TANNER’S TURKEY

Many of you, like me, will never forget Mitch Ensor and what an incredible impact he has had on so many lives while battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or ALS. You may recall the show we filmed with Mitch in Florida not too long after he was diagnosed with this terrible disease. At the time, the Osceola turkey was the only one he lacked in his quest for the Grand Slam. Well, not only did he lay the “smackdown” on a big longbeard down there, he became a very dear friend along with his wife Kay and children Shelby and Tanner. Mitch is still battling and has never lost his love for our Lord, his sense of humor or his redneck tendencies! I love him like a brother. Well, Tanner just recently killed a turkey in their home state of Kentucky and so I asked for the info since so many people often ask how Mitch and his family is doing and what better way to “catch up” than thru a turkey story. To type an email, Mitch uses a computer with a camera and he calibrates his eye to the camera and a keyboard will flash across the screen. He will then “type” using his eye, one letter at a time! His lovely wife Kay will then retrieve the document and email it for him! Here is Mitch’s account of the hunt with Tanner!

Bro. Dave
Well the Lord has blessed me again. I never thought that I would have the chance to share the great outdoors with Shelby and Tanner. Shelby is not the avid outdoors 'woman' , but I am as proud of her as I could be. She is a honor student, a member of the academic team, and puts up with me. Recently she was nominated, by a congressman, Youth Advocate of the Year for the ALS Association. Shelby has had to grow up way before her time.
Tanner is ate up with the outdoors. At the age of six he has taken a deer and a turkey. Ginger Moorehead filmed his deer hunt. Kay said that you want to hear the story.

April 17 opening day of the 2010 spring turkey season. The day began with fog rolling gently over the ground like the breath of God breathing life into a new day . As the fog gave way as the sun climbed higher the early morning silence was broken by the sounds of songbirds waking up for a new day. Tanner, Jordan, and I were getting everything together and then there he was "GOBBELL, GOBBELL ". Tanners eyes got as big as half dollars. "There he is daddy ! "Not long after the Tom shook the cool spring air the echoes of several turkeys let their presence be known. GOBBELL , GOBBEL, "There he is again and he is not from the blind is he daddy? "It was all that he could stand. "Daddy can I call to him? "I told him to wait for a little bit. With the fog hanging low to the ground the gobbers were fired up and ready to fly down. After about 30 I told to get the box and give him a few yelps. He let out about 5 yelps and not 1, not 2, but 5 gobbelled back. It was all I could do to keep him from making sparks fly from that box. Hour or so later 5 toms with 1hen showed up about 200 yards away. Jordan and Tanner doubled up on the calling. They hammer at everything they threw at them. Finally one broke off and headed our way. He strutted all the way across the field. Jordan got Tanner stood up. Trying to him from poking his head out of the blind was a job. We told him to put the red dot on 'JJ', our jake decoy. It seemed like an eternity before he got to the decoys. That tom came up to 'JJ' and never broke strutt. Jordan tried cuttin, yelpin, and hard clucks but he did not want to take his eyes off 'JJ'. I was so proud of Tanner he would not shoot till his head came up. I know alot of men who would have had a pile of feathers if a tom was at 18 yards at full strutt. Finally the tom brought his head up a little and Tanner said "The dot is on the neck. Do ya want me shoot him? "I said "WHY YEAH! " KABOOM! Tanner let out a Rebel yell and the tears flowed like a river. He and Jordan took out and I heard them screaming and hollerin. Tanner came back in the blind and wrapped his arms around my neck and said "Thank you daddy for taking me. "He and Jordan helped me out of the blind and Tanner said something that warmed my heart, "Thank you Lord! "You know what when your child gives thanks to the Lord it makes it all worth it. Thank you Lord for another day!

