A Day of Youth Hunting!!!!!!
05-12-2004, 09:52 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2004
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Posts: 17
A Day of Youth Hunting!!!!!!
First day of youth season we didn’t go. Commitments. Second day my oldest Son (15) and I were in blind (1) at sunrise and sure enough gobbles boomed from about 150yds across a cornfield in some tall pines. A favorite roost area. After fly down 3 hens made their way through the woods behind us towards the field. The gobbler in the pines answered my calls. An hour later the gobbler moves out in to the field and answers my calls. I told my son he was coming but he just kept on moving towards the middle of the field. Shunned. And my best calls too. We heard him gobble through a bottleneck into another cornfield. We dropped down into a ravine and made our way to blind (2), which is located on this side of the bottleneck. He must of not had any girlfriends in that field cause when my son and I started calling together we could tell he was coming back. When my son seen fans the adrenaline started pumping. Two of them! Strutting right towards the decoys. I reminded him not to shoot both of them (one bird per day) and when they separated at 30yds, BOOM! He drops him. Now I run out there and this other bird just kinda hangs around puttin. Huh? Had it not been youth season I would have shot him. We always talked about a double but never had the chance. Finally, when I’m on top of my son’s bird he decides to fly away. LOL Anyway, high fives abound and my son has his fourth Gobbler in 5 years. 21 and a half pounds, 1 inch spurs, 10 inch beard. I told him how much I appreciated the discipline he showed in holding his fire. Later at the check station we heard a story of a kid who brought in two of them to be checked in and when the Game Warden showed up he told the kid “well, you’re done”. LOL I think the Warden did a good thing not writing him a ticket.
Later that day I took my middle son (11) on his first spring turkey hunt. He had taken a doe and a wood duck the previous fall but the big birds proved elusive. This was also my first time hunting past noon for spring turkey as it is new this year for youth only. I decided to setup near a roost area like fall hunting. Based on wind direction and speed and the fact that I seen them three hens at sunrise, I decided to go back to blind (1). I set out a lone hen decoy along the woods edge 20yds in front of him and we settled in for the wait. I called a little but nothing happened. About an hour and a half before sundown I spotted 5 hens coming across the top of the field behind us. We slithered down. We could hear the hens coming up behind us with their constant purring when this booming GOBBLE lets out. Holy cow man what a gobble. Again another GOBBLE. Jeez. He’s spotted the decoy and now the hens are starting their rowdy raucous towards the bogus stranger. The boy had his gun up and safety off when 5 hens walked right along side and in front of the blind with the gobbler just behind them visible through the brush at the base of our tree. We caught a glimpse of him and WOW what a gobbler. You could have almost spit on him. He must have seen the boys eyes or something cause he started walking away with one little putt. Doggone it they came in too close. The hens still know nothing but walk off with the gobbler. I clucked and purred loudly and all 5 of those hens came back up there for another looksie. 5 heads bobbin again in front of the blind but no gobbler. Then they were gone. I admired him through my binoculars and watched as they seem to want to just go around us to reach the roosting area. We left the gear and scooted to a spot further down hoping they would pass by, but they never did. Youth season was over. I wish I had placed that decoy out in the field more so they wouldn’t have come so close. They usually come from in front of the blind and I was thinking it would lure them in closer to his 20 gauge. That’s huntin I guess. It was a good day!!
Later that day I took my middle son (11) on his first spring turkey hunt. He had taken a doe and a wood duck the previous fall but the big birds proved elusive. This was also my first time hunting past noon for spring turkey as it is new this year for youth only. I decided to setup near a roost area like fall hunting. Based on wind direction and speed and the fact that I seen them three hens at sunrise, I decided to go back to blind (1). I set out a lone hen decoy along the woods edge 20yds in front of him and we settled in for the wait. I called a little but nothing happened. About an hour and a half before sundown I spotted 5 hens coming across the top of the field behind us. We slithered down. We could hear the hens coming up behind us with their constant purring when this booming GOBBLE lets out. Holy cow man what a gobble. Again another GOBBLE. Jeez. He’s spotted the decoy and now the hens are starting their rowdy raucous towards the bogus stranger. The boy had his gun up and safety off when 5 hens walked right along side and in front of the blind with the gobbler just behind them visible through the brush at the base of our tree. We caught a glimpse of him and WOW what a gobbler. You could have almost spit on him. He must have seen the boys eyes or something cause he started walking away with one little putt. Doggone it they came in too close. The hens still know nothing but walk off with the gobbler. I clucked and purred loudly and all 5 of those hens came back up there for another looksie. 5 heads bobbin again in front of the blind but no gobbler. Then they were gone. I admired him through my binoculars and watched as they seem to want to just go around us to reach the roosting area. We left the gear and scooted to a spot further down hoping they would pass by, but they never did. Youth season was over. I wish I had placed that decoy out in the field more so they wouldn’t have come so close. They usually come from in front of the blind and I was thinking it would lure them in closer to his 20 gauge. That’s huntin I guess. It was a good day!!
05-13-2004, 10:09 PM
#5
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location:
Posts: 52
RE: A Day of Youth Hunting!!!!!!
sounds like an awesome day, congrats to your son. When I was about the same age as the younger one Dad used to tell me "It's hard to kill turkeys lying in bed", now I use the same line on my nephews.
