American turkey hunting dogCopyRight 2012-Jon Freis-Speed Limit 15
                    MPHUS turkey hunting dogStrong 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 →→→    
Lucky at 8
                    weeksTraditional 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.




Photos 2012 AWTHDA

Mineral VA
                          Earthquake 8/23/2011Hurricane Irene
                        TrackHurriance
                        Irene RainfallHurricane
                        Irene Threat LevelHurricane
                        Irene Wave HeightsHurricnae
                        Irene Wind ImpactHurricnae
                        Irene Wind Speed MapHurricane
                        Irene Map Track
Lucky's puppy pictures - 9 to 12 weeks old:
Lucky
                      lands in Green Bay WILucky in air carrierLucky in WisconsinFirst snowfall
first snow for appalachian
                      virginia turkey dog pupLucky and KeenaLucky in trainingLucky charging
Appalachian turkey dog
                      pointingLucky's right sideLuckys bottom side for IDLucky at 3 months old
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.
Lucky
                    Lady - Maribel WIWisconsin turkey hunting dog LuckyPointer Setter Plott turkey
                    dog from Wisconsinwild turkey hunting dog from WisconsinChampion Appalachian turkey
                    dog in Wisconsin
Lucky enjoying the snow in January 2012 at four and a half months old.
roading
                    dogs with atvTurkey Dog on top of High Cliff State Parkhow much is that doggie in
                    the windowturkey
                    dog in the windowturkey 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.
Turkey
                    dog wearing her orange vestturkey gobblers in
                    wisconsinturkey
                    dog loading up into the truckBest looking turkey dog in
                    the countryPrettiest 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
turkey
                    dog with orange vesthitch platform for turkey dog to jump in the
                    truckVirginia
                    turkey dog after 6 mile runSUV dog fence separator
September 2012 - she gets out there!
Garmin
                    Astro 320 says dog is 3/4 mile outGarmin Astro shows complete
                    tracks of turkey dogbest site in the world - my turkey hunting dog
                    coming inbig
                    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.
Training and hunting 2013 and 2014
Best Virginia Turkey
                  Hunting Dog now in WisconsinBest turkey hunting dog in
                  WisconsinSetter Pointer Plott Hound Turkey Dogturkey hunting dogs have to be fast
She's so fast, it's hard to get a good picture.
turkey hunting dogs in
                  wisconsinmost popular new hunting opportunity in
                  the USexercise the hunting dogsTurkey hunting dog with
                  high prey drive
More eye candy:
Wisconsin opening day fall
                  turkey seasonanother hard earned turkeyHope you see that barbed wire, dog!turkey dog hunting on snow
This Virginia dog doesn't care if it's 10 degrees outside, if there are turkeys around.
another successful winter
                  turkey huntLucky Wisconsin turkey dog gets hunters a
                  winter turkey2 WI turkey dogs got 8 winter turkeys2 turkey hunting dogs got 5 WI turkeys
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.
LUCKY DOG WITH 2 FALL
                  TURKEYSWorld 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 DecemberLucky hunting turkeys in WI at
                  Christmas timeHunting 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
2 Wisconsin wild turkeys
                  with LuckyThe best turkey hunting dog in the
                  countryHigh speed turkey dogTrack a dog makes finding
                  and flushing turkeys
Prettiest bird dog in the
                  country ready to hunt wild turkeysAnother wild turkey with
                  the best dog in the worldFastest and prettiest
                  turkey hunting dog in Wisconsin and probably the
                  world
1 dog
                  got 3 hunters 3 turkeys in WisconsinDog
                  hunting wild turkeys in the swampDog
                  hunting wild turkey in deep snow in WisconsinDog 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 snowHunting 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 most turkeys are in
                      WisconsinBest turkey hunting is in WIwild turkey dinner











