Strut Zone

While flipping down the channel menu on television the other night, I was surprised to see a show called Turkey Revolution. I hit the record button and came back later to check it out and what I saw was pretty good.

It turns out that following their successful sponsorship of Whitetail Revolution, Winchester has spread their sponsorship to a show that will focus on the second most hunted species in North America—the wild turkey.

Orion Multimedia, which produced the popular Whitetail Revolution program, is bringing their flavor of outdoor television production to Winchester Turkey Revolution, which first aired on Jan. 3. You can catch it yourself Thursdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 8:30 a.m. Might want to tape it like I did so you can watch it at a more suitable time.

The show has a pretty interesting line-up of co-hosts that when put together, bring a strong amount of turkey hunting know-how to the table. Former Grand National calling champions Walter Parrot and Chris Parrish, along with longtime calling competitor and industry pro-staffer Steve Stolz, are joined by former NWTF staffer Jonathan Harling each week to share their turkey hunting adventures and the tricks they used to make them successful.

Famed callmaker Mark Drury goes head-to-head with turkey hunting legend Ray Eye each episode as well as they debate the most pressing tactics and issues affecting turkey hunters and their success in the field.

Having hunted with most of these guys at one time or another, if they bring half the fun to the program that they bring to an actual hunt, you'll want to check it out.

In keeping with yesterday's B-slapping (as in B-Mobile) video of a turkey flogging the gobbler decoy with its spurs and wings before absorbing a shot by the Farris women, we've got another one for you courtesy of Primos.

Here, Carrie McCullers fills a quick tag after getting one heck of a show of a Florida longbeard drubbing the snot out of B-Mobile's predecessor—an actual taxidermied gobbler named Bob that the company's film crew used to use during some of their hunts.

This is—er, um, was—one mad turkey!

Well, thanks to a bureaucratic snafu in our paper work for bringing guns into Mexico, the OL crew bound for Chihauhau to hunt Gould's got held up—ALL DAY— in Houston! Good news is, it gave me more time to get some work done.

Check out this brief, yet brutal, mauling of a Primos B-Mobile gobbler decoy in Texas. It is cut short by Morgan and Kathy Farris. Thanks to Primos for sharing the video.

Right now, I'm getting ready to head out for the NWTF Convention in Nashville, which kicked off tonight at the Opryland hotel featuring performances from a host of turkey hunting country singers including Rhett Akins, Craig Morgan, Daryle Singletary, Aaron Tippin and others. I'll be there bright and early scouring the exhibit hall for great new products, hitting the calling championships to see who wins (and picking up a few tips to share) and just generally making the rounds to capture bizarre personalities and maybe even some hot raffle girls on film.

In the meantime, check out this hunt I found on YouTube featuring an old friend of mine, Bob Erickson, regional biologist with the NWTF, and former Director of N.J. Game and Fish, Bob McDowell. While I'm not sure that all that talking as the bird strolls to in-your-face range isn't part of an overamped cut-away, the hunt itself is as cool as it gets. Erickson and McDowell really pull that bird in. I know just watching it made me want spring to get here just that much faster. Another cool thing about this hunt is that it takes place in New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the U.S.

Keep checking back throughout the weekend as I will try to do my best to keep posting on the events taking place at the NWTF, including the winners of the calling champs. Last year, you heard the winners announced first right here on the Strut Zone.