Pat_Ely

Well we headed up and got there at midnight. No sleep for me. Well my buddy's son turned 12 in Feb so it would be his first hunting experience ever. Well it rained like all get out Friday into Sat. Morning. We got up and trudged down the road at 5am. WE got set up and waited for daylight. Nothing gobbled until around 7am and he was 200 yards from us. We decided to make a move and found the birds in a field, around 150 yards by now in the middle of the field. We waited for them to go over a hill and we took off after them. We finally got caught up and were around 90 yards in front of them. I called a nice longbeard. in and he hung up around 30 yards. I told him to go ahead and shoot, BANG, I jumped up to watch the bird run away. Clean miss, I did have another buddy videoing and when we watched the video you could see him lift up off the gun to look at the bird as he pulled the trigger. Needless to say he was quite disappointed. So back to where we originally started to see if any had moved into the area. As we got about half way back I saw three hens and a Jake enter into the field we were hunting. We waited and then moved up the hill to the edge of the field. We got set up and I started calling. They came alive. They double triple gobbled the whole way in. A nice Long Beard came into view first strutting in like a king. I could see four gobblers behind and running full steam. Well he was just about into range and the other gobblers passed him. AJ saw an opportunity and squeezed off the shot and this time hit him right in the head. NO MISS this time. We ran up and grabbed his bird. It turned out that he had a 5 inch beard with about .5" spurs and weighed 17lbs. All in All it was an awesome hunt.

Pat_Ely

Sorry about that picture is working now.

jepcho

Congrats to him and you on an exciting hunt!!

bullmoose38

Great story Pat! My little cousin shot one Saturday also. It was his first bird. I tried to post a pic but it wouldn't accept it. I will try again later.

Hiawatha

Nice work pat, sounds like you guys had an exciting hunt. oh but pat just because you have a big head don't mean you need to wear two hats EH!

Ryan Tucker

Congrats! What an awesome experience for him.

mauser06

congrats! hes hooked now! 2 shots in one day......man! good job to you.....must be doin somethin right....cant wait for saturday......i hope to get out on the opener......

PA GOBBLER

thats awesome its good to see the kids get lucky and have fun.. now its our turn next sat. woohooooo.. i cant wait.. i hope the weather gets nicer its freakin cold and rain/snow out right now.. [:@]

graybeard 50

congrads AJ, that is a great looking bird. hay dad, do ya think he's hooked? I know my son is, he got his first this year also. theres no better feeling.

Tree climber

congrats. to AJ. "He Done Did Good"