megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Had a great weekend with my son taking him on his first turkey hunt as the shooter instead of the observer. We had a great time together in the woods, and he soaked up the basics like a sponge. I walked his little legs off, but he hung in there like a champ. Birds were in their usual patterns for opening weekend- or in other words, tough... Hens weren't ready to breed, but the dominant birds had already formed their harems, and all the larger flocks had broken up.
Found a toad of a bird Friday morning, with the 2nd thickest beard I've ever seen (literally thicker than my wrist) He came by us at 50 yards. That's the first bird I've actually been excited to hunt in the past 5 years. I backed out after he got into a brawl with a nice 3 y/o bird, and we checked the other farms to assess the number of gobblers we had available to hunt. Found a few 2 y/o's here and there, nothing special.
Opening morning we set up across the field where the group of 3 birds with the thick bearded bird were roosted. They pitched down at 6:05, came to our calls, saw the decoys from about 150 yards away, then ran to the right and over the hill. After waiting another 30 minutes, we moved over the hill and found them with 5 or 6 hens... I suspect they must have gotten separated by the severe storms the evening before. We bailed on them to save them for Easter morning, and headed to find other birds. After about 3 miles, 4 hours, and 4 or 5 gobblers later, none of which were willing to leave their hens, we broke for lunch, then headed back out. That afternoon, we got on a bird that free gobbled but never saw, had him come to within 75 yards in the woods marching to our call gobbling, but then he gobbled up his hens and headed off.
Easter morn, we set up about 100 yards from the roosted birds where the thick bearded bird was. The gobblers were split up, so I thought we might have a good chance at the best sounding bird. He gobbled back to us 50 or 60 times on the roost, but went silent when he hit the ground. Meanwhile, we had another bird close the distance from about 600 yards to 200 yards coming while working the other bird, but he too eventually gobbled up hens and went into strut mode in the middle of the field. We again bailed on them to check for a lone 2 y/o elsewhere for Ethan.
We again did our usual loop through the farms, found a nice 2y/o that I thought was alone, spent 45 minutes circling around him to get in front of him, then called while watching him. He looked at us ONCE, and that was it. Unfortunately, he ended up having 3 hens with him, and that was all he could handle himself. After lunch, Ethan wanted to hunt arrowheads with his granddad, so I loaded up with a friend and went to check another farm that I hadn't hunted in a couple years. We saw a couple birds in strut 1/2 way up a large hill, but were accessible from the other side. I didn't bring a gun on this trip, as I hadn't planned on even hunting myself. So I grabbed Ethan's 20g 870 youth, and we looped around, hiked up the hill to where I wanted to set up, then gently bumped a hen back over the rise. My friend was a bit out of breath from the hike up, so I went ahead and moved to the last bodock tree in the field and glassed over the rise. 3 full fans and probably 5 or 6 hens at 25 yards. I watched them for a bit, all 3 looked like 2 y/o birds by their size, so I sat down to watch the show. I was quite content just to have them that close and watch their antics, but eventually one bird broke strut and I saw his spurs- by far the largest I've ever seen on a turkey. So much for watching, I called twice, got him to separate from the other two, and smacked him with the 20g. Got to him and his spurs were just as big as I thought. I even thought the longer spur might break the magic 2" mark, despite such a tiny body.
Hauled him back to my friend back down the hill, and he was equally impressed. When we got back to the house, I measured his spur... 1 7/8 inches.... dangit... I had already killed 2 birds in the past with 1 7/8" spurs, and I was hoping he was going to measure out 2 inches for my personal best. I grabbed the other spur, and immediately realized I had just measured the shorter spur first! With much anticipation, I measured the longer spur... 2 inches!!! I told Ethan just how special a bird like this was to me, and he was just as happy as if he had killed it himself. 11" beard, pretty thick, but only weighed 20lbs. The 2 birds I had killed in the past with 1 7/8" spurs were worn more than this one, and I suspect this fellow didn't get to fight as much to wear them down due to his small frame.