hunting turkey in
                        OctoberIt's not real hunting without a dogOctober in WisconsinThe best turkey dog in
                        the countryThe best turkey dog is also the prettiest
Fall turkeys aren't
                      molting and have all their feathersFour turkey day with the best dog in the
                      worldWisconsin winter wild turkey huntHunting turkeys with a dog is most
                      interestingHunting anything with a dog is more fun than
                      withoutLucky's #17
                      turkey in fall of 2017
"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.
Red and Black
                    dogs with the birdRed dog with the
                    turkeyDog catches turkeyDog caught
                    turkey
Appalachian
                    turkey dog in WisconsinTurkey dog runs
                    full speedhunt Wisconsin
                    turkeys in winterSecrets 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
2 young dogs with
                    the turkeyRed's turkeyRerieving the tom turkeyOld dog trains the young ones.Dog admires her turkeyA four turkey dayWild turkey
                    hanging in Indian teepeeWinter turkey
                    hunter
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:
Dog finds turkey in swampAKC Champion3 dog tieUKC Championpoetry in motion
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.
High energy bird dogHigh speed bird
                    dogQueen of the Bird DogsRed Setter turkey doghunting turkeys
                    in the swamp
Pictured below, Suki and Red are feeling rich after their first bath. Washed off the skunk they had fun chasing.
washing the skunk off the dogsBeautiful bird dog3 dogs 2 turkeys
"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
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.
3 Virginia turkey
                  dogs in WisconsinWhoa dogsGood looking bird dogsfast dogsGordon Setter
Wild TurkeysBlack dogs are fastesthunting turkeysRed dogs fly in the cornTurkey hunter
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.
Thanksgiving
                  turkeyBlack dogs are smarterLooks like the
                  Deliverance shack, dueling banjos.High speed turkey
                  dogWild turkey flying over
Classic fall
                  woodlandSuki at the riverWild turkey up in
                  the treeRed looking up in the treesTurkey flying over
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.
Turkey dogs don't
                  chase deerTurkey dog in a
                  snowstormTurkey flying highBlack and Red
                  turkey dogsRare fall turkey
                  harvest
 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.
coon killerracoon in
                    dog-proof trapturkey dogs hate
                    coonsthere's a turkey up therethere's the turkey
Lost boot in swampBoot sucked off
                    in muck.Both boots lost in the mud.Whole field of wild turkey dusting
                    bowls.Migrating Green Heron.
Fall turkey
                    hunter crossing the creek.Fall turkey
                    hunter carrying a blind and chair.Fall turkey hunter hears something high
                    up in the trees.Turkey dog
                    crossing the river.Turkey dog
                    hunting by the cabin in the woods.
3 turkey dogs in
                    the Kettle Moraine.Turkey &
                    dog.Fall turkey hunter and dog.Beautiful turkey flying.Turkey flew up into the tree.
Turkey got away,
                    up in the tree.Dog follows
                    hunter with turkey over his shoulder.Great Blue Heron rookery.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 WisconsinSuki the Virginia turkey dog in
                  WisconsinRedRed made these turkeys
                  run.Run turkeys run.Appalachian 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.
Dog made this
                  turkey fly.Turkey hunting in October.Bird dogs on wild turkey.Turkey hunting in October.Wild turkey flies away.Kentucky turkey dog in Wisconsin.
Then high winds and dry conditions made for tough scenting many days. Dogs and hunters put on a lot of miles without finding birds.
Swamp turkey
                  huntersRunning dogBig thorn in Red's
                  paw.Nice turkey with Suki's helpBig flock of Fall turkeys in Wisconsin.Turkey dog injured
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.
Wild turkeys
                  injures dogsHunting the river
                  bottomTurkey in a tree.Dog loves turkeydog turkey and shotgunFlushing turkeys
                  out of the corn field.
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.
