My first turkey came in my first year out on the third morning. I was walking and calling intermittently on a Lohman push button call and got one to gobble. I got closer and put out a Carry Lite hard plastic body decoy and got into position behind a fallen log. That tom gobbled every time I hit the call. He came in strutting and gobbling all the way to about 15 yds. and I rolled him with a 3" load of #4' s. He weighted 23 lbs. and had a 10" beard. The next week on the fifth morning out, I called in and shot a 24 lb. tom with 1 1/4" spurs using the same Lohman call. Not bad for my first year! Therefore is the reason I am hopelessly hooked on turkey hunting. I give credit to my early success for making me stick with the sport of spring turkey hunting and loving it so much for all these years!

Purep-get a box call and ask around for a spot sure to have turkeys. Work the roads just at dark stopping and working your box call until you hear a gobble. Mark the spot and get there at least a half hour before first light and set up with good camo. Just before light let out a few low volume calls then stop and listen for answers. We gotta' get you on a bird! My first was the same day my best buddy got a big gobbler(his first). I got back to camp and he was holding up a nice bird with a 9 inch beard. He went to town to call about how to take care of the bird and I sat down in camp and drank a beer. Looked up the meadow to the tree line and saw a black dot about 500 yards up. Grabbed my gun and ran throught the trees to where I thought it was. Made two scratches on my box call and a big dude walked out from behind a tree in full strut 20 yards away. He is in full strut on my wall now. 9 3/4 inch beard. My buddy about choked when he got back to camp.

Purep, you might want to rethink what hunting means to you,if it is killing a bird or actually getting one,Safeway is cheaper. Trust me I know how you feel,up here in WA.St. the eastern' s are few and very hard to find in the thick brush we have. It took me 3yrs to finally see a hen, and 5yrs to finally take a 11lb Jake.So if you like it stick w/it and stay positive(thats a major factor) and if not ,well its not for everyone.

Okay, here' s my " first turkey" story. Seven years ago my 12 year old son and I were both drawn for permits, southeastern Minnesota. We started at one area, where we " had no clue" (that is, no roosted bird from the prior night), and sat there until about 10:30 in the morning. I tried locator calls up and down the woods, no response. We sat with decoys and called with no response, no gobblers heard anywhere. At 10:30 we opted to move to another site about 5 miles away. (Another site where we had no clue, but it was clear there were no birds at site #1.) Went in the woods and called a bit, no response. My son went exploring and I took a short nap. He came back and said he thought he' d seen a bird in a picked cornfield on the edge of the woods. I yelped on my box call and we got a response gobble from a different direction. I yelped again to confirm what we' d heard and we got another response gobble. We both nearly had heart attacks. We quickly set up a decoy and put some camo cloth on stakes by a tree and after we were set up behind the blind, I called again. Immediate response, and definitely closer!! Soon we could see not one, but two gobblers heading our way!! We only had one gun between the two of us, and my son had it, as I was working the call. My heart was racing, as I thought to myself, " This might really work!!" I switched from the box call to a push button call, softer sound, and the two of them immediately responded with thundering gobbles. By now I was about ready to faint, and my son whispered to me, " Dad, should I shoot?" I could see they were still coming our way, and were about 40 yards away, so I said " No, not yet." They slowly kept getting closer and closer, stopping to display now and then. It seemed like forever, and I though that they could surely hear my heart thumping as I sat and tried to not move a muscle. Finally, when they were about 25 yards away, I whispered to my son to go ahead and shoot the bigger one. He carefully aimed and fired, and wound up KILLING THEM BOTH WITH ONE SHOT!!! The big one was 25 1/2 lbs, the littler one was 17 lbs. Afterwards, he told me he never realized the smaller bird was behind the bigger one, all he could focus on was the big one. He told me that he never even thought to shoot at #2, if he got #1. He was pretty proud, and so was I. Of course, that filled my tag, too, so I never got to shoot my " first turkey" , but I wouldn' t trade that memory for anything!! Naturally, the experience has hooked me for good on turkey hunting, and now I am an absolute fanatic. I have had extraordinarily good success in the years since then, and have now started to hunt turkeys in several states each spring. Still, the memory of my son with that double on our first successful turkey hunt, will be with me forever, as my #1 turkey hunting story/memory.