Late that evening, we headed out to put birds on the roost for the following morning. I found a nice 3 y/o bird with 4 hens and 5 jakes in a group and watched them go into the trees at dark... perfect setup location, we had already killed many birds out of the creek wash at the lower end of the field in years past.
We got set up this morning with 2 hens and a jake decoy 12 yards in front of the wash, and we buried ourselves into the creek, with only our eyes and heads visible above the creek edge. The gobbler answered my first call from 150 yards away across the field in the trees, and I didn't even bother calling any more. All 10 birds pitched into the field 75 yards away, and completely ignored the decoys. The big bird strutted and gobbled for 1.5 hours in front of us until one of his hens finally decided to come check us out in response to some very, very quiet purring, and clucking. Once she committed to the dekes, the 5 jakes got the confidence to come into the jake decoy and started fighting with it, purring aggressively the entire time. I asked Ethan if he wanted to take one of the jakes, but he adamantly refused since the gobbler was so close. I thought for certain the gobbler, who was hung up at 40 yards for the past 5 minutes, was going to finally come to within range of Ethan's 20g. After about 5 minutes in the dekes, the lead hen lost interest and headed off to feed. Once she passed the gobbler, he turned and began following her off. Knowing that we had to make the long drive back home and wouldn't have another chance for a new set up, I told Ethan that the gobbler was not going to come in close enough for his gun, and that he needed to decide quickly whether he wanted to come home with a jake or come home with nothing but the memories of the hunt. I suppose that was a no-brainer for a 10 y/o who had never killed a turkey before, and jake kill mode kicked in. We had quite a bit of difficulty getting one of the jakes to separate from the others to make a clean kill on one and not the whole group, but with a lot of aggressive cutting and clucking, finally one peeled off from the other 4 and Ethan bang-flopped him. Of course the other 4 came right back in to fighting purr calls, and the 4 of them began gobbling and fighting with each other and the dead jake in front of us. After a minute, Ethan was ready to go to his bird, so we ran the others off.
So proud of my little man for sticking with a big-boy hunt and getting rewarded in the end!
Oh, and we even had a friend in the ditch with us videoing the entire thing with a 4k camcorder... 56gigs worth of film
Found a toad of a bird Friday morning, with the 2nd thickest beard I've ever seen (literally thicker than my wrist) He came by us at 50 yards. That's the first bird I've actually been excited to hunt in the past 5 years. I backed out after he got into a brawl with a nice 3 y/o bird, and we checked the other farms to assess the number of gobblers we had available to hunt. Found a few 2 y/o's here and there, nothing special.
Opening morning we set up across the field where the group of 3 birds with the thick bearded bird were roosted. They pitched down at 6:05, came to our calls, saw the decoys from about 150 yards away, then ran to the right and over the hill. After waiting another 30 minutes, we moved over the hill and found them with 5 or 6 hens... I suspect they must have gotten separated by the severe storms the evening before. We bailed on them to save them for Easter morning, and headed to find other birds. After about 3 miles, 4 hours, and 4 or 5 gobblers later, none of which were willing to leave their hens, we broke for lunch, then headed back out. That afternoon, we got on a bird that free gobbled but never saw, had him come to within 75 yards in the woods marching to our call gobbling, but then he gobbled up his hens and headed off.
Easter morn, we set up about 100 yards from the roosted birds where the thick bearded bird was. The gobblers were split up, so I thought we might have a good chance at the best sounding bird. He gobbled back to us 50 or 60 times on the roost, but went silent when he hit the ground. Meanwhile, we had another bird close the distance from about 600 yards to 200 yards coming while working the other bird, but he too eventually gobbled up hens and went into strut mode in the middle of the field. We again bailed on them to check for a lone 2 y/o elsewhere for Ethan.
