The quail dogs the English brought to Virginia became turkey dogs

CopyRight 2012-Jon Freis-Speed Limit 15 MPH

Strong is good. Happy is good. Smart is good. Lucky is even better!
Carter's Virginia Hurricane Lucky Lady Freis - AKA Lucky.

Conceived June 30, 2011 in Virginia. Her mother Shiloh survived record drought and heat from June 10 to August 27, a 5.8 magnitude Earthquake on August 23, the 100 mph Hurricane Irene on August 27 with record rainfall August 28. Widespread power outage August 28, 2011. Born September 2, 2011. She was Lucky to make it. Lucky moved to Wisconsin November 4, 2011 - where we always give turkeys a brake →→→

Traditional old style Appalachian turkey dog from Virginia's Randy Carter

Lucky is a high energy, old style turkey dog,
carefully bred for centuries by dedicated hunters in Virginia.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Lucky's puppy pictures - 9 to 12 weeks old:

first snow for appalachian virginia turkey dog pup

The weather Lucky endured so young has nothing to do with her drive, but she's wired as if it did. She hunts full bore all the time, just like her parents Buster and Shiloh. I hunted with her daddy Buster when he was 13 and he had the energy of a 3 year old. When the tailgate drops, these dogs are gone a 1/4 mile or more in a minute, at a steady lope. They routinely check back, unless they find turkeys, when they bark like mad. The last picture above right is Lucky at 3 months old December 2, 2011.

Pointer Setter Plott turkey dog from Wisconsin

Champion Appalachian turkey dog in Wisconsin

Lucky enjoying the snow in January 2012 at four and a half months old.

Turkey Dog on top of High Cliff State Park

turkey dogs make wonderful house dogs, for a batchelor

Lucky in training from April to September '12 (when she turned 1 y.o.). She's not one to be under your feet.

Prettiest turkey hunting dog in the world

Lucky runs deep like the Gordon Setter and English Pointer that she is. When she barks, she's found
the turkeys and is getting each and every one off the ground. A pleasure to hunt with and look at (click to enlarge).

Training September 2012

hitch platform for turkey dog to jump in the truck

September 2012 - she gets out there!

Garmin Astro 320 says dog is 3/4 mile out

Garmin Astro shows complete tracks of turkey dog

best site in the world - my turkey hunting dog coming in

big running turkey dog still raring to go after 10 mile run

Hunting October 2012 - the first of many turkeys with Lucky. Keena is glad for the help.

My first turkey with Lucky - she got 20 birds up in the air.

Lucky Lady & Cedar Creek Keena with their fall turkey on a beautiful Wisconsin October day

Turkey hunting with a dog is more work, but it's worth it!

1st Annual WI Turkey Hunt & Burdock Collection

Training and hunting 2013 and 2014

Best Virginia Turkey Hunting Dog now in Wisconsin

She's so fast, it's hard to get a good picture.

most popular new hunting opportunity in the US

More eye candy:

Wisconsin opening day fall turkey season

This Virginia dog doesn't care if it's 10 degrees outside, if there are turkeys around.

Lucky Wisconsin turkey dog gets hunters a winter turkey

Click here if you want a dog like her.

The Fall 2015 season. Lucky is in her prime, a joy to hunt with and look at.

World famous turkey hunting dog got 4 wild turkeys just on one hunt with her owner in Wisconsin.

The best turkey hunting dog in the world scattered the turkeys for this WI hunter so he could call them back in.

The best turkey hunting dog in the world is named Lucky, she's in WI and got us 9 turkeys this day.

The famous VA & WI turkey hunting dog named Lucky did 7 miles at 12 mph on this hunt and we got 6 turkeys.

A 6 turkey day in the rain in Wisconsin in December

Lucky hunting turkeys in WI at Christmas time

Hunting wild turkeys in WI with a dog over the holidays.

This dog is so fast she catches rabbits by herself.

The prettiest looking wild turkey hunting dog on planet Earth.

The fastest wild turkey hunting dog in the United States of America.

The smartest wild turkey hunting dog in the country.

The turkeys can't see this camoflouged hunting dog in a snowstorm.

This beautiful turkey hunting dog disappears in a Wisconsin snowstorm.

This turkey hunting dog is so fast it will disappear in a blinding snowstorm.

Wisconsin Fall & Winter 2016

The best turkey hunting dog in the country

Track a dog makes finding and flushing turkeys

Prettiest bird dog in the country ready to hunt wild turkeys

Another wild turkey with the best dog in the world

Fastest and prettiest turkey hunting dog in Wisconsin and probably the world

1 dog got 3 hunters 3 turkeys in Wisconsin

Dog hunting wild turkey in deep snow in Wisconsin

Dog runs over 8 miles at over 13 mph in 10" of snow to find wild turkeys

Dan Small's Outdoor Wisconsin hunting turkeys with a dog in the snow

Hunting wild turkeys on the snow in Wisconsin with Dan Small, Shane Simpson, Jon Freis and Lucky

← Winter Solstice →
turkey hunt provides holiday dinner
by Dan Small.

