Strut Zone

Pennsylvania hunter Todd Banning sent us this pair of pictures saved over from his 2005 season.

The first is of an Osceola taken in Florida. Todd rolled into camp and was already in the woods before roost time, calling and hunting over a pair of taxidermied decoys. A hen and jake rolled past, headed for the roost, with this big dude following behind.

"Aggressive calling got his attention and when he saw the dekes he came running, looking for a fight. He lost," writes Todd. The turkey weighed 19 1/2 pounds, had 1 3/8-inch spurs and a 10-inch beard.

The second photo is a Merriam's Todd dropped hunting a Crow reservation out West. The bird tipped the scales at 23 pounds, had a 9-inch beard and 1-inch spurs.

Todd will be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced tonight, Monday, July 17.

David Calhoun, a.k.a. LouisianaHunter on the NWTF message board, sends us this picture of his wife, Marjie, posing with her first ever turkey that she shot in Louisiana in 2004.

The other two pictures are of longbeards he tagged this past season while hunting the Land Between the Lakes on the Kentucky side. Looks like he took the time to pose with one of his trophies in front of the sign at our good friends at Knight and Hale, who are co-sponsors of our Give Us The Bird Photo Contest.

Thanks David. Both you and Marjie will be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced tonight, Monday, July 17.

Twelve-year-old Richard Loomis of Livonia, N.Y., scored on this 25-pound gobbler during the state's youth hunt in April.

Hunting on his grandparent's farm with his 22-year-old cousin calling for him, the longbeard was the largest one of six that strolled into their setup. He shot the tom as it stood only 20 yards away with his 20-ga. shotgun.

In addition to its heft, the gobbler had 1-inch spurs and a beard that stretched 10 1/2 inches.

Congrats Richard and thanks to your dad, Tim, for sending in the pic. Richard will be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, July 17.

Dennis Pohlmann, 27, of St. Peters, Mo., shares this tale of a phenomenal hunt in nearby Williamsburg that he and friend, Dae Lederle enjoyed this past spring. Here's his story:

On May 9, 2006 I went hunting with my good friend Dae Lederle in Williamsburg, Mo.  The morning started off with a hard steady rain that kept the toms quiet.  At about 730AM the rain letup and the birds began to gobble.  We located a hot tom in a creek bottom and began to make our move.  The tom was eagerly answering all our calls but before we could get set up a coyote sneaking through the area spooked him and we never heard from him again. For the rest of the morning we covered lots of ground trying to get another tom to shock gobble but nothing worked.

At 11:30 a.m. we crept back to where the coyote had spooked the gobbler and set up. Hunting ended at 1:00 so we decided to wait it out. At12:15 after a couple series of yelps on my box call, we got a response. It turned out to be two toms and they were hot. They gobbled at everything and covered ground quickly. At 12: 30 Dae and I shot and a pulled off our first ever double. It was one of our most memorable hunts. 

Tale of the tape: Dennis' bird (left) weighed 20 pounds, had an 11 1/4-inch beard and 1.125-inch spurs (I'll let you convert it, I'm lousy at it.) Dae's tom tipped the scales at 20 pounds as well and had an 10 1/2-inch beard and 1-inch spurs.

I can promise you it is a day neither one of these guys will ever forget.

Since he sent us the picture, Dennis will be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, July 17. If he wins, maybe he'll share a call or two with you, Dae.

When I went to work for the National Wild Turkey Federation back in 1998, I was shocked at how big turkey hunting was in, of all places, Wisconsin. It was and remains one of the NWTF's biggest membership states and the hunters there, while not tagging out on the number of birds by a lot of Southern state standards, are absolute fanatics about the sport. Indeed, a number of Give Us The Bird entries came from Wisconsin. Here's another:

Tony Hericks of Neillsville called in and shot this longbeard on May 8 this year. The 19-pound bird had an 11-inch beard and 1-inch spurs. And while some gobblers seem to take an agonizingly long time to work to your setup, Tony's was a virtual wam, bam, thank you...well, you get the picture...