We again did our usual loop through the farms, found a nice 2y/o that I thought was alone, spent 45 minutes circling around him to get in front of him, then called while watching him. He looked at us ONCE, and that was it. Unfortunately, he ended up having 3 hens with him, and that was all he could handle himself. After lunch, Ethan wanted to hunt arrowheads with his granddad, so I loaded up with a friend and went to check another farm that I hadn't hunted in a couple years. We saw a couple birds in strut 1/2 way up a large hill, but were accessible from the other side. I didn't bring a gun on this trip, as I hadn't planned on even hunting myself. So I grabbed Ethan's 20g 870 youth, and we looped around, hiked up the hill to where I wanted to set up, then gently bumped a hen back over the rise. My friend was a bit out of breath from the hike up, so I went ahead and moved to the last bodock tree in the field and glassed over the rise. 3 full fans and probably 5 or 6 hens at 25 yards. I watched them for a bit, all 3 looked like 2 y/o birds by their size, so I sat down to watch the show. I was quite content just to have them that close and watch their antics, but eventually one bird broke strut and I saw his spurs- by far the largest I've ever seen on a turkey. So much for watching, I called twice, got him to separate from the other two, and smacked him with the 20g. Got to him and his spurs were just as big as I thought. I even thought the longer spur might break the magic 2" mark, despite such a tiny body.
Hauled him back to my friend back down the hill, and he was equally impressed. When we got back to the house, I measured his spur... 1 7/8 inches.... dangit... I had already killed 2 birds in the past with 1 7/8" spurs, and I was hoping he was going to measure out 2 inches for my personal best. I grabbed the other spur, and immediately realized I had just measured the shorter spur first! With much anticipation, I measured the longer spur... 2 inches!!! I told Ethan just how special a bird like this was to me, and he was just as happy as if he had killed it himself. 11" beard, pretty thick, but only weighed 20lbs. The 2 birds I had killed in the past with 1 7/8" spurs were worn more than this one, and I suspect this fellow didn't get to fight as much to wear them down due to his small frame.
Late that evening, we headed out to put birds on the roost for the following morning. I found a nice 3 y/o bird with 4 hens and 5 jakes in a group and watched them go into the trees at dark... perfect setup location, we had already killed many birds out of the creek wash at the lower end of the field in years past.
We got set up this morning with 2 hens and a jake decoy 12 yards in front of the wash, and we buried ourselves into the creek, with only our eyes and heads visible above the creek edge. The gobbler answered my first call from 150 yards away across the field in the trees, and I didn't even bother calling any more. All 10 birds pitched into the field 75 yards away, and completely ignored the decoys. The big bird strutted and gobbled for 1.5 hours in front of us until one of his hens finally decided to come check us out in response to some very, very quiet purring, and clucking. Once she committed to the dekes, the 5 jakes got the confidence to come into the jake decoy and started fighting with it, purring aggressively the entire time. I asked Ethan if he wanted to take one of the jakes, but he adamantly refused since the gobbler was so close. I thought for certain the gobbler, who was hung up at 40 yards for the past 5 minutes, was going to finally come to within range of Ethan's 20g. After about 5 minutes in the dekes, the lead hen lost interest and headed off to feed. Once she passed the gobbler, he turned and began following her off. Knowing that we had to make the long drive back home and wouldn't have another chance for a new set up, I told Ethan that the gobbler was not going to come in close enough for his gun, and that he needed to decide quickly whether he wanted to come home with a jake or come home with nothing but the memories of the hunt. I suppose that was a no-brainer for a 10 y/o who had never killed a turkey before, and jake kill mode kicked in. We had quite a bit of difficulty getting one of the jakes to separate from the others to make a clean kill on one and not the whole group, but with a lot of aggressive cutting and clucking, finally one peeled off from the other 4 and Ethan bang-flopped him. Of course the other 4 came right back in to fighting purr calls, and the 4 of them began gobbling and fighting with each other and the dead jake in front of us. After a minute, Ethan was ready to go to his bird, so we ran the others off.
So proud of my little man for sticking with a big-boy hunt and getting rewarded in the end!
Oh, and we even had a friend in the ditch with us videoing the entire thing with a 4k camcorder... 56gigs worth of film
