They say that you never forget your first time.So tell me about your first turkey hunt or how you got started turkey hunting.
I had thought about turkey hunting for a couple years before I went for my first time but didn' t really know of a place to hunt.When they opened a new zone around where my parents live I applied for a tag.A friend of mine said that he would take me.Opening morning we walked up a trail,stopped ,and he owl hooted .Two turkeys gobbled a couple hundred yards ahead of us.That was the first time I had ever heard a gobble in the wild in my life.We got closer and set up.After some calling and lots of gobbling in return I was told that we needed to move.The tom was hung-up on something.We crossed a little creek about 2 feet wide and set up again.This time we could tell that he was coming closer.Man that turkey must have gobbled a hundred times that morning.When the crows would fly over he would double goblle and triple gobble.Finally he came into sight.At 40yds I could tell that he knew something was wrong.He could probably see me shaking.I pulled the trigger and he did the turkey flop.He was 20# with a 9" beard.I caught turkey fever that day and have' nt found a cure for it yet.

i didn' t see a gobbler the first couple of season' s i hunted...the first gobbler i ever saw was my first harvest......talk about awesome......my sister took me in with her, her gun, her tag, she said if a gobbler comes in then it' s mine, but there was a catch , it couldn' t be a longbeard....well i' m sitting there and all of a sudden, bahlalalalala, i about died.....then i heard him spittin' and drummin' ....i knew he was coming up quick and would be coming up on my side, sis said noooooooo, well her being the expert i aimed my gun her way, about that time he stood right next to me, not kidding 3 feet and gobbled, i really don' t know how i didn' t jump right out of our blind, scared me to death, so i waited til he was gone, tried to get a shot but he wandered off , he got about 60 yards away and she called him back, i couldn' t see him, then i saw this red head pop out from the palmetto and she said take him, so i didi ran up to him and he was a nice bird.....his stats were 17.5lbs, 10 3/8 and the spurs were both over an inch, a trophy tree hanger for sure.....the beard didn' t look that long thank God or she would of made me give the gun to her....i got spured in the hand by a dead bird..lol...then i fell backwards with him as i was walking out....lol.....it was a classic hunt....my very first hunt, all i did was sit there in the dark PRAYING for daylight, i was soooooooooooo scared........it was so fricking dark and i had never been in the woods in the dark by myself before...sis was 25 yards away , but she wasn' t close enough......

Much like your story wacker mine is the same.
The only diff. between yours and mine was that I was alone and I missed
But the resault of the bite was much the same
I am now and will always be a Turkey Hunt' n Fool[:-]LOL

A past friend talked me into going turkey hunting back in the spring of /89. One of Ontario' s first seasons. I didn' t want too , because of work , but took the day off and went.
We entered the woods in the dark and sat up against this darn uncomferable tree and looked into the dark. Wow this is fun, I could have did this in my nice warm bed and layed down along with it . It broke light and the birds started to sing , then all of a sudden, this Loud ungodly noice. What the heck was that ! I asked, he said, as he laughed , That was a wid turkey Gobbler Holly smokes it sent chills down my back, I never heard something like that in the woods around here before. He started to call it and it would gobble at the call,, Thats kinda neet I thought.This went on for like 3 hours.

Well to make a long story shorter , he never came out of the tree but only gobbled at every call we made, so we left man we new alot about this sport!

After day light we walked along a trail and heard a few more Gobbles coming from all directions, so we broke up ,and he went one way as I went another...

well I had this white mouth call thingy made from QuakerBoy game calls and it says it is a turkey call so, I' ll try it. I poped it in and tried to make a sound, well the sound was high pitched and then went real low a whistle sound,,there spit flying everywhere,,,and then Gobblllleeeeeeee Wow! he answered the sound, so I did the same sound again Gobbblllleeeeee This Call thingy works! I thought..
As I sat and worked this gobbler , I had NO idea what the heck I was doing on this call , but it seemed to be bring that turkey closer and closer and closer.
Well soon I could heard the PUTTTRRUUUMMMMMMM of the bird as he was in front of me , I had my old stevens pump pointed at the noise and out walked this bird at 20 yds,, all Puffed up and he would throw his head out away from his body and make this Gobbling sounds. I can remember thinking that, to shoot this bird I have to aim in front of the bird and wait till he gobbled again before I can squeeze the trigger. Well it worked , I walked back with this Jake over my shoulder, was I proud! The hunt was exciting and it was neet to see the bird coming in all puffed up and in colour, but I seemed more interested with the thoughts of putting this White QuakerBoy Mouth call thingy in my mouth and having a wild animal resond to the noise I was doing with it.That seemed awsome! I talked more about this amazing call thingy that I did in on the hunt. How you could make noises and have a Wild Turkey come through the woods to the spot that I was sitting..
I had no Idea in the world that 6 years later I would be working for Quakerboy Game Calls the company that made that White mouth Call thingy ...BT

