Montana Turkey Hunting Success–a Family Affair

Day one of Montana turkey season started with Darrell and I hitting the ground blind at 5 am. Weather conditions not very good, with chances of snow and temperatures in the low 20s, it was going to make for a long morning. After sitting in our blind until noon, and only calling in 12 jakes, we decided to hit the road and head home to warm up. I asked Darrell if he wanted to go out for an evening hunt and he declined because he didn’t think much would be moving with the weather the way it was. So we parted ways and I headed home.

Getting home I was met at the door by my girls asking how the morning’s hunt went. I told them it was exciting but nothing worth shooting. In harmony, they both asked, “Can we go hunting?”

Without thinking, I replied, “Yes!” Three hours later, we loaded up the truck and were off to the ground blind. The weather wasn’t looking too good, but I was hopeful that the night would yield some action. I was wearing my ScentBlocker Arctic fleece camouflage pants and black shirt. Not only did they keep me warm, but I was well-camouflaged with the black shirt blending in perfectly with the inside of the blind.

As we sat in the blind for the first two hours with nothing coming into the fields, I told the girls I would give it about 15 more minutes and we would head out. The girls both said they were cold and that that sounded like a good plan. Knowing how much good luck Tailyr (the youngest) was, I knew if we held out enough some birds would appear. It couldn’t have been more than three minutes after that I saw some motion on the far side of the field. Yep! It was two turkeys and I thought we might have a chance at getting them to come to the decoys.

As the turkeys filtered into the field, I started calling aggressively to see if I could speed the process up. To my surprise, they began coming my way. The girls’ eyes began to grow big as they could see them out the side of the blind. Jaidyn was so excited she could hardly stand it. She had never been turkey hunting with me when we had actually had an opportunity to harvest one, and with this tom closing the distance, I could see her excitement.

Finally after about 25 minutes the birds were in the decoys. Camera on the birds, me trying to explain to the girls what the turkeys were doing and giving them some education on them, the time was getting close to make a bow shot. As Jaidyn was telling me to shoot about every five seconds, I was laughing at her excitement. The moment of truth came. As I drew my bow back, I said the prayer I always do, and let the arrow fly. Both girls screamed with excitement as the arrow hit its mark and we had our Eastern turkey on the ground. No words could describe the feeling I had seeing their excitement and how thankful I was that the Lord blessed the hunt the way he did. Not only did my girls experience and learn what turkey hunting is all about, but they got to spend quality time in the blind with their dad.

At the end of the day, it’s memories that will last a lifetime and two young girls that are hooked on turkey hunting. What more could a dad ask for?

Robinson Outdoor Products

It sounds obvious, but behind the scenes of every technical product at Robinson Outdoor Products LLC is a history of exhaustive use, abuse and in lab testing. We start with an idea, a need, and then seek out the finest fabrics, materials and formulas and start exploring design solutions to meet the need. Our advanced product lab tests materials, compatibility, performance levels and effectiveness scores with crucial data, but the final step is most crucial. We head into the field, because real world hunting needs can’t be solved in the lab alone. Such full-on testing often exposes details that might otherwise be overlooked. For example, designing hood or headcovers on a mannequin in the office is one thing. Until you climb up a high placed treestand and pull it over your head and try to draw a bow and shoot that you realize your vision and draw is compromised when that chance of a lifetime walks out. From this in-depth field-testing we have developed some of the most unique details and benefits that go into our products. Offset main zippers for clean shooting, diamond crotch gusset for a resistant free climb into a treestand, Silent Wrist Ratchet Body Lock for on stand adjustment, Gearpendent Technology for minimal movement while reaching for gear, Zip-off removable arm guard for non-restrictive shooting, tree harness slit for integrated attachment, perfect fit, function and the list goes on. Honestly, it's an evolution of understanding more than anything else. It's years of experience and many days, weeks and months of sitting in the tree stand, on the stalk, in the bottomlands, on top of the mountains shivering, sweating and soggy moments figuring out what something really does and why and what we can do to make it hunt better.