Toxie Givens

I can sum up this season in one word — WOW! We had a great year and if you been following all our videos, I do not think you can argue against that. We captured 14 videos of 15 turkey kills in Florida, Georgia, and for our first time in Kansas. We struck out this year in Mississippi and we did not go back to Texas. Watch the below video for a brief recap of these hunts.

Our Hazel Creek decoys helped us with 8 of these birds. The other times it was raining and we could not get them out of the truck. That is 28 birds we have taken using them over the past 4 years.

We are excited about next season. We saw lots of jakes, which will be mature for next season; plus, we had a few gobblers that got away when we could not close the deal. We show you these encounters briefly in the video also.

So enjoy the video below and we hope you come back and watch our 2013 season of Turkey Thumpers next season. Thanks!

Now Tad has killed 5 Osceola gobblers over the last 4 years (2 this year) but the Eastern turkeys have always seemed to stay out of his reach. He has had a couple of shots but missed both times in Mississippi.

This year was the first time I had opportunity to take him to our club in Georgia. He was excited and I was nervous because it was May and it was going to be hot and difficult. I did not know what kind of success we would have.

We sat our tent in an area where I knew there were 2 mature toms that had been giving us the slip for 3 years. We thought we had them the first morning when they were gobbling and strutting their way to our setup. But then a hen appeared and took them away in the opposite direction. We decided to try it again at that same spot the next morning and watch the video to see what happens.

Since I was tagged out in Kansas, I videoed Chuck’s last gobbler. I enjoyed hunting with him and I am not going to get too much into the story here because he covers it in the video intro. I am going to add that I was upset when he let this gobbler initially walk off due to the weather coming. Now it rained off and on while we were there, but after this hunt it rained straight for 5 days and I was afraid he let a great bird and opportunity walk away. Enjoy this video and if you listen closely you can hear us going back and forth as to what we think should happened.

This is the same evening that I shot my bird in the clover when Chuck Campbell connected on his first Kansas bird. He had his decoys setup and it enticed the bird across this huge Kansas field. One more thing to add is to pay attention to how this turkey flops when he shoots him. He put all the shot in his head on this very windy day. Enjoy the video.

Now this is the evening hunt of the same day I had killed my first Kansas bird. Mike had me sitting in this mixed clover field that was up to my waist. I would say this was the most stressful hunt of the year for me. Watch the video to see what happens next.

I had not planned on traveling to hunt turkeys this year until Chuck twisted my arm and said he needed someone to go back to Kansas with him since he did not kill his birds with a bow. Mike Wheeler, of Wheelers Whitetails, was nice enough to invite him back and let him drag me along. Well, I will be honest. After editing Gabbie’s two turkey kills, it was not hard for me to make up my mind to go.

The first morning, I was hunting in a tent as a bad weather front was moving in. Mike said the gobblers like to cruise this small field that connects two bigger fields together, and boy was he right! Watch this video to see what happens.