Courtesy Dan Small & Wisconsin Outdoor News

Fall & Winter 2017

The best turkey dog is also the prettiest

Fall turkeys aren't molting and have all their feathers

Four turkey day with the best dog in the world

Hunting turkeys with a dog is most interesting

Hunting anything with a dog is more fun than without

"I spent all my money on dogs and hunting. If I had it to do all over again, I'd do it the same." Jon Freis - Maribel, WI 1/1/18
Landline: 920-776-1272. Electronic Mail

Finally, Lucky doesn't have to do all the work. She got some much appreciated help in 2018 from two young dogs:
Carroll's Turkey Dog Kennel Club Suki and Rose's Virginia Red.
Lot's of memories, every picture's got a good story.

Secrets to hunting Wisconsin turkeys in winter

"The best thing about hunting and fishing,' the Old Man said, 'is that you don't have to actually do it to enjoy it.
You can go to bed every night thinking about how much fun you had twenty years ago, and it all comes back clear as moonlight."
"The Old Man's Boy Grows Older," 1957 - Robert Ruark

With all the snow this season, we had the long underwear on so long it hurts to take it off, when the hair grew right through the fabric.

Fall and Winter 2019.

Some years everything goes right. This year it was all uphill, forgot to put a shell in the chamber a few times, left the dog tracker on all night (dead battery), walked downwind instead of up, got lost and my feet hurt. In June I carried water for the trees, after that it was too wet. If it wasn't for Suki showing me where the dead turkey is laying, might not have found it in the flooded woods (1st one below). Other pictures of the year:

ND, SD, MN, WI and MI had their wettest year on record in 2019, according to NOAA (since records were first kept in the late 1800's). It may have been too deep to cross a stream, too windy for the dog to catch a scent, too much snow, or too cold. But for farmers it was catastrophic.

Pictured below, Suki and Red are feeling rich after their first bath. Washed off the skunk they had fun chasing.

"Rich, 'the Old Man said dreamily, 'is not baying after what you can't have. Rich is having the time to do what you want to do. Rich is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells. Rich is not owing any money to anybody, and not spending what you haven't got." Robert Ruark

Questions & comments.

Fall and Winter 2020
When hunting turkeys with a dog, half the fun is watching the turkeys outsmart the hunters. The other half is watching the dogs outsmart the turkeys. Turkeys aren't afraid of dogs, they can outrun most of them. And fly away when they can't.

This year we were rooting for the turkeys. Between Avian Pox, LPDV, predators, and so many people out of work because of the pandemic (Spring and Fall), the turkeys got extra pressure. When we hunt them with dogs, if we don't get one, that's ok.
We did our part to help the population, kind of like Catch and Release, but for turkeys.
Twenty times the fun, saves twenty times the turkeys.

Looks like the Deliverance shack, dueling banjos.

Anyone concerned about the turkey population should hunt them in Fall, when the vast majority of the magnificent birds get away.
In Spring they say: "That's beautiful, let's kill it." In Fall we say: "That's beautiful, watch this." Join the Club.
Save the Dogs. Save the Turkeys.

Questions & comments.

Highlights of the 2021 Fall and Winter season (Sept. 18 - Jan. 9, 2022), including predator control and finding unusual things in the woods. Like a big dusting area, a Green Heron, a Great Blue Heron rookery and a 4 y.o. turkey hunter, on a very cold day - 1/3/2022.

Whole field of wild turkey dusting bowls.

Fall turkey hunter carrying a blind and chair.

Fall turkey hunter hears something high up in the trees.

Turkey dog hunting by the cabin in the woods.

Dog follows hunter with turkey over his shoulder.

Dog sniffs 2 turkeys hunter is carrying.

Dog scattered turkeys for 4 year old hunter.

Fall and Winter Turkey Hunting in Wisconsin, September 17, 2022 to January 8, 2023
"Hunting ain't a competition he said. You ain't trying to win any prizes. Hunting is watching the dog work, and taking it easy,
and shooting just enough, and walking slow, and enjoying the day..." The Old Man and the Boy - Robert Ruark

11 year old Virginia turkey dog still hunting Wisconsin

Suki the Virginia turkey dog in Wisconsin

We alternated hunting Lucky, Red or Suki every day weather permitted. First, temperatures were in the 70's, too hot to run the dogs until September 22.

Then high winds and dry conditions made for tough scenting many days. Dogs and hunters put on a lot of miles without finding birds.

Pulled a big thorn out of Red's paw one day. Lucky sprained her ankle and Suki got a sore paw, both needed a week or more to recover.

Hunted one woods twice where gangs of toms took Lucky and Suki for a run in a boot-sucking swamp, worried they'd never come back out.

Hunting fall turkeys is mostly about watching the dogs run, and the turkeys getting away.

2 weeks of cold around Christmas time was so extreme, we couldn't hunt. Turkeys probably didn't come down from the roost anyway.
Then the season ended with unseasonably warm weather, snow all melted and close to 40°.

How the vast majority of turkeys get away from dogs and hunters is as inexplicable as the mystery of such
phenomenal collective behavior as how 30,000 birds instantaneously communicate high-speed synchronous murmurations.

On some days, when it seems we'll never get a turkey, we feel like the last team to cross the finish line in the Iditarod,
who get the Red Lantern Award, in recognition of their perseverance and commitment.