My first was a hen (legal fall hen) back in the early 70's when the flock was first re-introduced to Vermont. I had never seen a wild turkey and rumor had it that an area near the bottom of the state had some turkey. I looked up the routes to get there on an atlas and left the house all alone at 1:00 am for a 3 hour ride to get down there and try my hand at it. I did some research and bought a box call and a kiki diaphragm to bring back busted birds. I got down there and found a nice looking ridge and started up the mountain. It got light and I heard a gun go off way up the ridge. I just stood there and could see some huge birds gliding down through the hardwoods like fighter jets with wings locked back. I didn't know what to make of it since I had never seen a bird so large. Then it dawned on me that they were turkeys and I took aim and dropped one as it glided past. I now had my first turkey a young hen that weighed about 9 pounds. I was pretty proud but decided that shooting one out of the air wasn't all that good from a sportsmanship standpoint so I tried the kiki run I had learned about. Low and behold within minutes I could hear birds coming all around me and soon after I harvested my next bird another 9 pound hen. That was the limit and I took them home and had a real frustrating time plucking them. The garage was full of feathers and the wife wasn't all that much impressed especially with all the pin feathers she had to pull after I presented her with my semi cleaned birds.In the years after that I hunted only spring toms and have harvested many well over 20 pounds. This year I got my two birds, both decent toms one was a 2 year old with 10 ½” beard and the other a 3 year old with 9” beard. I now breast them and cook them on the grill which makes my wife much happier.