Nothing beats a good turkey hunt. The spring turkey hunt kind of feels like a good stretch when you first get out of bed. You have been tucked up under the covers, dreaming, maybe tossing and turning a little. Sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and check the clock to see if it's time to get up yet, and it isn't so you roll back into your cocoon of covers and sleep until, hopefully, morning. And then when you finally do crawl out of bed after that long night's sleep, you stretch from the tips of your toes to your finger's end, and it feel amazing. While the sleeping was great and much needed, that stretch awakens you and sets the tone for the rest of the day. That is how the spring turkey hunt feels to me. Like that great stretch after that long winter, and it is going to set the tone for the rest of the hunting seasons.
"Some men are mere hunters; others are turkey hunters." ~ Archibald Rutledge
I was lucky enough to draw a limited entry spring tag this year. I have wanted that tag for quite some time because it allows you to hunt during the peak gobbling season. There is nothing more fun than sitting behind some brush, listening to toms gobble, drag their wing tips, and just put on a great show. The tail displays and chest puffing is at it's prime, and nothing makes for a better hunt than just getting to sit in the midst of the show and soak it all in. It is a great time.
I was also lucky enough to bag a nice tom. So, my next few posts will be turkey recipes that I am creating from this spring's bird. The first meal I concocted was a farmhouse turkey burger. Since turkey meat, especially wild, is quite lean, I mixed in some bacon to my ground turkey. It added a great hint of bacon flavor to the burger, made things a little extra juicy, and helped the burger hold together. I topped my farmhouse burger with chipotle mayo, spicy arugula, gorgonzola cheese crumbles, and a fried egg.
The entire recipe can be found here: https://huntinglife.com/farmhouse-turkey-burger-lindsey-bartosh/