My Favorite Personal Hunting Stories

The following are links to some stories of my favorite hunting tales, one of which I was only indirectly involved in...

My First Successful Deer Hunt...This was my first EVER deer hunt. My uncle got me into deer hunting when I was a teenager, and I've been addicted ever since. My first deer was a young six-pointer, but it was as good as a Boone & Crockett buck to me.

My First Successful Turkey Hunt...This was the first time I had EVER turkey hunted. The area where I grew up in Southern Illinois did not have its first modern-day turkey hunt until after I had moved to Carbondale to attend SIU-C, and I had no one to teach me the intricacies of the sport previously. Little did I know that this new sport would eventually become my newest springtime obsession!

A Successful 1996 Turkey Hunt...It was during this hunt that I called in a mature tom on my own for the first time. This hunt made me fully realize just how important pre-season scouting for turkeys is. I had scouted the area for about a month, seeing birds often, and I had their roosting pattern timed almost to the minute...

The Shooting Gallery Buck...I believe it was the fall of 1987 when my uncle and one of his sons seemed to be in a shooting gallery firing away at a buck that seemed oblivious to it all! This is a story in which I was basically only a spectator, but it's definately one of my all-time favorite deer hunting tales.

Opening day of the 1997 Spring Turkey season was good to me. Who says this turkey hunting is hard? I called in and killed a 24+ pound gobbler at about a quarter-to-seven on opening day. The bird, and a buddy, were with hens, so I called to the hens. It worked! He was the biggest bird I've killed to date.

My Second Turkey of 1997 came on my birthday. He wasn't nearly as big as the first one, but he was still a keeper. Check out the story...pictures to come later!!