Saturday April 20th was mentored youth spring turkey hunt in Pennsylvania; one day only. My 6-year-old son, Grant Snavely, had been practicing with his new Remington 11-87 and was confident that he would tag a longbeard during his first spring gobbler hunt. We started off in the morning well before daylight and we were surprised at how quiet it was; not a single gobble on the roost. We decided to run and gun and approximately a quarter-mile into our trek...

Kill Number One of the Second DoubleThe second story takes place on my good friend’s family farm in Northeast Mississippi. The property is made up of mature hardwoods, early to mid-staged hardwoods, pine plantations, and fallowed fields. My friend, Scott, had heard two turkeys gobbling across the creek in the mature hardwoods for the past three days. He tried calling them across the creek into one of his food plots, where he had game camera pictures of them earlier in...

Go West Young Man: Chapter 2Chapter two starts off right where we left off last time. I had just picked up Chris and his gobbler. After he told his “Crazy” story, we continued the day’s hunt.Windy Day GobblersWith the wind still blowing pretty hard we knew the turkeys would be out in the big fields so we drove around to see if we could spot a gobbler. We also wanted to check on the others guys. As we were driving...

The wild turkey, in general, is wildlife conservation’s Cinderella story of the twentieth century. Wildlife management had its meager beginnings during the middle years of the century when wild turkey populations plummeted to the verge of extinction in the 1940’s. Thanks to legions of sportsmen across the country who saw the wild turkey being lost forever, wild turkey numbers now are at an all time high. Every state in the United States, except Alaska, has huntable turkey populations. Mexico and...