Well, the 2011 turkey season closed May 15th in Georgia. That was the last state still open. I was fortunate to kill one more gobbler before it closed. My first gobbler I have ever killed in May is shown below. It was a nice 3 year old bird that has quite a story involved. I did capture it on video so stay tuned for that video in a future post. Now it is time to focus on getting ready for deer season, in which archery season opens in Georgia on September 10th.
This webisode shows a great turkey hunt in Mississippi where we come up a little short, but the interaction between the gobbler and our Hazel Creek Decoys was unforgettable. Watch the video below to see this interaction.
This webisode kicks off our 2011 turkey season. As every year, we begin our season chasing Osceola gobblers in Florida on our lease. Watch the below videos to see what a hard time we had hunting this subspecies of turkey this year.
Recently we had a wildfire on our property that consumed 25 acres of our lease. We had a trail camera on a feeder in the middle of it and luckily for us, the ground was bare and it did not catch on fire. It did take photos of the fire and these are shown below.
After viewing these wildfire photos, I started thinking about all the past photos that I have gotten on trail cameras that were unique. Since I just showed my fire photos, let’s go to the other extreme and show you some photos of a flood on one of our leases in Mississippi. The camera looks like a periscope on a submarine. These photos are shown below and include some before and after shots.
Next, I captured some foxes playing in the snow a few years ago and they are shown below. Their colors are so vivid against the white of the snow.
Finally, I had this hanging feeder in Florida back in 2006 that kept getting untied from the tree and dumped out. I figured it was a raccoon but I wanted to make sure so I put a camera on it. Low and behold, it turned out to be a bear. The landowner had no idea that bears were present in that area and it turned out they were just traveling through during their summer pattern. Shown below are these amazing photos captured on a first generation trail camera.
So, when you are viewing photos taken from your trail camera, you never know what might be captured on that next photo.
I just wanted to give a turkey season update. I have one more hunt in Georgia, but as of now, we have killed 5 gobblers. Tad killed an Osceola, my Dad has killed 2 Easterns, and I killed 2 Easterns. It has been a tough year. We never had any mature gobblers show up on our property in Florida where we hunt Osceolas. Tad shot a jake that was the only bird down there. I then went to Mississippi where we have had really good success. Then I went to Georgia where the weather and coyotes messed up; plus, they were henned up really bad. Finally, I went to Texas with a group and we had unbelievably bad luck. We have killed birds in Texas before, but this year we got skunked due to the weather, high winds, wild fires south of our locations, low number of birds, and adjacent property hunting pressure. I am very grateful for the birds we did get and we do have some video for TurkeyThumpers.com coming soon after the season. So stay tuned for that, and hopefully we get some birds in Georgia.
In this episode, I show you video about how 25 acres of our lease land caught fire and burned. Luckily enough, we had a friend who called the community fire departments that contained the fire before all of our land and gear burned down. This is reality at its best.
Side note: The landowner called me and said he was going to burn next February to get rid of the orphan pine trees and as much of the additional undergrowth that might be fuel for future fires. This will stimulate new growth for the wildlife.
I am VERY disappointed in the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) and here is why! I am not going to turn this blog post into whether you are for or against baiting in the state of Georgia BUT instead of something I see as just wrong and misleading and I want to point it out. Full disclaimer, I am for baiting in Georgia and I am a non-resident hunter from Florida that leases land in Georgia.
The problem I have is with the Quality Deer Management Association. I have praised them for years in spreading their programs and the leadership they have taken in educating hunters on how to grow healthier and bigger deer BUT their stance against baiting just upsets me. I have been a member of their association and our hunting lease buys our liability insurance from them. I have been proud to support them with this business. The fact that they use my money and speak against something I feel is a hunter’s right is just wrong. Whether you are for the baiting bill or against, imagine them speaking against you in any case.
Every biologist that works for them can have their opinion but do not use the QDMA pulpit to preach against what I and many consider a hunter’s rights. What if QDMA was against deer hunting with cross bows and voiced their opinion on that under the QDMA banner based on the fact that they think it is unethical? Since they are a non-profit organization, they should remain neutral on topics like this. Especially since there has not been any scientific evidence that baiting deer causes harm to the health of the herd. If they could prove that it does, then they should be the ones standing up and yelling no to baiting based on science. This opinion based situation would be like if the National Rifle Association (NRA) was for citizen’s gun rights but they said it would be okay to take assault rifles. The NRA is against any guns being taken way from citizens just like QDMA should not be against any hunters’ rights.
Brian Murphy, CEO of QDMA, has been all over the newspapers voicing QDMA’s position against baiting in Georgia. QDMA even has included this in their “REACH in Action!” program (http://www.qdma.com/programs/reach-in-action/). From their Website: “Under the Advocacy arm of REACH, QDMA gets involved in numerous whitetail issues annually.” and “From January to November 2010, QDMA engaged in 38 policy or management issues in 15 states (CT, DE, GA, IN, KY, MD, MI, MN, NH, NY, OH, PA, SC, VA, VT) including: * Opposing a bill to change baiting laws in Georgia…”
After researching all of QDMA’s arguments they basically have come up with two; both opinion based. They feel it is unethical and it gives hunters a bad vision to the anti-hunter establishment. I said I was not going to turn this into a baiting debate but I do have to make one comment. I have never heard them lobby against states that have baiting legally, such as Texas. I have never heard them tell people to stop cutting standing corn to attract deer. Does this sound like hypocrisy?
To me, QDMA should be like Switzerland and remain neutral only to step in if science is founded to be truthful. QDMA is an organization that does not have an opinion. If a person who is associated with QDMA wants to voice their opinion then he or she should do so and make it clear that they are not speaking on behalf of QDMA.
Because of their actions, I am going to pull all my money from them including my membership and club lease liability insurance. I hate to do this because I really enjoy their research BUT I am not going to support an organization that is going to campaign against hunter’s rights based on their individual opinions. I would love to know how many QDMA members support their operations that are for baiting in Georgia. I wonder if these members knew how strong a stance they take on this topic, would they still be members? I encourage you to withdraw your support and tell them why you are no longer supporting them. I will be glad to support them in the future if they become a non biased organization and quit taking sides against hunters.
In this episode we are going to talk about how we get ready for turkey season. Georgia turkey season runs from March 26th – May 15th this year with a bag limit of 3 mature gobblers. We talk about how we use trail cameras and scouting to locate gobblers and try to pattern them. We also discuss the other ways we get ready. Watch this video to understand our preparation.
A fellow member of my Osceola Hunt Club, located in Hastings, Florida, informed me that he had seen a bearded hen back during deer season. I personally had only seen one other bearded hen during my 37 years on this planet and it was an Eastern turkey located in middle Georgia. So once I heard this, I filmed her coming into one of our feed stations.