After several HARD days of hunting, our field staff memeberhsip winner, Dan Richardson, puts his tag on a big Missouri longbeard!
And look what the man does the day after he gets back home to Indiana!
Congratulations on a couple of beautiful Eastern gobblers Dan!
Here is the story on the MO hunt:
“I absolutly had a great time hunting with the HB guys. I have the utmost respect for all of them. Im telling you guys, they are NOT fed these birds from a silver spoon, they work HARD for them. My hunt went for four days instead of three, courtasy of Jeff Simpson, owner of HB. We battled bad weather, coyotes, four wheelers, people walking dogs, ect. It seemed something always interfeared with our set ups but we pushed on and on the fourth day we got it done As i said before, it was not how i wanted it to go down but thats hunting These guys have very much respect for there land owners that let them hunt there farms. They even introduced me to some of them. I stayed at Jeffs place and met Mike, Shawn, Larry, Ty, Skyler and Jeffs girlfriend Trish. I also got to meet Shawns parents and eat a very good meal of Crappie and turkey with all the trimmings, great people as well. I got to meet Randy, co-owner of HB from florida. He treated us to a Japenese steak house one night and BBQ the next. Jeff also would not let me pay for any meals in other places, I was treated like a King I now know the pressures of having a camera in your face all the time I cant believe how heavy all the equipment is, It usually took three guys to pack it all in. I even got to get my hands dirty as well, i helped build many blinds, i love getting involved Me and Hunsucker built the blind the day before i killed my bird.”
– Dan Richardson
Here is the story on the Indiana hunt:
“Hunted Tuesday morning, had a bird hollering all morning. Looked behind my set up and seen three Toms walking behing me at about 60 yards, they were headed away. I called, they briefly looked and turned slightly as if to come in beside me. I lost vision of them but soon heard them gobbling to my left about 50 yards in the corner of the field. I could not see them because my sons pop up blind was 10 yards to my left, i was in a natural ground blind. After about an hour of them hung up and gobbling there heads off, i started cutting real hard on the diaphram. They finally commited and started walking in to the deeks, the first was in full strut the second was just walking. this was going to put them behind the deeks at 35 yards according to sticks i had placed in the field for markers. Just when its going to happen a Jake pops up from no where and walks in and stand in front of me at ten yards i cant move and watched them walk away. fast forward to around 1.00 pm ish. I drove the property looking for lone birds to set up on with no luck. Decided to go to a place that i always see them in the middle of the day on a four wheeler trail and just set up and see if anything shows. I just crested the trail and almost bumped into birds real close. I ducked into the brush, set up and called with no luck after about 20 minutes. I did not even know if any were Toms. I snuck back out on the trail, walked up the trail a little more and seen what i thought was a pop up blind. Then it moved Up came the binos and it ended up being three strutting Toms side by side They had three hens pulling the lead and were headed away. Time to step out of the box, i hit the woods to my right to try and get ahead of them. if any one has ever been in strip mine woods you are feeling my pain. It is running rows of long hills and i had to go across all this mess. By the time i got to my destinatinn i was ringing wet with sweat, and breathing so hard i could barley hold the diaphram call in my mouth. The set up was perfect, i was standing up, and hidden in some small pines. I had three shooting lanes at 18 yards. after 40 minutes of nothing, i thought i had bumped them. I snuck out to the edge and seen them 60 yards out. back in and again 40 minutes of nothing, i snuck out again, now they are 50 yards out and coming at a snails pace. I accepted the fact that this was going to be a LONG wait and settled back in. After another 20 minutes something caught my eye from the other direction on the trail, its two more Toms walking towards to other three. They walk behind the brush, i draw and pop the first one when he steps into view. The shot caught him in the wing joint and he tries to fly but was going nowhere. He managed to get into the grass on the side of the trail and then his buddy started spurring him right in front of me. Then i hear more comotion and the other three run in and jumped all over him. He managed to get inside of the woodline while the four were pounding him the whole time. He expired quickly and the deed was done. I actually had to chase the birds off him sorry for the long read but i thought it was a story worthy of sharing. sorry for the horrable pic, it was set on a timer, no one was around to take the photo. 20.5 lbs 9 1/2″ beard 7/8″ ”
– Dan Richardson
Congrats Dan! I wish I could have been there when you got your Missouri bird. I am glad you had a good time and hope that our paths cross again. Keep whackin’ those birds!
Thanks guys, i miss all of you already. Your all considered good friends of mine, thank you for making me feel right at home. and good luck the rest of the season. yeah baby!! LOL!!
Hey Dink,
Congrats on the birds… They are starting to respond really
good. Congrats again good buddy.Keep in touch and hunt hard &
hunt safe.
Lm