absolutely blessed beyond measure to just simply know so many “good people." And to call them “friend” is even more satisfying! Well, two of the finest people in the world are Tim and Elissa Williams who live in my hometown of LaGrange, GA.
(Actually, Tim and his second oldest son Kaylor were the “stars” of the Nocked N’ Loaded DVD we produced last year which featured only bowhunts and documented T-Bone getting them started off on the right foot learning how to shoot bows correctly).

Kaylor is 12 years old and ever since I’ve know him, has been a genuine “huntin’ freak." He LOVES it and he has already decided that when he finishes college someday, he’s going to work at Realtree. Don’t count him out either. Kaylor possesses a tremendous amount of dedication and drive when it comes to hunting and it was earlier in our season here in Georgia that he (with his Dad watching silently) called in and killed his very own longbeard! ALL BY HIMSELF!


I’ve asked Kaylor to write a short story on his hunt. Enjoy.
Maybe I can talk him into calling a bird in for me!



Well, it is saturday morning opening day at 6:30 a.m. Me and my dad where in the truck and I hit the hoot call a couple of times. Then my dad herd something gobble and it was about a mile away so me and my dad got in his truck went a little farther down. Then we got out and hit the hoot call again and there was a different turkey not far away. So me and my dad walked a little farther, then crows started crowen and the turkey just kept on gobblen. Finally, me and my dad sat down because we knew the tom was not far away. We sat there for about 20 minutes. Then we figured out that the turkey was moving and not coming to us so we went to him. We walk just a little bit and we reached a food plot and I hit my mouth call and he gobbled. I knew that the turkey was on the far end of the food plot so we sat down and I called him until he was about 40 yards away so I waited until he came in about five or ten more yards. Thats when I shot. He was about 35 yards when I shot. Then I went up to him and I looked at his beard it was 10 inches and 1 inches spurs. Me and my dad was the happiest people in the world.

I'll preface this next video clip with this: This is THE MOST INCREDIBLE turkey footage I've ever seen. This clip was taken from more than an hour of this gobbler breeding these two hens. Have you ever seen anything like this?