It's a possibility for my 10 year old.

Last week was his spring break. Since he didn't have any games the weekend before or after Spring Break, I promised him I would take him to Florida to try for his Osceola. He's flat eat up with turkey hunting and wants to get his Grand Slam. At this point, he had his Rio and Eastern. He had the Friday off before Spring Break, so we left Friday head East to my parents house in MS. MS season opened that Saturday, so I was hoping we would get a hunt in before we had to leave for Florida on Sunday. Someone had mentioned to me on the drive home that the highest prediction for possible tornados in that area of MS for Saturday was being issued by the National Weather Service. I can tell you if I ever hear that again, I will turn around and go back to TX. Saturday we spent most of the day in a tornado shelter. There were 3 confirmed tornados touched down within 20 miles of my parents home with one as close as 5 miles. So needless to say, we didn't get to hunt that Saturday.

Sunday myself, my son, and my dad loaded up heading to South Florida. Pretty uneventful drive other than I made the mistake of stopping at the Buccee's in Robertsdale, AL. I've been to a lot of Buccee's in my day, but I have NEVER seen one that busy. First time I've ever had to wait for a urinal to open in the men's room. They had multiple people in the parking lot directing traffic. Chaotic was an understatement. Anyway, arrived in South Florida that afternoon and got settled in. Overheard several in camp saying the birds were silent and basically the only way to hunt them was like deer ie have them patterned and wait them out. The outfitter and guides essentially told me the same thing that night. Not how I like hunting turkeys, but I'm not going to guide the guide either.

Monday morning other than tall pine trees I felt like I was in West Texas or Western Oklahoma. The winds were 25-30mph with gusts to 40mph. We couldn't have heard a bird even if they were gobbling. It was also in the upper 40s. Super glad I packed us some heavier hunting clothes, or we would have been cold. Was super proud of my 10 year old. We sat from 7AM until around 11AM when I finally couldn't stand it any more. We didn't hear no see a bird. My dad ended up killing a heck of a bird that morning. His first Osceola. Bird had a 9 or 10" beard with 1 1/2" and 1 5/8" spurs. After my son and I grabbed lunch at the camp, we went back out around 1PM. Saw a jake driving in and lots of fresh tracks on the roads we were hunting. Set up several times until we got to the spot our guide wanted us to sit for the afternoon knowing it was a heavily traveled road. Around 6 PM after my son did some calling on his pot call, I caught movement in the road about 100 yards from us. I told him to set his call down, get his gun, and turn the red dot on. As the bird approached I could see the red head, but no beard. The bird would semi strut, but not go into a full strut. I told my son to hold off that this might be a jake. When the bird finally got to the decoy, he went into full strut. I could see he had a full fan, but still no beard. Finally, when he got around the decoy I could see he had decent spurs on him. I told my son that he was a mature bird, and it was up to him. At this point he and I had sat for over 7 hours and not heard a bird. I was thinking to myself if he passes this bird we might regret it. He didn't. The bird turned to where his fan was between us and him so my son could reposition. When he turned back facing us, my son shot him in full strut at 15 yards. Would have been some good video, but the guides phone had died.

First day and first Osceola for my 10 year old and 78 year old dad.




The outfitter wanted my son to kill a nice tom so bad he was disappointed his bird had beard rot, so he told me to take him back Tuesday morning to try for another bird. My son is as eat up with fishing as he is hunting and said he would rather fish. The outfitter had already arranged for him to fish that Wednesday if we killed our birds, but he told him he would make a call Tuesday morning to see if they could move it up a day. The stocked ponds he had permission for him to fish were in a private community behind a locked gate. Fishing didn't work out, but again he told me to take him back hunting if I wanted. My son said he was happy with his bird and didn't want to take an opportunity from someone else, so we loaded up and headed back to MS Tuesday morning.

The plan was to hunting MS until Friday and head back to Texas to hunt the youth opener. I was hoping we could get an Eastern in that time and then get a Rio on the ground this past weekend. Not sure many 10 year olds have killed all 3 subspecies in less than a week, but in the end we didn't end up pulling it off. We saw a lot of fresh sign in MS and knew the birds were in the areas we were hunting, but we never heard or saw a bird all week. I left it up to my son if he wanted to stay in MS to hunt and fish or head back to Texas for the youth opener. He elected to stay in Mississippi. Saturday morning greeted us to clear skies with no wind. We finally found a bird gobbling. We ended up walking by him that morning on the roost, but in the end it worked out. Bird must have gobbled 50+ times before he strutted in to 20 yards when my son killed him. Really special hunt to see him kill one where I cut my teeth turkey hunting and have my dad there with us to witness it.





As of now, he has killed 3 out of the 4 North American subspecies of the wild turkey, but I'm hoping we can get his single season slam with a Rio here soon. Traditionally the Rio has been the easiest for me, but with my luck it will end up being the hardest. We are scheduled to hunt Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas in April God willing and the weather cooperating. We might try to squeeze an Arkansas hunt in there as well. The plan is to head to Colorado in May to finish out his slam. If those plans fall thru, I'll have to come up with another plan for a Merriam. So far, I've had the best seat in the house to watch his slam take place.



Couldn't think of a better way to spend his Spring Break even if we did log over 2000 miles round trip in the SuperDuty!

Your son is lucky to have a dad like you to take him on this awesome adventures. It would be hard not to be eat up with it with those opportunities. Looks like y'all had a blast and I am sure these are memories he will hold forever as well as you and your dad. Congrats on the birds and thanks for the write up!

Awesome report/story. Thanks for sharing.

One of the very best things you can do for any child his age. All three of you did a great job. Big congrats to you all

Mine got his slam at 11 (not single season, closest he's come is 3/4). I can't imagine something much more fun!!