For turkeys, I prefer to go lighter with something like Kelly made from the woods. As you might expect it's super for kids to help them gain confidence and make a good shot. It also works with a crossbow or rifle for deer hunting in a blind or on the ground. I have a Bog Pod tripod and like it a lot for predators. Watch the video at the bottom of the story to see it in action. It's stable, adjustable, quiet, light, swivels and is a great tool to have in the field. If you've watched any of the Foxpro Hunting TV videos with Al Morris on the gun, he uses a Bog Pod tripod rest. A rest is invaluable for certain hunting situations, including for predators. Get another cane and Y-branch, carve it with the pocket knife every red-blooded American man should carry, and you'll be set. If you lose the rest or it breaks, you haven't wasted money. If it's on your lap or the ground, you may miss a shot. If it's on your knee you'll wiggle and fidget. He had one that he carried made of length of finger-sized river cane with a Y-shaped rest stuck in one end.įind a tree, he said, get set up and then put your gun on the rest between your legs. The other neat thing, and this is something all predator hunters can do, that Kelly did is to insist that I use a gun rest after we got set up. I asked him once about it at the NWTF Convention and he said he did it. However, Kelly said he knew of the history and it had called a gobbler within range in the late 1800s, during the 1900s, and he planned to do the same after 2000 to cap the trifecta. This box call would've been the ugly hen that fell out of the tree and hit every limb on the way down. Turkey hunters often say that real hens sound ugly. One is that Kelly had a paddle-box call the size of a loaf of bread that made an incredibly horrible screeching sound. Two cool things about that weekend stick with me, among others from the overall experience. You can learn more about his past, and can purchase some great reading material, at his website. His best days have passed of deftly, quickly and quietly scuttling around a swamp in the morning darkness to listen, or to do the same to the edge of a hardwood thicket well before the last star disappears. Kelly is now 93, lives in south Alabama and when he can still goes afield for doves or other game. Kelly's wisdom was soaked up, stories and strategies detailed and explained by all, and if things worked out we'd have a gobbler of several hanging by the lodge at lunchtime. Kelly was, at the time, leading the annual Westervelt turkey school in which hunters attended to learn about turkeys, hunting, swap tales and tactics, eat well, and imbibe in a little brown water each evening. Tom Kelly, author of 'Tenth Legion,' 'Better on a Rising Tide' and other books revered by those of us with the springtime affliction of chasing gobblers. More than 20 years ago I had a great weekend turkey hunting with the legendary Col. Al Morris with Foxpro Hunting TV uses a Bog-Pod tripod rest for his rifle while hunting coyotes.

Predator shooting rest