Well everyone the NJ Youth Season ended earlySaturday morning for one very happy 10 year old girl!
Here is what happened:
I met my buddy LyleSaturday morning at 4 a.m. and we set off for NJ. In the early morning darkness we set up his pop-up blind and get set up. The blind was situated in a slight depression in the middle of afield.The depression served as a drainage so there were a lot of reed around so the blind didn't stick out. We set up about 75 yards from a stand of woods that had a creek running through it. The birds roosted in those woods in the trees and usually either flew down to the field or to the other side of the creek.
One minor obstacle was overcome when we discovered that the strutter decoy we had just picked up was left in the truck, but Lyle was able to get it and get set up with plenty of time to spare. Not long after that as the inky darkness faded away and gave way to light, gobbles were heard from all around us. We had at least 8 birds gobbling off the roost with one deep thundering gobble coming from straight in front of us. Lyle gave some tree yelps to let the birds know where the decoys were. Once morning came the birds flew down. The bird in front of us flew down from in front of us to our left. Perfect for our set up. We could hear him gobbling to Lyle's calls along with at least two other birds. After a while I saw his white head crest the horizon of the slight hill ahead of us. He strutted out in front and it was evident that he was a longbeard. He worked his way out in front of the decoys just out of range. As he moved to our right we hoped that he would strut in to the decoy set, but for some reason he continued on out of range. At this point Lyle realized that the two jakes that were in tow behind the longbeard would do the same so he had Kylee swing her gun from the front window to the window to the right. This was a move that would unnerve even seasoned hunters, and Kylee handled it like a pro. She got herself set. As the jakes moved into her shooting lane they unfortunately moved out of the range of my camera. There was no way we were going to allow that to mess up an opportunity for Kylee to get her first bird, so Lyle readied her for the shot. She put the red dot on the bird's neck and crushed him at 40 yards. Kylee made a beautiful shot and put the bird down like she had done it 100 times.
Way to go Kylee and congrats!
Here are some pics of the happy hunter and proud papa.
They even let me stick my ugly mug in for a pic:
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NJ Youth Turkey Hunt A Success!