Yep Wack,remember it well!The first turkey hunt i went on was with my father I believe in 1978!We had no clue as to what were doing.We went out about 8:00 am walked down a road a bit and heard a bird gobble!He was way off but we didn' t no better so we just hid off the side of the road gave a few yelps on the old OLT box call we had and nothing happened!After about 20 minutes of not seeing or hearing anything we left!In 1979 after talking to a few folks about huntin turks I took to the field with a little more exuburence and the first morning actually saw my first real longbeard in a hunting situation!I must of yelped a 1000 times on that old box and went through a box of chalk!A week later I killed my first tom and its been a learning experience with countless memories ever since!I was so proud of that first bird that I brought it in the house cut the fan and 3 1/2 inch beard off and layed it in my dads easy chair for him to see when he got off work!!I' m pretty sure this is the pic!!Man I' ve lost hair and gotten fatter[]

Well my buddy and I use to watch turkey huntin on ESPN all the time. And he wanted to try it and I was a little sceptical about it because that was something that Boys from the South and East did. Out West our big hunt was Elk. BUt after a couple of years I said what the heck, mainly because of all the cool " Hunting gadgets" we could buy. So we started setting up a trip, and my Wife set me up with this guy to take us. My buddy could' nt go,work got in the way. So I went. First day I started seeing thes huge birds all over and I actually missed 2 big Rios that day and I was hooked. Actually the 2nd bird I watched feathers come off his neck when I shot, but he proceeded to take flight and land about a mile away on a ridge? Sure hope the ole' boy survived, I felt real bad. So after two more years of hunting and scouting, I was usually pleased with the season if where I hunted actually had sign that a turkey had been in the area in the past few months. With them planting them all over it took a lot of work to find a flock sometimes. So my first bird I was actually scouting during the season. Thought to myself, I know ther are birds w/in a couple of miles of here. SO I fired up a box call to try and locate, while standing ther a Jake just comes walking out and I don' t know who was more stunned, him or me. Well turned out he was, because I was able to get my gun up and finish the deal. Walking back to the truck I realized this was as exciting as Deer Hunting. Little di I know that when you make a plan, set up, do battle with a gobbler and get him to come in at full strut was SO MUCH more exciting then Deer hunting,(finally bagged one that way this year) that there isn' t anything that will ever get in my way to keep me from Turkey hunting from now on. I' ve told my Wife that if there ever did become a choice between Turkey and Deer, I would give up Deer. Let' s hope that never happens

My first turkey hunt was April 11th, 1990. I had only deceided to hunt about three weeks prior when the local paper' s outdoor section had a write up about the county i live in having it' s first turkey hunt in 100years. At this point in my life i had been hunting for 22years so i knew i had to prepare and do it quickly. So my first morning was sunny and cool and crisp. Heard several gobble from a distance, they were on private ground and i was basically deer hunting for turkeys. In other words, i was sittin in a little hide i fashioned together b4 the season started. Tho i studied hard for the opener, i knew nothing of cutt-n-run, or prospecting around. But i did learn a lession that first day, stay put! Gettin tired of settin and hearin the birds from a distance, i had gotten up and wandered over closer to a road they were across only to have one gobble from very near were i had been settin just a few minutes earlier. Didn' t get a bird that day but went on to kill one the next hunt a few day' s later and then my second one a week after that. I was ruined for life.

I put this Thread on the NWTF web site the day I harvested My first Turkey.

Ok I have read a lot of story' s about everyone' s hunt, I now have my own to tell. But I promise I' m not a great teller of story' s, but here goes.


