Toxie Givens

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.

Now my Hazel Creek Jake has taken a beaten this year as normal, but I have been surprised at how hens and gobblers are taking out their frustration on my Hazel Creek Hen decoy. My Dad and I filmed a hen strutting in a dominant pose around my hen. She then slapped her with her wing and started to peck her a few times. Real cool video to watch.

This has been an amazing year for seeing some of Mother Nature’s oddities when it comes to wild turkeys. Check out this video of a reddish bronze colored hen filmed in Mississippi.

Back in April 2008, we went to Colorado to hunt Merriam turkeys, when we met Cally Morris of Hazel Creek Taxidermy. Cally is a world champion taxidermist that also makes real turkey decoys. We used his decoys in Colorado and killed some great turkeys. When Cally got back to Missouri, he sent us a hen and jake set for us to try out. Boy have we used them. We have killed 14 birds using them – 9 Osceolas, 4 Easterns, and 1 Rio Grande. Watch this video of some highlights of these hunts.

The title sounds like frustration on my part, but believe me, it is not. I have had a great year. I started filming hunts and then throw in the fact that I took 3 people who had never turkey hunted and helped 2 of them kill a bird. That alone is a great year! Plus, filming my son kill a big Osceola and my Dad getting a great Eastern makes me a very fortunate man. BUT it is great to get one too. In this video you will see me shoot a great 3 year old bird with a 9.5 inch beard and a little over 1 inch spurs.

My Son (Toxie IV), my Dad (Toxie Jr.), and I (Toxie III) went on our annual spring turkey hunt to the Whitehead farm in North Central Mississippi. Watch this video to see our hunt.

Last season I went hunting with a good buddy of mine because he wanted me to video him shooting his first turkey with a bow. As some of you might know, shooting a turkey with a bow is a very challenging endeavor. It was foggy and raining that morning and we both situated in a tent blind. Watch the this video to see what happened to us.

For the past 2 years, I have been giving a free turkey hunt away at our Sunday school Christmas party. At this party last year, 2 guys fought hard to get the hunt. I felt bad for the guy who lost, so I decided to take both of them. Bobby’s hunt came up first and we headed to my FL club. Bobby made a great shot and bagged his first turkey. You can tell he was a happy hunter in the video.

I took a deer hunting buddy turkey hunting for his first time to our club located in middle GA. Now hunting Easterns during the early season in GA is some of the hardest turkey hunting out there. We spent three days chasing them. Watch this video to see how our hunt unfolds.

Have you ever been so smart about something that you talked yourself into doing something dumb? Well, this video is my personal occurrence of this principle.