Had the opportunity to plan a turkey hunt ahead of time and worked out so that my dad and one of his brothers would meet my brother and I at the ranch which would make for some good times as we rarely have schedules that line up.. Turkey hunting with my dad is kind of a family pasttime for his brothers, as is with my brother and I.. Growing up I heard many great stories of them chasing birds and pictures of the brothers with a bird or 2 slung over his back, then luckily he and I had many turkey hunts that turned into stories told. My dad is literally possessed by turkey hunting, very little comes between him and opening day... the day after my brother was born he was at the ranch for opening day, I can even remember the only time he would take me to school was when we would hunt opening week and he'd drive me straight from the blind to school and sign me in late, needless to say we have plenty of confidence in his ability to put us in the right spots. My dad had a group of birds picked out and patterned beforehand so the 4 of us hit the woods the day before and made 2 blinds in the same clearing, 1 from each direction that the birds could go once they flew down. Knowing we had these birds roosted/ patterned I fully expected to be successful that first morning, then have the remaining days to work on a bird for whoever was left... I should have known better. We ended up having birds roosted right off our spot as planned each morning, but they did not cooperate with our plans and made us look like complete fools until the last morning with my brother taking the best gobbler in the group. My Uncle and I sat in the other blind and watched in amazement as the flock finally cooperated with my Dads calling and came into our setup, hens purring and gobblers strutting. No other place I'd be than in that swamp with my Dad, Uncle, brother, and those birds. While 3 of us left that swamp with no bird slung over our shoulders, we all had a smile as big as the on that did..