This is my first year to hunt for Turkey' s so my expectation' s weren' t to high, I figured I would scare every bird out of the state, so if any one out of the state of Louisiana got a Turkey, your welcome.

I have hunted every chance I could, I have had Turkey' s all over me and not been able to get close enough to see them. But my luck changed Friday April 4th, I got my buddy Hunter9850 to go with me and call for me so I could see what I was doing wrong. We took my wife to her blind before daylight and set her up a decoy and left for our hunting area, after riding my 4 wheeler into the area we were going to hunt we walked about 200 yard' s and waited for daylight. As we walked through the swamp Hunter 9850 started with his owl call as we walked with no response to it, so he started using his box call, we had to skirt around a beaver pond and as we did this we stopped to call, it was about 6:55, Hunter called with no respose so I took out my mouth call and told him this is how I had been scareing them ( I sound like I' m choking a chicken to death), as I completed my sequence Hunter was in the process of rolling on the ground laughing at me, a bird answered me,(told you I was scaring them) we had to move about 50 yard' s to find a place to set and start calling to him, we didn' t have time to place a decoy out. We had just been setting about 2 Minute' s and Hunter told me to watch for the white head, as he told me this I saw him coming to us.

This was the most amazing thing to happen to me, the Turkey turned out to be two of them, with only one gobbling. They got forty one yard' s from us and stopped and stared in our direction looking for the hen that was talking to them, Hunter whispered to me that they were about 35 yard' s, I could only see just part' s of both bird' s. They stood there looking for the hen for about a week, but it turned out to just a couple of minute' s, they didn' t see the hen and were starting to move off, as they moved hunter made just a slight sound with his box call and stopped them cold in the open. As the closest bird stretched out his neck to look for the source of the call, I shot. I jacked another shell incase of needing a follow up shot, but it wasn' t needed. Hunter was standing on his neck before I could move, boy can he move when he want' s to, After the high 5' s hand shake' s and the word YES repeated several hundred time' s, I stepped off the shot that' s how I knew he was standing 41 yard' s from me.

We walked out to the four wheeler and decieded to go let my wife know I got my first Turkey. When we arrived at her blind, she informed us she had heard four different bird' s, but the closest one to her left headed toward where Hunter and I was hunting. She was Happy for me and pissed at the same time for us calling her bird off her, we didn' t see it but she was a good sport about it any how.

Well he weighed 19 1/2 lb' s, a 9 1/2 inch beard, and 3/4 inch spur' s, I harvested him at 7:00 with my mossburg 3 1/2 inch, shooting 2 3/4 inch winchester supreme #6 shot.

He may not be considered a trophy by some but he' s king kong to me. I have only one more day that I can hunt so I' ll be out there scaring them again, so everyone get ready I may scare one your way. Oh by the way I' ll be in north west Kentucky may 9th-12th so be ready for them to stampede into the other state' s....LOL

I would like at this time to thank Hunter9850 for doing the calling for me, I learned a lot in a very short time.

Oh by the way Hunter9850 got a Turkey on the 3rd day of the season, but that' s another story and I' ll have to get him to tell it.

May all of you harvest a bird, but remember our loved one' s oversea' s fighting for our right to hunt this noble bird, Our wild Trukey.

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I know, I know you can quit laughing now but my calling really did sound like I was choking a chicken. Momma LH is suppose to down load the picture of me and my bird as soon as she figure' s out how it' s done. I' m a computer idiot.

I' ve told it before, but I enjoy telling the tale, so I' ll repeat it again.

Wild turkeys had started showing up on my in-laws property at various times of the year, so I applied for permits for myself and my son for several years before finally winning the lottery and getting drawn. I hadn' t spent much time preparing for turkey hunting, hadn' t learned how to run a call or use a locator, didn' t know a thing about turkey sign such as droppings, strut marks, etc., partly because I knew I didn' t need to learn these things unless/until I got drawn.

