boparks
Senior Member
I’ve been following the post regarding the “250 Required Post” and other suggestions being thrown into the hat and even though last year was my first time being involved I just wanted to offer a perspective about the challenge.
This forum has a higher number of true turkey killers and guys with enthusiasm that are at varying experience levels and that love to hunt and talk about turkeys than any other I’ve seen.
This Challenge is a big deal to most and it adds a different elements and aspect to the season compared to just posting on normal topics.
In regards to the 250 post thing:
In a random selection for teams it comes down to which group gets lucky in terms of who’s in the group. Most of the 33 teams last year had a good core of 2-3 guys that would kill their fair share of birds but the rest of the team in many cases was an unknown. The teams that were in the running last year got lucky, mine included in that every person on the team showed up and killed birds, communicated and the effort was there.
Some teams even with a core of serious turkey killers, were DOOMED from Day One and didn’t know it until the season progressed because several people that appeared to want to be in the contest put their names in the hat, were assigned to a team, and disappeared all together or appeared to make little effort to help the team. You can imagine how frustrating this would be if you’re serious about this.
If you pull just one position player off the field for the best team in base ball they can’t win and its better to at least have someone trying even if half of their plays result in errors. Its just hard to overcome that kind of handicap.
So the bottom line is the 100 post thing from last year did not work and if I had been on one of those teams I would have been suggesting this 250 post requirement. If you’re willing to pay your dues and post 250 times, then you’re more likely to be around for the season and try to help the team. I bet you’ll see more teams in the running because of this and less that had the “missing” team member like last year.
What your experience level is and how many birds you’ve killed is a different matter. To me if you’re there and trying, that’s all I’d care about. We had a guy last year on our team that had never killed one. He hung in there, communicated, and killed his bird which without we would not have ended up where we did.
The random draw system is good and I believe the structure including the scoring system here is great. Its simple and creates a balanced playing field
The GON Turkey Challenge is supposed to be just that…a CHALLENGE and the standard required to win should be high and if you win it , it should be because at the end your team worked together, communicated, strategized, and put together a 12 bird limit. Any lower bird counts would just dilute the competitive side in my view. I suspect you’ll see twice the 12 bird limits this year compared to last because of this 250 post thing because there will be more 5 man teams working together, not 3 or 4 man teams.
I was on Team 30, Neckbusters Inc. last year and we somehow pulled it off and won. It was mostly because we got lucky on the random draw. We had 5 guys that were committed, a few that were veterans with resources and good places to hunt, and some that worked hard and put forth an honest effort. And as I said we had one who had never killed a bird that killed his first.
In the end it came down to bonus points but we were lucky we weren’t DOOMED from day one and it was largely due to the luck of the draw. If we’d have been lower down the listing I would not have felt bad because everyone tried. But if I had been on some of the teams I was watching and worried about that had an empty position on the field, I would be shaking my head in frustration.
So I’m not trying to ruffle anyone here and I know there are some very good people trying to get to the 250 post.
The people that run this contest work hard and are just
trying to make this a fair challenge and make some tweaks to improve the event. I’d just suggest just looking at it as paying your dues and proving you’re serious, and trying to understand how it went last year. I know you’ll understand after this season.
We all just need to be hopeful we get lucky in the draw.
Bobby
This forum has a higher number of true turkey killers and guys with enthusiasm that are at varying experience levels and that love to hunt and talk about turkeys than any other I’ve seen.
This Challenge is a big deal to most and it adds a different elements and aspect to the season compared to just posting on normal topics.
In regards to the 250 post thing:
In a random selection for teams it comes down to which group gets lucky in terms of who’s in the group. Most of the 33 teams last year had a good core of 2-3 guys that would kill their fair share of birds but the rest of the team in many cases was an unknown. The teams that were in the running last year got lucky, mine included in that every person on the team showed up and killed birds, communicated and the effort was there.
Some teams even with a core of serious turkey killers, were DOOMED from Day One and didn’t know it until the season progressed because several people that appeared to want to be in the contest put their names in the hat, were assigned to a team, and disappeared all together or appeared to make little effort to help the team. You can imagine how frustrating this would be if you’re serious about this.
If you pull just one position player off the field for the best team in base ball they can’t win and its better to at least have someone trying even if half of their plays result in errors. Its just hard to overcome that kind of handicap.
So the bottom line is the 100 post thing from last year did not work and if I had been on one of those teams I would have been suggesting this 250 post requirement. If you’re willing to pay your dues and post 250 times, then you’re more likely to be around for the season and try to help the team. I bet you’ll see more teams in the running because of this and less that had the “missing” team member like last year.
What your experience level is and how many birds you’ve killed is a different matter. To me if you’re there and trying, that’s all I’d care about. We had a guy last year on our team that had never killed one. He hung in there, communicated, and killed his bird which without we would not have ended up where we did.
The random draw system is good and I believe the structure including the scoring system here is great. Its simple and creates a balanced playing field
The GON Turkey Challenge is supposed to be just that…a CHALLENGE and the standard required to win should be high and if you win it , it should be because at the end your team worked together, communicated, strategized, and put together a 12 bird limit. Any lower bird counts would just dilute the competitive side in my view. I suspect you’ll see twice the 12 bird limits this year compared to last because of this 250 post thing because there will be more 5 man teams working together, not 3 or 4 man teams.
I was on Team 30, Neckbusters Inc. last year and we somehow pulled it off and won. It was mostly because we got lucky on the random draw. We had 5 guys that were committed, a few that were veterans with resources and good places to hunt, and some that worked hard and put forth an honest effort. And as I said we had one who had never killed a bird that killed his first.
In the end it came down to bonus points but we were lucky we weren’t DOOMED from day one and it was largely due to the luck of the draw. If we’d have been lower down the listing I would not have felt bad because everyone tried. But if I had been on some of the teams I was watching and worried about that had an empty position on the field, I would be shaking my head in frustration.
So I’m not trying to ruffle anyone here and I know there are some very good people trying to get to the 250 post.
The people that run this contest work hard and are just
trying to make this a fair challenge and make some tweaks to improve the event. I’d just suggest just looking at it as paying your dues and proving you’re serious, and trying to understand how it went last year. I know you’ll understand after this season.
We all just need to be hopeful we get lucky in the draw.
Bobby
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I made this choice after the challenge last year, because I felt bad that after another year I did not kill a bird. I am not a part time turkey hunter either, just have not closed the deal yet. I have been in the challenge the last few years and have had several teammates over the years try and help. I just think I will stay on the sidelines until I finally break the ice, after that I will join back in. Besides, I dont think taking my picture with a frozen turkey in the grocery store will qualify as a eligable picture. 
