Nebraska Turkey Hunt

Merriam Madness…

Today we took a day off from our photo shoot and went TURKEY hunting:-)!!!! Ramsey Mills and Rob Burnett, Cabela’s Women’s Footwear Category Manager(s) have been talking with me about coming to Nebraska to hunt Merriam Turkeys since SHOT show and I could hardly wait for this day to arrive!

Nothing beats a day in the woods hunting with friends. At 5:00am sharp our journey began with an hour long drive to Ramsey and Rob’s hunting lease. A beautiful stretch of river bottom property in Nebraska.

The morning started out cold and crisp but I barely noticed except for the fine layer of frost surrounding the barbed wire fences. At sunrise, the sun glistened off the wire creating a sparkly ice show.

Within minutes of setting up our decoys we heard a tom gobble. Shortly thereafter in strolls a hen. Strangely enough, she was alone and nearly walked over the top of Rob as she cruised by us and our decoys.

I went from high adrenaline to questioning what had just happened. This time of year, a hen is rarely alone and I sat there in disbelief that a tom did not strut in behind her.

Rob and Ramsey decided that we needed to make a move down the river bottom in pursuit of more cooperative turkeys. Along the way Ramsey found a whitetail shed.

No gobbles…no turkeys. Back to square one.

We head back down the river bottom where we just came from and what do we see? Three strutting toms and hens galore…right where we had been sitting a mere hour earlier.

Patience was not our strong suit today. We set back up with an attempt to call in one of the strutters.The gig was up when we heard the turkeys take flight and cross the river.

Fortunately for us, Rob has a brand new Argo and this was a perfect opportunity for her maiden voyage. What a better way to break her in than chasing after a flock of turkeys!?! Plus, I have always wanted to ride in an Argo after spending years watching Jim Shockey take on the Yukon behind the wheel of one.

Check out the photos below to see our Argo adventure…

Rob and his Argo maiden voyage…Jim Shockey has nothing on Rob’s mad Argo skills!Tricky spot here…The maiden voyage has only taken us 40 yds from the truck & we are stuck with one tree wenched over. OOPSSecond tree wench did the trick.Turned the Argo around and BAM!!! Stuck again!!! You can feel the intensity of Rob & Ramsey in this picture.Hooking her up to the diesel!!!Got ER’ Done!!!Needless to say with all of our Argo adventure, we ended up not getting on the flock of turkeys. Jim Shockey makes navigating an Argo look so easy.

It was nice to be in the woods on a beautiful day, away from the hustle and bustle of life and cell phones with the company of friends and a pretty fun adventure to boot! Turkey or not, we had a great day!!!