Finally, after several years of applying for permits, I got drawn. The same year I got drawn, my son also got drawn. We went out the first morning and wandered around in my mother-in-law' s woods, using a screaming peacock as a locator call, hearing nothing, until about 10:00 in the morning. Then we decided to leave her woods and we went to my brother-in-law' s woods around 10:30 a.m. My son (who was 12 years old at the time) heard a bird he thought sounded like a turkey--it wasn' t, but I couldn' t convince him otherwise--and he decided he was going to stalk it, so off he went. I sat down and dozed for a while in the morning warmth, as we' d been up since 4:00 a.m. My son came back after a while and said he' d gone to the edge of the woods and thought he saw a turkey run back in to the woods from the old cornfield. I whipped out my box call and said " Let' s see if it responds." I cranked on that box call, and heard nothing. Then I cranked again and thought I heard a faint response gobble, but not from the direction of the old cornfield, but from the opposite way. I cranked a third time and we both heard a response gobble!!

We had a decoy, and some camo material for a screen, so the scramble was on to set up the decoy and the camo. I put the decoy in the only opening/clearing nearby, a small draw or valley where the woods weren' t so heavy, and we sat up against two trees near each other, behind the camo screen. My son had the gun, so I just worked on calling the turkey in. I called on the box call again, and the bird was closer!!!

Not wanting to scare off the turkey, I pretty much shut up. Soon, we could see not one, but two turkeys, strutting and working their way towards us!! One was noticably larger than the other, but they were coming in together. I thought I would faint, I was so excited. My heart was just pounding!!! At about 40 yards, the two of them stopped for a while, and my son whispered, asking if he should shoot. I told him to wait. The toms threw out their heads and gobbled, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack!!! The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up, and I nearly jumped out of my skin!!!

My son had a pushbutton call, and he gave a couple of soft clucks with the pushbutton, and the toms started heading closer in the direction of the decoy, which was about 15 yards from us and to our right (the toms were coming in from the left). When they got to about 25 yards, they stopped and strutted again, and it looked like they were hung up, because there was a small fallen tree branch laying in front of them. The bigger tom was in front, and so I told my son to go ahead and shoot.

He took careful aim and fired. Down went not one, but both toms!!! We raced over to their location faster than Olympic sprinters. It turned out the big one weighed 25 1/2 lbs, and the smaller one weighed 17 lbs., so he got 42 1/2 lbs. of wild turkey with one shot!!!

Later, my son told me he had never thought to shoot them both, and that all he was aiming at was the big one. He said that even though he had an autoloader, he would have never thought to shoot a second shot at the second turkey, if he hadn' t gotten it with his first shot. He said that he was so wound up that he even forgot he had more shells in the gun. (Of course, he also said he felt bad for me because I had to use my tag on the smaller turkey that he got, but I didn' t believe him.)

I had that big tom full body mounted, the littler one beard and fan boarded. I had Dave Constantine make one of his custom beer belly calls with an engraving of the two toms at the branch and the year and date. That first experience created a memory of a lifetime for me and for my son, and is a moment I always think about when I go into the woods in search of a tom. Needless to say, that first experience has made me an addict for life!!!

As I think back on that experience, I realize how incredibly lucky so many aspects of that day were, how all that luck came together. In the years since, I have been fortunate to have been very successful in the turkey woods, but each year' s lessons have made me realize how lucky I have been, and how much fortune I had that first year.

first day first time i could legally carry a weapon to hunt anything....ive been hunting with dad since i was 6 or so learning the ways of the woods and watching him squirrel hunt....then coon hunting....then i was 12 and ready to go....the first thing i could hunt was turkeys in the spring.....my dad been hunting them a few years and taken a few nice birds....we go out the first day and i hear all kinds of people trying to locate birds owl hooters crows coyotes i heard 100s at one time..it was ammusing now that i think about it......we set up above the birds and dad started calling with my box call..tons of gobbles from down the hill every call he made...i was sitting right up beside him because i was young and neither of us knew how to hunt with 2 guys...he always went solo...before i knew it there were 3 jakes strutting gobbling and going nuts right in my face....no more then 20yds out...probally 15-20yds...i cocked the hammer back on my single shot 20ga and was ready to go.....i had my bead on all 3 of the birds heads......i just couldnt shoot any of them.....there was brush in my way and i thought it would stop my shot and id miss......so all 3 got to walk...dad said i made a good choice but i could have easily taken them.....i didnt know any better until that year squirell hunting with that same gun.....taking down limbs 3 times bigger then the brush in my way.....it took me 4 birdless seasons to put it all together and take my first turkey my 5th season....almost a perfect hunt and i used all my knowledge and did it all myself.......