I love ya. God Bless

The world famous Phillip Culpepper and I went turkey hunting Tuesday morning, April 20 near LaGrange, GA. Believe it or not, it was the first morning I've been able to go hunting this spring. It was absolutely the quickest, easiest turkey hunt I can ever remember. And especially come away with awesome video. The above picture is the frame of video frozen the instant the Benelli unleashed the 3" #5's. It was about 10 minutes after flydown and these two longbeards came to the call. The bird on the right had strutted coming in and that's the bird that ended up on Daniel Thomas' grill Wednesday evening. But its not very often you would get an image like this. It has to be dark

Russ Reid is the son of my good buddy, Dr. Richard Reid of Grenada, MS. Russ has become a very, very avid hunter. I think you'll enjoy reading Russ' account of his successful hunt. Way to go Russ!

“PUT DOWN THE WAFFLE AND KILL THE TURKEY”

The above is the most interesting line uttered during the just completed Beards Or Bust contest. Shoot, it may be the weirdest comment ever made during ANY turkey hunt! Well, technically the contest ends Sunday night when the two teams were originally scheduled to be back in Columbus, GA but if you have been keeping up with the adventure on beardsorbust.com like many, you already know that Team APG, Eddie Salter, Phillip Culpepper and cameraman Greg Thompson completed their Grand Slam Wednesday in Colorado City, CO and Team AP, Jeff Shepherd, Daniel Thomas and Tom Montgomery finished up their quest yesterday morning in Mulberry, KS.
Now, both teams are hunting their way home at a more leisurely pace for bonus birds. And speaking of “bonus”, we may have some issues brewing. You see, Daniel Thomas and Eddie Salter, unbeknownst to the tournament committee and on camera, agreed to a 10 point bonus if a team can kill a turkey while the hunter is wearing a Waffle House cook hat. Simple enough. Well both teams did just that so then, during one of my daily updates, I agreed to give a 10 point bonus if a hunter can kill a turkey while eating a waffle. Simple . . . or I thought.

I just assumed everyone knew it would have to be a WAFFLE HOUSE waffle since they are sponsors of Beards or Bust!
Well, apparently Jeff Shepherd is gnawing on an Eggo when he capped his Eastern in KS yesterday morning while hunting with Realtree ProStaffer Brad Harris and Brad, being the intense turkey hunter he is, spits out the above quote. In the heat of the moment!

Absolutely hilarious!!

Confusion abounds! But Sunday we will have the much anticipated scoring session since both teams killed the Grand Slam and this contest gets back to the trophy going to the largest cumulative score of a team’s four gobblers!

We’ll see!

If you haven’t followed the contest at all, go to beardsorbust.com and check out the video clips!

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I love college basketball, especially during tournament time. And last night the championship game was played between Butler and Duke with Duke barely squeaking out their fourth National Championship over the decided underdog Butler.

But that’s not what this blog is about. It’s about the brackets exploding like never before!How was your bracket? Would you believe that I correctly picked the Final Four of Duke, Butler, Michigan State and West Virginia? Would you believe that it is a myth that turkeys roost in trees? And that they really crawl underground?

Haha! Seriously, I didn’t even fill out a bracket this year. I am that bad at predicting who is going to win any given game. But then again, it looks like most people are!

So how is your April going? Are they gobbling like mad? Coming to the call? Or is your turkey season not yet open? I’d like to hear from people across the country. (I do realize it’s a little early out West or up North).

Here, the turkeys are really cooperating. Our own Phillip Culpepper has seen about 14 turkeys die so far this season! Bill has taken a nice longbeard and Tyler called in a beautiful bird by himself this past Friday!

Me? Well, I haven’t even laced up the boots yet. We’ve been really busy putting the finishing touches on Monster Bucks XVIII and Monster Bulls 8!

Thought you’d like to hear that!

I believe the Bible is a Holy book.

I believe God constructed the Bible.

I believe God anointed every word written in the Bible.

I believe every word in the Bible is true.

I believe Jesus was and is God in the flesh.

I believe Jesus died for my sins.

I believe He was crucified on the cross.

I believe He died.

I believe Jesus arose from the grave.

I believe Jesus defeated death.

I believe Jesus ascended to Heaven to be with His Heavenly Father.

I believe Jesus is the ONLY way to our Heavenly Father.

I believe these things are TRUE.

I believe.

Thank you God. I love you.

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