Hung up at the start
Every turkey hunter knows the scenario.
If they don't, they will.
Hung-up turkeys are as inevitable on a turkey hunt as ticks and chiggers. They are just one of the many frustrating parts of a turkey hunt.
In that vein, this turkey season is young (it hasn't even opened for most of the country) and "hung up" seems to be an all too common problem.
It's just not hung up in the traditional sense. You can expect gobblers to hang up out of range early in the season when there are plenty of willing hens around, or get caught on an obstacle or just play stubborn.
There's ways around those. My "hung up" hasn't even given me the chance to get hung up like that.
This spring was supposed to be dedicated to the trials and tribulations of chasing gobblers all over the country in the form of a turkey trek.
Like the duck trek last fall it was going to be a tiring, but exciting trip of roosted birds from south Florida to the plains states, with everything from Osceolas to Rios, Merriams and Eastern turkeys strutting and spitting in front of me or a partner.
The first few weeks have been nothing like that. A late-March trip to Florida was canceled. Another to Georgia and then Alabama were put on hiatus because of extreme weather. Add in all the regular day-to-day issues from work and family and you have a turkey season that is, well, hung up.
Any visions of a grand slam for turkey species are all gone. But piling up longbeards is still there.
In short, our little turkey trek is still on with high hopes. And we're doing it guerilla-style, just like the average turkey hunter would do. There isn't a lot, if any, guided hunts. Just those where we can hit the ground running when we hear a turkey gobble and do it ourselves.
The last week, we've been in Mississippi where the traditional 'hung-up" gobbler gave us a little excitement but not a lot to write about.
But the Arkansas Youth Hunt was borderline amazing with several good stories, podcasts, etc. Guided to tears | Youth photos | Podcast | Big Blind
And this weekend, the Arkansas opener is upon us. Our turkey trek is alive and well, albeit just a little hung up. We hope you will stick around with us for the next few weeks as we start filtering out into Tennessee, Virginia, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, Nebraska and as many other places we can get a line on before we have to hang up the camouflage.
