Well after missing 3 birds I had called up for him the last 2 years he finally connected last friday 4/22. It was a awesome hunt and when your son gets his first bird, it is that much more special. He was really down on himself because of the ones he had missed, as he calls it "turkeyfever". I explained to him that the day he loses that feeling is the day you stop hunting.
Here is the Hunt:
Setup on a ridge top at first light were I know turkeys were roosting on the flank. Text book hunt, called Tom right in after flydown. Bird 12 yards away strutting in the decoys! My boy is ready, pulls the hammerback on his single 20, BOOM! misses him clean! turkey takes off Dad shoots misses! turkey gets airborne BIG MISTAKE. Roll him at 40 yards. 1 Turkey down and 1 upset 10 year old. I go get the bird and look back and my son is all teared up, miss #3. "I shot over him dad" I did'nt have my head down looking down the barrel right" he stated. "I got nervous watching that beautiful Tom strutting that close" he stated. I said " Buddy so did I and now that you know what you did wrong, do you know how to fix your mistake?" He said " Yep, Dad I am going to relax and take a deep breath make sure I get my cheek down the barrel of my gun!" At that moment I knew he was ready. We were going to head back to tha cabin and go check in the Tom we had just shot. As we were walking I heard a tom gobble on the other ridge across a large cow pasture some 400 yards away.. We walked to within 30 yards to were the trail leads out of the woods into the pasture. We stopped I whipped a mouth call and Cutt and Yelped...Gooooobbble! then another gobbled! 2 birds this could get interesting. I would have to bring these birds 400 yards to us to get a shot for my son. I called again, followed by my aluminum call! They doubled gobbled again!
Looked thru my binoculars and to my surprise 3 GOBBLERS come marching out of the timber on the other side of the field and they were headed my way! The scenerio went on for 30 minutes I would call,they would gobble and all while they were making their way across the field. When the birds were within 100 yards I moved back to were my son was. I sat up 10 yards behind him. 2 toms came up the trail looking for the hen and my son shot the biggest one!
He was one very happy young man! I got him dad!!! I got him dad! We exchanged hugs and high 5's for 10 minutes.
The Tom was a 3 year old, 22#, 10" beard., sharp 1 1/4 spurs. I have been waiting for 10 years for this moment and for the Dad's out there like me, it was worth every minute. I must have taken 50 pictures! what a hunt 2 birds in roughly 1 hour! Here is his picture!
My 10 year old son's first Gobbler!
