Choices
| Steve and Sons
Young Mike with a big MAHA tom.
Overall, great turkey season...as you know I have thousands of acres of other land to hunt other than MAHA, but the MAHA land definitely out-produced that land.
We found the Missouri and Iowa birds to be much friendlier than the Kansas birds, but all in all we took 11 birds off MAHA land. The kids had a great time and the bird of the year was Mike's 28 pounder (weighed on a certified scale) taken in Kansas. All in all a great season....for some reason the birds gobbled much better on MAHA land, both on and off the roost. Top weight...28#s, 2 oz. Top beard...11 ¾"...and top spurs...1 4/8" and 1 3/8". Great quality birds from all of your properties in three states. I just wish we had more tags for Mo and IA. A good mix of two year olds and > 3 yr old toms.
Mike's Kansas Rio. I believe he enjoyed this hunt more than any other turkey hunt this year. Even more than when he and his brother doubled in Missouri. We worked this guy in at 9:15 AM along with 6 other toms and 2 hens. He got to watch the whole show and made a nice shot with his Benelli 20 gauge at 15 yards. He smiled at me and said "Dad, that was the most exciting hunt I've ever seen!!!" The smile brought tears to my eyes. Mike capped off a great MAHA turkey season with the family's 12th mature tom on MAHA land in three states...IA, KS, and MO.
I thank you so much for your straight forward and right-on recommendation for [location deleted]. I'll be heading up to Cally Morris's taxidermy shop this weekend with two of Mike's birds. Again, thanks for all of your help this season. My boys are already looking forward to the Fall/Winter 06 season.
Thanks again John! Steve
Thank you Steve for some great youth pictures and hunt details. It seems like you all are some kind of good hunters.
For the rest of us Steve is a retired Air Force Colonel who even with a fast paced military career was able to sustain a family life of youth ball sports and the outdoors that has greatly expanded since leaving the military. This kind of versatility most will recognize requires high energy and Steve has put it together for more youth spring season success in a first year membership than we have seen before. Congratulations Steve you have some lucky kids.
|
(a subsequent email)
