Undead Decoys

It's an absolutely beautiful morning in this undisclosed location that I'd never harvested a turkey in before! The .410 did its job at 25 yards. I'm so thankful to be blessed with such a great bird and amazing morning!

It's way too nice to be cooking inside tonight, so I'm trying out some turkey skewers over the fire pit. Look good so far!

I stopped for an archery hunt this morning on my way home and was greeted with absolutely beautiful weather. I first spotted this longbeard over 500 yards away across the field, and he was locked in on the decoys. It took him a very cautious 30 minutes to cover the distance. The messed up fan and the pellet I found in his breast later told me why he was being so cautious. I honestly believe that with any other decoys this would have had a very different ending than an archery shot at 10 yards. I'll get the video posted soon, so check out my YouTube page!

It would appear that the snow followed me from the Black Hills to Montana. Heard this gobbler before dark last night and set up on him this morning. He and his hens had plans, so I had to work around on them a bit. Once he saw the decoy, he strutted in for a 22 yard shot. Someday I'll get nice weather when I come up here!

That makes 8 public land turkeys, and 9 overall, on the year. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to do what I love and have the success I've had.

✅ Nebraska
✅ South Dakota
✅ Wyoming
✅ Montana

Had a good couple days on my first ever trip to Wyoming and managed to put my tag on a longbeard on the 3rd day. Jumped back over to the SD side for the opener Saturday and was greeted with 6" of snow and cold. I used the .410 to harvest a nice Jake late in the afternoon, but I'm happy with him. My tag envelope is getting pretty thin at this point. On to someplace warmer!

Fate smiled on me again this evening with my 5th public land longbeard in 3 days. My tag envelope is getting thinner!

Barely beat the wind this morning with a 6.4-mile 5-hour hike to work around on this bird, and another 2.6 miles back uphill to the truck with a full bird bag. I've always been obsessed with the white fans of the Merriam's, but they don't come easy very often!

Had an awesome morning yesterday with two public land Merriam's on the prairie in South Dakota! Pulled one away from his hens right off the roost, and then found another in a different piece of public around 10:30 am. I have some birds roughly located for today, and should finally get a break from the wind for a few hours!

Slow morning for the South Dakota opener, but I managed to get into some good afternoon action on public land!

The decoys I'll be running this year. I'll use the reaper (left) the most. He'll go with me almost everywhere. I'm so excited about my new Jake and breeding hen. It's almost time! Hope everyone has a great spring. Happy hunting!

Great start to the 2026 spring turkey season in Nebraska!