pledbetter
Well-Known Member
Sorry im just now getting around to posting this story, work has been crazy lately
Now , anyone who knows me also knows that i LOVE springtime turkey hunting. I also love introducing people to the experience of spring gobblers , especially a kid!!!
My stepdaughter Alana , who is 7 years old has a passion for the outdoors , but this child has developed an obsession with turkey hunting that i couldn't be more proud of , lol.
She told me right after her 7th birthday that she was big enough to shoot her own turkey now and that she wanted to try this year. Now , Alana is a pretty small little girl so i was worried about letting shoot a shotgun and possibly scaring her. But , much like her mother, this little girl is as stubborn as they come. She insisted she could do it , call me a bad daddy or whatever you want but i figured, ok lets just see what she can do. I was impressed that she handled her mama's 870 youth model pretty good. Still, i was worried because she is so small but this kid was really determined that she was gonna kill her own turkey, lol.
Let's just say im pretty damn stubborn too and come hell or high water this precious little girl was at least gonna get the chance to be there on the juvenile hunt and at least witness the world come to life in the spring turkey woods. I really didn't expect what was in our future!!!
I had made up my mind , if she wants to do this , we're gonna do this the right way. The weekend before the juvenile hunt i told her to get her boots on , it's time to go learn how to kill a turkey. The child was actually in the truck waiting on her mom and me before i could even get my boots on lol.
So we got to our lease and i walked her over every hill and through every field on the farm. I showed her tons of deer and turkey sign. She was hanging on to every word that came from my mouth lol. This little girl was loving every second of it and that just fired me up!!!
Ok , so Saturday morning finally got here and i seriously thought we'd be on our way to get breakfast an hour after daylight because of how cold it was. I even asked her again if she really wanted to go or was it to cold for her. Her response was lets go shoot a turkey lol.
We got to the lease a little later than i like but wasn't worried because all i really wanted was for her to maybe hear a gobble or two and maybe get lucky enough to see a bird strut and show off for her. To me that's what this time of year is about. Seeing a big mature tom in all his majesty and there's nothing like the look on a kid's face when they hear that first loud gobble of the morning.
So we take off walking up the hill towards a spot where Alana's mom , aka huntinprettier, killed her first turkey three years ago. The whole walk i was thinking, how cool would it be if she managed to kill her first bird in the same spot as her mom , lol. Buuuut i knew better than to get my hopes up. I mean seriously, here i am with a 7 year old that bounces around like a rubber ball and her mom who has ADHD so bad that it scares me at times, lol. Oh and btw , we were gonna sit under a cedar tree, no blind, no decoys , no anything except a prayer sent upstairs to say thanks and to pleeeease let us just hear some birds.
Well about half way to the tree i had picked out , my prayers were answered when the ridge directly across from us exploded with gobbles! Seriously , when that first bird sounded off , it was chaos on that little ridge top. This was one of those times i dream of when im hunting , i counted at least 4 different gobblers. And they never shut up , then the hens started chattering and it sounded like the NWTF Convention was on top of that hill!!! We finally snuck our way into a small little cedar thicket on our hillside and i got to see Alana's eyes and her big smile when she said ooooo that's a bunch of turkeys, lol.
That was it for me , it was already the perfect hunt and the turkeys we're still in the trees , lol. That moment will always be a cherished memory of mine and i hope hers too.
Then it happened, 150 yards to our left a loud gobble that actually caused me to jump, lol. My mind started going full blast then , get her shooting stick out , get her turned this way , double check the gun , is the scope turned on , i gotta get my calls out , where's my mouth call , oh yea i was chewing on it...people I'm here to say , I've never ever been so nervous and excited in my life!!!
Soft call a couple times, he cuts me off. Then i'm thinking oh no , i can call this turkey to us but what happens when he gets here and she can't do the deed!?!?!
Nevermind that cause here he comes, he flew down and landed 75 yards away directly down hill from Alana's gun barrel!!! I almost choked on my call lol.
No way this is really happening is all i can think , then from the ridge across from us another tom comes flying in and as soon as he hit the ground he was in full strut and gobbling hard.
I really was amazed at what was going on right in our faces and then i realized, bird number 1 is steadily headed up the hill to us. Oh dear Lord please let this bird keep coming!
At about 60 yards i told her to find him in the scope, do NOT touch the trigger til i say so, and to pleeeease be still. At first she sees him and im thinking oh yea 30 more yards please please please. He makes it to 45 and i she says i can't see him anymore . I thought i was gonna die right there. Then i realized it was her shooting stick, i told her to let it fall but she had to hold the gun up by herself. I seriously wanted to cry , it just wasn't gonna happen. She was struggling with the gun when she finally cradled the butt under her arm so she could see through the scope, i thought oh no this ain't good and grabbed the stock. The kid was determined that she was killing that turkey , well by this time he was at 35 yards and had noticed our movement but it was to late for him!!!
She said "Phillip i see his head" ,
"Pull the trigger baby" and then the celebration started!!!
I laughed, i cried like a baby , and i bet anyone within a mile could hear us lol.
I still can't believe how it all went down , but i do know how lucky i was to share another perfect morning with the love of my life and our little turkey hunter.
Btw her bird had a 9" beard and 1" spurs , all the pics are on an earlier post huntinprettier made , i just wanted to share my side of the story...
