1st Turkey

Backstory: Growing up my dad wasn’t into hunting much but turkeys. He took me from the time I could walk. I cut my teeth hunting public Easterns in Mississippi. I enjoy a lot of different hunting, but if I was told I could only choose one the rest of my life to hunt wild turkeys would be given a lot of consideration. So fast forward to my son getting old enough to hunt. He’s flat eat up with deer hunting, but like most kids he always wants to go with dad. So, I finally took him turkey hunting last year in between all the spring sports and fishing we did. Did I mention he’s eat up with fishing too? Anyway, his first hunt was about as picture perfect as you could want one without I’m killing a bird. The bird must have gobbled 350-400 times with us getting to see him gobble around 300 of those. He strutted in to 18 yards before he finally saw my son move. Bad on dad because at the time my son was thinking one bullet like his deer rifle and not lots of pellets in a shot gun pattern. He loves to be precise when shooting.

With that and talking to some friends as eat up turkey hunting as myself, I had a friend build me a Mossberg 510 Bantam with Fast Fire 3 mounted on top shooting 15/16oz of TSS #9.5’s thru it. For Spring Break this year, my son wanted to come see my parents in MS to work in the garden with my dad and fish. When dad suggested we take him turkey hunting since Youth season in MS was open, I cringed thinking about how tight lipped these Easterns are compared to Rios and the cold morning forecasted for this week.

My mom ended up having a medical issue on Thursday (she’s fine) which had us leave on our trip earlier than expected. The kids had games until Sunday, but we decided to skip and leave on Saturday to check on mom and see if I could help my dad. On the drive in, I meet up with my buddy to pick up the gun and ammo. Flat amazed at how light this gun is. It feels half as light as my youth model 20ga I built to hunt with. Plus the stock actually fits his small LOP. My buddy told me once I carried this, I’d sell my 20ga. Sunday it flat poured all day. After the rain, it got plenty chilly on Monday. He, dad, and I went to listen for birds on a spot dad has permission to hunt while a friend of dad’s went to listen on his property where the week bird they had a bird hammering. One bird at the spot we were at gobbled a hand full of time, but was on the neighbors property we can’t hunt. Dad’s friend heard nothing. That afternoon we shot his new gun. I didn’t want to take him hunting until we had shot his gun, and he understood how the pattern spread out to avoid our mistake last year. We got that accomplished. I felt confident in what I saw at 30 yards. He said the gun kicked about like his .22! He was all in.

Tuesday morning rolled around with a 37F temp on the truck. We decided to go to dad’s friends spot even though he heard no birds the day before. I discovered I didn’t bring the right hunting clothing. I won’t go into details, but we got on two birds with one gobbling more than most Easterns do. Had a hen come in to us and then feed towards the bird gobbling. As you experienced turkey hunters know, no more gobbling. By the time we got home, I had to take a hot shower to get rid of the chill. I’m glad I brought the right gear for him. He never got cold. He told me during the hunt when I was explaining I went on a lot of hunts in MS not even hearing a bird much less seeing one to lift his spirits. He told me it was just nice being in the outdoors that he knew most kids at his school don’t get to do this. Made me poke my chest out a little that he seems to get “it”!

This morning rolls around and it’s 34F in the truck l, but clear and still. I was hoping the birds would gobble better this morning. I thru in an extra sweatshirt for good measure. We decided to go back to dad’s friend’s place again where we were on the birds the day before. What I haven’t mentioned yet, is both dad and his friend love to sit around talking and drinking coffee. Not the greatest combo for keeping the spirts of an 8 year old up when getting up so early and waiting for the sun to come up. Dad and literally argue about this, but I agree he’s being a nice host and we should be respectful. So we go sit in the truck for a good 45 minutes before the first bird even remotely chirps. What’s even more funny is dad’s friend was tired of waiting on us at his house and is sitting by a tree down at the creek where we get out to listen for birds.

To be continued……

Sounds like a good time shaping up in the Sip.

Excuse the typos. Posting on a phone is a pain. Back to the hunt…..

I mentioned we drive into the property as the birds generally roost at the back of the property near a creek in some of the best looking hardwoods I’ve seen in MS in a while. So we always drive in thru some plantation lines that were recently burnt and has a couple of green patches in it. Time finally rolls around for us to get out and listen. We walk several hundred yards from the truck toward the creek bottom and op on top of a ridge before it drops off into the creek to listen. I hear a couple of different gobbles, but there aren’t on the creek and I’m not familiar enough with the property to know if they are on or off this property. Have I mentioned yet that dad and his friend are both hard of hearing? 40 years for both in the construction industry will do that. They both wear hearing aids, but I can’t tell if it helps or not. Anyway, neither heard the birds I can hear. I wait a few then let out an owl call. A bird hammers in the middle of my owl call. I can tell the bird is behind me towards the truck and close, but exactly which direction and how close I have no clue. Neither dad nor his friend heard the bird. I tell them I heard one back towards the truck to listen next time I hit the owl call. I wait and do another owl call. Te bird must have been facing away the first time because this time he sounds like he’s on top of us. I think he’s right beside the truck to the point the truck might spook him. Well, dad’s friend takes off on almost a sprint to the bird telling us he knows right where he’s at. I tell dad he’s going to run under the bird and spook him off the roost like he did a bird yesterday morning. He tells me to catch him and tell him the bird is close. I can’t speed walk fast enough to catch him and don’t want to run making a ton of noise. Finally I just let out an owl call hoping the bird will gobble, and he will stop! At this point we are right beside the truck. I let out a hoot and the bird hammers. He’s within 200 yards of the truck but up on the line ridge off the side of a green field we drive thru at dark thirty. Dad’s friend luckily hears him and throws on the breaks. He points and says he’s right here. I laugh inside and shake my head.

