Great find on the morels, I don't know enough about wild mushrooms to take a chance on picking them, personally. But it's a great thing to know how to identify them.
Yeah, those are the only ones I will mess with as I know they are safe, but more importantly man are they tasty! I mean so much better than any other mushroom you can buy.
Now on to Turkey Season Day 2. It started off with some gorgeous weather but then the rain and the wind rolled in. I didn't hear any of those birds off the roost, but I did get closer like I wanted to and found a dandy of a set up spot. They sure didn't gobble though, but man I was right beside a roaring creek and it could have muffled the sound a bit, but still figured I would hear something. Oh well, thats hunting.
So it started raining and blowing it upside down into my face (not kidding) so I decided I was too old to deal with weather like that and walked back to the truck. When I got back it cleared off a bit so I decided to just walk an old logging road to look for some turkey sign. After a small walk I started seeing some scratching, but I wasn't sure if it was deer or turkey. I called sporadically a bit and nothing so I decided to go around one more small corner and try one last call before I went home and bingo a gobble!
It got crazy there for a few minutes as it was close. I figured they (by this time I heard another close gobble) were coming in and were on the same logging road I was. So I wait and nothing. A little bit later another gobble a bit further away so I decide to sneak up a little (I was up above the logging road just a bit now trying to hide) and found a deadfall to sorta hide behind (it wasn't much, but better than nothing). So when I call again one answers right below me and I mean right below me (below the logging road) on a steep hill and I know I am close close. Then another one gobbles a little further out but pretty much on the same level (below the logging road). Fast forward another half hour of me calling and them answering and finally this one popped back up on the logging road about twenty yards. I was able to swing the red dot right ahead of him and boom!
I never did see the one right below me, but know it was there. I figured I would see it soaring as man it was a really, really steep hill. I know that because this one rolled all the way to the bottom of it and I had to carry it back up. I didn't mind too much as this was a great burden to bear! Turkey nuggets on Friday! Gonna crock pot the rest. I will try to put some pics in here when I do both.
As if the day couldn't get any better, my buddy who taught me to turkey hunt (who I haven't seen in many, many years) called my wife right as I texted her the images. She asked me what Jason (my friend) thought of my bird and I said I haven't seen him for years. She said well he just called the house. She texted me the number and he was literally only a half mile from where I shot my bird. I mean crazy, crazy coincidence. We met up and admired this ole boy (at a safe social distance) and it felt great as I do consider him my hunting mentor (he taught me everything I know about hunting). We both agree we are getting older to do a lot of the stuff we used to do when younger, but we can still hang.
To make it even crazier he said he gave up turkey hunting that morning as he was really hunting some Morels and we were not even a hundred yards from where I spotted those from the day before. The look on his face when I said follow me and I will show you some was priceless. I think he thought I was joking. He got over that pretty quick though. He said the one was bigger than any he has found in years (he is an avid shroom hunter as he calls it). So, it was one pretty rewarding day. Oh yeah, I love my red dot sight. Love it!