Beatiful October
                  dayDog loving October in the woods.2 turkeys in a leafless hardwood.Fall turkey harvest.2 turkeys in an oak
                  tree.Dogs admire turkey.
Hunting fall turkeys is mostly about watching the dogs run, and the turkeys getting away.
Crossing the
                  creek.Turkeys fly high.Turkey up in the
                  tree.Turkey got away again.Black dog on white
                  snow.Red dog on snow. 
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 .
Extremely cold
                  Wisconsin weather2 dogs 2 turkeysTwin snow camo turkey hunters.1 dog 1 hunter 2 turkeysAnother turkey flies away.Get those dogs anyway.
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.
Fall and Winter Turkey Hunting in Wisconsin, September 16, 2023 to January 7, 2024
We had drought, even swamps were dried up, dogs couldn't get a scent. Than more rain in 3 days, than in the last 58. From hot, dry and windy, to hot, humid and no wind. Then a blizzard the end of October to an unusually warm November and December, to finally cold and snow in January.
Some of the things we'd of never seen, if it weren't for a dog:
Wild
                    turkeys in WisconsinRed the famous
                    turkey hunting dogFall turkey
                    hunters in WisconsinMap of dog tracksTurkey hunting friends and their dogsThe turkey hunting dog named Suki
Love to see these dogs stop, look, listen and smell for 15 seconds, before they decide which direction to take off full speed.
Red with
                    turkeywild turkeys flying lowHunting turkeys in the snow in WI.Red looking in the treesTurkey hunter and dog in Wisconsin.Wild turkeys on top of the mountain.
One hunter was in the right place at the right time, to witness Red do something never seen before:
Red showed the brains of a great turkey dog. And made us proud.
Famous
                    turkey hunting dog.Flock of turkeys
                    taking off.Hunter and dog
                    with turkey.Fastest turkey
                    dog in Wisconsin.Christmas dinner
                    wild turkeyTurkey hunter
                    with dog
When a dog finds adult male turkeys and pressures them hard enough to make them fly into the trees, that's the best example of fair chase there is.
Wild
                    turkey flying away in the snow.Garmin map of
                    turkey dog trackQueen of WI
                    turkey dogs!12 y.o. dog still
                    gets out thereTurkey hunter in
                    the Wisconsin snowRoosting in plain
                    sight when the season is over
After 20 years, we're measuring the season by how many days we hunted, not by how many turkeys we got.
Fall and Winter Turkey Hunting in Wisconsin, September 14, 2024 to January 5, 2025
Hot, dry and windy for the first month, hard for the dogs to get a scent. Even the swamps are dried up.
Dog
                      points to turkeys in the trees.Fall
                      turkey hunting in Wisconsin.Hunters in the sumac.Drought in Wisconsin October 2024Kettle Moraine turkeySuicidal fall turkey
Hard hunting this year.  Got .84” of rain in Sept., normal is 3.25”. September '24 was one of the top ten warmest Septembers on record.
Dog looking for what made
                      that soundDog wants to smell that
                      turkeyRed pointing a turkey5 Fall longbeardsThanks, Red.2
                      Fall Gobblers
While Hurricane Milton floods Florida October 10, Wisconsin is in a drought.
By October 15 it was cold and windy. 39°, 31d° windchill. Wind N 16 G 35. Dogs found 10 turkeys at dusk. Got one in the morning.

Suki points to turkey in
                      treeLongbeard running in the
                      treesTurkey in the treeHurry, Suki's got one up a
                      tree!Lucky in her 13th year.Hunting turkeys with dogs
                      in snow.
Compared to the luxury of hunting the strongest, most dominant and aggressive males in Spring, when they're
distracted and oblivious to danger, in Fall, we have to hunt more often, longer and do a lot more walking.
And compared to hunting like cats in Spring, killing big toms from concealed ambush, in Fall we're like wolves;
harvesting the young, old, sick and weak first, before prime adult hens or toms,
keeping the flocks healthy.
  There's not many places to hunt Fall turkey like
Wisconsin, with it's long season and generous permits. Good times.
Suki wide openKY
                      hunter and his dogs.A
                      boy and his dog.Hunting the swampFlushing them in the cattails2024
                      Christmas card

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