At this point we were all on a 4-wheeler bridge over a small creek with the 4-wheeler trail heading towards the bird, but the creek cut back between where the bird was roosted and where we’d set up. I was worried the bird would not cross or hang up at the creek, but also knew getting close to the creek would risk him being able to see us from the roost. Getting an 8 year old set up and walking thru the woods isn’t so quiet! We decided to set a hen and Jake decoy in the road we are on between where dad and his friend sit down behind us and the tree I want to get to with my son. It’s a gamble, but I’ve hunt Easterns enough to know we need to be able to shoot across the creek if he won’t cross it. We get to the tree and sat down. I don’t hear the bird pitch out of the tree or alarm cluck, so I’m hoping we are good. However, I haven’t heard him gobble since I hooted not had he gobbled in the 5 or so minutes we’ve all been sitting down.

I wait another 5 minutes hoping dad or his friend will at least call behind us to let the bird know some “turkeys” are close. I know how well these birds can pin point sound, so I really don’t want to do the calling. Not a peep from them, so I decide to do some soft yelps and clicks on my favorite pot call. The bird hammers, and he’s close!! I decide I’m not calling any more as close as we are hoping the dad or his friends will take the cue to call. Shortly birds start pitching out of the trees. I see two or three birds pitch into the green field just across the creek from us. They make a new line to the tree my son and are are at. I finally realize it’s 3 jakes! I tell my son he’s going to have to be as still as a statue that they are going to get in our lap. Before they get to the creek I see the longbeard pitch into the green field as well with a hen. The jakes jump the creek and keep coming. The longbeard is behind them sorta coming on the same path. The hen breaks off from the pack and goes to our right. The jakes get within 5 yards of us before they see the decoys being us and go to investigate. The road we walked in on with the decoys in it is actually right behind the tree we are sitting at and runs/bends around to our right. The hen is now on the road walking our way as well. The longbeard is directly in front of us staying in one spot in full strut. He must have stayed in this one spot for 30 min or so while all of this is going on. He was at about 35 yards but always behind a pin tree in front of us or a lot of brush I just wasn’t comfortable letting my son shoot thru. I’m not sure exactly what the hen and jakes dude behind us, but I knew the hen got close enough to our tree I could have grab her at one point. Finally the hen and jakes I guess get disinterested in the decoys and walk the 4-wheeler trail behind us back to our right and around to the longbeard. He never came off his strutting spot or out behind the tree for a clear shot this entire time.

The hens and jakes are now behind the longbeard from us. They are feeding to our left and up the hill toward the green field. The long beard finally goes to our left enough for a clear shot. I know it’s now or never for a shot. I ask my son if the red dot is on his head. He tells me yes. I tell him when I get him to stretch his neck he has to shoot him. I yelp, he stretches his neck, BOOM, and the rest is history.

Bird was 20 pounds 6oz, 9 3/8” beard, 1 1/16” spurs. Pretty special hunt. Not much my dad loves more than turkey hunting but his family. He’s almost quit hunting due to a bad knee and not being able to walk like he once could. He almost broke down on me in the woods after my son killed the bird telling me he had asked the good Lord to give him one more good hunt to see his grandson kill his first bird. Higher power in the woods with us that morning. Kid has ice water in his veins!! Had jakes and a hen within 5 yards before we could get a shot on the longbeard. Super proud of him. Not sure at that age I could have remained that still.

Knowing the cold front with rain was blowing in this morning and we wouldn’t be able to hunt, he wanted to get up early again on Thursday to go hunting. I won’t go into great detail, but we went back to dad’s friend’s land. I think dad and his friend was the most excited over Garrett killing his bird than he and I were. Anyway, two different birds were hammering on the creek we intended to hunt the morning before. We split up, but not before dad’s friend ram under another bird and spooked him off the roost. Dad, my son, and I ended up getting on what I think was the boss bird. He gobbled quite a few times. I never could see the bird but could hear him drumming. I could see all the hens and other gobblers with him. My son said he could see him gobbling and in full strut. The birds got to about 70-80 yards. Still an awesome hunt!

Excellent

Great story! Fun times.

I've got three boys under 5 years old. Can't wait to take them turkey hunting!

Thanks. We are headed out this weekend for TX Youth Opener then then the OK Youth Opener in two weeks. If he can get a Rio on the ground, I'm going to take him North for a Merriam and try to get 3/4 of his Grand Slam down before he turns 9!

If he gets a Merriam you might as well get him to FL

That's an awesome story and so cool for your pops to get to experience that with G.

Great story, great ending! Congrats to the young man and to you dad!

Extremely special hunt!!! Memories like that can never be erased... Congratulations to the hunters.

No doubt. We just won’t get it done this year. Spring break next year!

X2...what a great story!

Well, I put two nice Rios in front of him this weekend. Birds came off the roost and went into full strut in the field we were set up in Saturday AM. They strutted from 75-50 yards all the way inside 20 yards. I keep telling him to pick one out and shoot it. Finally the hens with the birds pitched out into the field, and the two strutters went back to them. I asked him why he didn't shoot, and he told me he didn't want to kill two with one shot. He now knows that's not an issue as long as he has 4 tags left.

Birds are still really henned up around Sweetwater, TX. We had a great time even though he didn't kill a bird. He was wanting to find a shed all weekend and finally found one before we left on Sunday.

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awesome congrats!

That is awesome. I would have given anything to have my old man live a few years longer and hunt with my son. Great memories!

I hope all your Miss folks are alright after this weather.

Amazing story!

Congrats to both of you for a hunt that will always be remembered!

Good times.

Awesome story and awesome bird! Congrats