Oh and i killed a double beard on the same farm this past Wednesday if anyone is interested lol.
Now , anyone who knows me also knows that i LOVE springtime turkey hunting. I also love introducing people to the experience of spring gobblers , especially a kid!!!
My stepdaughter Alana , who is 7 years old has a passion for the outdoors , but this child has developed an obsession with turkey hunting that i couldn't be more proud of , lol.
She told me right after her 7th birthday that she was big enough to shoot her own turkey now and that she wanted to try this year. Now , Alana is a pretty small little girl so i was worried about letting shoot a shotgun and possibly scaring her. But , much like her mother, this little girl is as stubborn as they come. She insisted she could do it , call me a bad daddy or whatever you want but i figured, ok lets just see what she can do. I was impressed that she handled her mama's 870 youth model pretty good. Still, i was worried because she is so small but this kid was really determined that she was gonna kill her own turkey, lol.
Let's just say im pretty damn stubborn too and come hell or high water this precious little girl was at least gonna get the chance to be there on the juvenile hunt and at least witness the world come to life in the spring turkey woods. I really didn't expect what was in our future!!!
I had made up my mind , if she wants to do this , we're gonna do this the right way. The weekend before the juvenile hunt i told her to get her boots on , it's time to go learn how to kill a turkey. The child was actually in the truck waiting on her mom and me before i could even get my boots on lol.
So we got to our lease and i walked her over every hill and through every field on the farm. I showed her tons of deer and turkey sign. She was hanging on to every word that came from my mouth lol. This little girl was loving every second of it and that just fired me up!!!
Ok , so Saturday morning finally got here and i seriously thought we'd be on our way to get breakfast an hour after daylight because of how cold it was. I even asked her again if she really wanted to go or was it to cold for her. Her response was lets go shoot a turkey lol.
We got to the lease a little later than i like but wasn't worried because all i really wanted was for her to maybe hear a gobble or two and maybe get lucky enough to see a bird strut and show off for her. To me that's what this time of year is about. Seeing a big mature tom in all his majesty and there's nothing like the look on a kid's face when they hear that first loud gobble of the morning.
So we take off walking up the hill towards a spot where Alana's mom , aka huntinprettier, killed her first turkey three years ago. The whole walk i was thinking, how cool would it be if she managed to kill her first bird in the same spot as her mom , lol. Buuuut i knew better than to get my hopes up. I mean seriously, here i am with a 7 year old that bounces around like a rubber ball and her mom who has ADHD so bad that it scares me at times, lol. Oh and btw , we were gonna sit under a cedar tree, no blind, no decoys , no anything except a prayer sent upstairs to say thanks and to pleeeease let us just hear some birds.
Well about half way to the tree i had picked out , my prayers were answered when the ridge directly across from us exploded with gobbles! Seriously , when that first bird sounded off , it was chaos on that little ridge top. This was one of those times i dream of when im hunting , i counted at least 4 different gobblers. And they never shut up , then the hens started chattering and it sounded like the NWTF Convention was on top of that hill!!! We finally snuck our way into a small little cedar thicket on our hillside and i got to see Alana's eyes and her big smile when she said ooooo that's a bunch of turkeys, lol.
That was it for me , it was already the perfect hunt and the turkeys we're still in the trees , lol. That moment will always be a cherished memory of mine and i hope hers too.
Then it happened, 150 yards to our left a loud gobble that actually caused me to jump, lol. My mind started going full blast then , get her shooting stick out , get her turned this way , double check the gun , is the scope turned on , i gotta get my calls out , where's my mouth call , oh yea i was chewing on it...people I'm here to say , I've never ever been so nervous and excited in my life!!!
Soft call a couple times, he cuts me off. Then i'm thinking oh no , i can call this turkey to us but what happens when he gets here and she can't do the deed!?!?!
Nevermind that cause here he comes, he flew down and landed 75 yards away directly down hill from Alana's gun barrel!!! I almost choked on my call lol.
No way this is really happening is all i can think , then from the ridge across from us another tom comes flying in and as soon as he hit the ground he was in full strut and gobbling hard.
I really was amazed at what was going on right in our faces and then i realized, bird number 1 is steadily headed up the hill to us. Oh dear Lord please let this bird keep coming!
At about 60 yards i told her to find him in the scope, do NOT touch the trigger til i say so, and to pleeeease be still. At first she sees him and im thinking oh yea 30 more yards please please please. He makes it to 45 and i she says i can't see him anymore . I thought i was gonna die right there. Then i realized it was her shooting stick, i told her to let it fall but she had to hold the gun up by herself. I seriously wanted to cry , it just wasn't gonna happen. She was struggling with the gun when she finally cradled the butt under her arm so she could see through the scope, i thought oh no this ain't good and grabbed the stock. The kid was determined that she was killing that turkey , well by this time he was at 35 yards and had noticed our movement but it was to late for him!!!
She said "Phillip i see his head" ,
"Pull the trigger baby" and then the celebration started!!!
I laughed, i cried like a baby , and i bet anyone within a mile could hear us lol.
I still can't believe how it all went down , but i do know how lucky i was to share another perfect morning with the love of my life and our little turkey hunter.
Btw her bird had a 9" beard and 1" spurs , all the pics are on an earlier post huntinprettier made , i just wanted to share my side of the story...
Oh and i killed a double beard on the same farm this past Wednesday if anyone is interested lol.