The hunt for this tom lasted only eight minutes. Totally awesome.

Thanks for sharing the pic, Tony. You'll be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, July 17.

Gary Meinke of Greely, Colo., took this cool Merriam's and even cooler pic in the South Dakota Black Hills in 2005. Here's his tale in his own words:

I call this bird my "Cavebird" because of the cave in the canyon area he hung out in. I'd hunted him for several days in the canyons, hills and valleys surrounding the cave. On the morning I shot him, I had lost track of him and I decided to head back to the cave area. When he first answered my call his gobble echoed off the canyon walls so much I had no idea which direction he was. He came right in to a push-pin call. He was a 2-year old with 3/4 inch spurs and a 8-1/2 inch beard. Not special by those standards but the memory of the hunt he gave me is a trophy to me.

Back in '03, he killed a banded bird as well and sent the pic in of his unusual take along with this story:

I harvested this banded Merriams in the spring of 2003 in South Dakota. I was so excited when I walked up to my bird that I immediately got my camera and took this picture by myself with the timer on the camera. I couldn't believe anyone even banded turkeys. There was a study being done by a graduate student in BrookingSD. The 2-year-old was banded as a jake and only traveled four miles from the banding point.

Click on the picture and you can see the band much better.

Gary will be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, July 17.

In a final dash to slide his entry in under the deadline, Travis Holtz of Moorhead, Iowa, sent us this pic of him holding up a trophy longbeard. (Hey, aren't they all trophies!!!!)

He didn't give us any info other than his name and address, so just admire the bird will ya. There's plenty more coming.

Travis will be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, July 17.

Ron Larsen couldn't be prouder of his daughter, Nicole, after the 14-year-old passed on six different northern California jakes before scoring a shot at this longbeard.

"I kept telling her she could shoot one if she wanted, but she kept saying, "No, I want to get a big one," Ron says. Finally, the teen's patience paid off when a strutter walked up the hill toward their hen decoy.

"She hammered him with one shot from her .20-gauge Model 1100," he says.

Check out the rope on that thing hanging over the edge of the truck!

Great job Nicole. You'll be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. If you win, you and your dad can decide who gets what. Hope that's cool, Ron. Again, congrats to both of you for a great hunt.

The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, July 17.

Ron Sobkowz of Butler, Pa., took this turkey on the third and final day of his 2006 Oklahoma hunt. Sobkowz admits that he and his friend had to "work their tails off," but the effort was apparently worth it because he got three birds.

The gobbler pictured was his final one and it brought him full circle on a great hunt.

"I ended up shooting this guy at the same cedar tree I tagged my opening morning bird from," Sobkowz says.

His friend took the picture.

"I have no idea how my buddy got those sun rays in there, but man, that picture is sweet," he says.

Indeed it is Ron and it sounds like both of you had an awesome hunt. I've hunted Oklahoma twice and enjoyed some pretty amazing hunting there myself. Every turkey hunter should try to make the trip out there one of these days.

Ron will be entered into our "Give Us The Bird" contest with prizes offered by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise. The deadline for entries has passed and winners will be announced on the evening of Monday, July 17.

It's over. That's right, The Strut Zone has received its final entries for the "Give Us The Bird" photo contest supported by Carry-Lite, Hunter's Specialties, Knight & Hale, Quaker Boy, Primos, Woodhaven Custom Calls and Woods Wise.

The deadline officially arrived at midnight last night and about a dozen hunters got their entries in during the waning hours. The final photos will run through the rest of this week and five winners will be announced on Monday, July 17, including one grand prize winner.

Thanks to our sponsors and thanks to everyone who submitted photos for the contest. It's been fun seeing and sharing your pictures and stories. Stay tuned this fall and into next spring as we look to introduce bigger and better contests.

In the meantime, I plan to get back on a rigorous schedule of tips (both written and in video), hunter profiles, gear reviews and news related to turkey hunting. Hatch reports and sightings are starting to roll in and fall seasons will be here before we know it.

Stay posted.