My nephew is turning 14 in 2 weeks. We haven’t had much time together over the last few years as we are separated by a 4 hour drive and schedules between sports and such keep both my family and my sisters family running pretty wild. I haven’t seen him but once since the covid panic started, and was excited to hear that we would all be at my parents for Easter and birthdays, so I gave him a call. He has his video games, his bike, his fishing stuff, and had nothing to put on his birthday list, so he said to just surprise him with something that sounded adventurous, and that’s exactly what I did. His annual youth sportsman’s license cost me $30 and I told his mom to have him at my mothers house at daybreak on Saturday morning for youth season opening morning.
He and his dad showed up right on time. My brother in law is a great guy, he just hasn’t ever really been exposed to hunting so he is learning a bit as time goes on. So the 3 of us head off to the woods. As soon as we get our camo on and run through the quick checklist of stuff we need (calls, license, decoys, gun, ammo, tick spray, keys, wallet, phone, inhaler (I’m asthmatic)... we stopped and said a quick prayer for fun, safety, and the simple enjoyment of being out in nature for a few minutes to soak up some of gods creation. We left the truck and headed off.
Stop #1 is a ridge where there is always a strut show and lots of fighting. No sign, no noise, no tracks in the mud. This is not a good sign, but I didn’t want to bum the other two out. I did see plenty sign of coyote and bobcat though so that kinda tells the story. I called softly and after a couple minutes of listening to crows and geese I got a bit more aggressive. If a hot bird was coming then this was the spot, and it’s where half of my turkeys have fallen, but no luck. We heard 1 very distant gobble at that spot and it wasn’t in an area we could go after it.
Spot #2 We moved along fairly quickly back to a ridge overlooking the creek. This is my favorite spot in the whole world. Found a couple wing feathers and a spot that looked like it may have had washed out turkey tracks in it. We sat up and I called again. We got an answer, but it was on the far side of the creek and wasn’t moving. I tried everything I knew to try and I really showed off. Clucking, dragging leaves, gobbling, even went as far as to fake a fight. Brother in law was laughing, nephew was doing his best to pay attention to the woods instead of me... BIRD!!! Big Bird!!! Smart bird. Never once did he say a word, he slipped in to about 75 yards, stayed low, and peeked over into the field through thick brush in and around a fallen tree. About all I saw was a bobbing head, but he was way out of range. He didn’t like what he saw and he took off, kinda like a bird will do if there is a lot of hunting pressure. My nephew was fired up, my brother in law couldn’t believe that all my commotion and ruckus actually worked, and we were all excited but a bit let down that the bird hadn’t just ran after the decoys looking to join the fight. On to spot #3
Halfway through a old logging road to spot #3 we jumped up a bird. Relatively sure it was a nesting hen, but still it was turkey #2 for the day. At spot 3 we found a good thick cover of cedars and got sat up and ready for a late morning aggressive call. My grandpa had seen birds regularly headed towards that spot late morning but they crossed off of the property in an open field. All we had to do is turn them and bring them an extra 100 yards further East and we would have a chance. Sure enough, we saw turkeys on the ridge across the road coming down towards my grandpas house. They did exactly what he had described right up to where they normally cross the road. Only this time they didn’t get to cross the road. The field they were in is leased to a farmer who does organic produce and as the turkeys got near the road the semis of chicken crap started rolling in. I guess they use it as fertilizer of some sort, but they ran the turkeys back up into the field, and the stench ran us out of the woods gagging.
By this point we are pretty much done. We ran back up to my moms place and tried calling literally from the front porch, and managed to call in an old tomcat. The morning was over and we all had little stuff to do before the combination Easter and birthday celebration at lunch. Cant win ‘em all, and it’s called hunting instead of killing for a reason... oh well, we had a great morning, and I owe him a serious deer hunt this fall. He has liked a few deer but they have all been yearlings or does. After the shenanigans with turkey hunting I think he is ready to go along just to see the show if nothing else.
I hope y’all had better luck than we did on his first ever turkey hunt, but a morning in the woods is always a good thing.
He and his dad showed up right on time. My brother in law is a great guy, he just hasn’t ever really been exposed to hunting so he is learning a bit as time goes on. So the 3 of us head off to the woods. As soon as we get our camo on and run through the quick checklist of stuff we need (calls, license, decoys, gun, ammo, tick spray, keys, wallet, phone, inhaler (I’m asthmatic)... we stopped and said a quick prayer for fun, safety, and the simple enjoyment of being out in nature for a few minutes to soak up some of gods creation. We left the truck and headed off.
Stop #1 is a ridge where there is always a strut show and lots of fighting. No sign, no noise, no tracks in the mud. This is not a good sign, but I didn’t want to bum the other two out. I did see plenty sign of coyote and bobcat though so that kinda tells the story. I called softly and after a couple minutes of listening to crows and geese I got a bit more aggressive. If a hot bird was coming then this was the spot, and it’s where half of my turkeys have fallen, but no luck. We heard 1 very distant gobble at that spot and it wasn’t in an area we could go after it.
Spot #2 We moved along fairly quickly back to a ridge overlooking the creek. This is my favorite spot in the whole world. Found a couple wing feathers and a spot that looked like it may have had washed out turkey tracks in it. We sat up and I called again. We got an answer, but it was on the far side of the creek and wasn’t moving. I tried everything I knew to try and I really showed off. Clucking, dragging leaves, gobbling, even went as far as to fake a fight. Brother in law was laughing, nephew was doing his best to pay attention to the woods instead of me... BIRD!!! Big Bird!!! Smart bird. Never once did he say a word, he slipped in to about 75 yards, stayed low, and peeked over into the field through thick brush in and around a fallen tree. About all I saw was a bobbing head, but he was way out of range. He didn’t like what he saw and he took off, kinda like a bird will do if there is a lot of hunting pressure. My nephew was fired up, my brother in law couldn’t believe that all my commotion and ruckus actually worked, and we were all excited but a bit let down that the bird hadn’t just ran after the decoys looking to join the fight. On to spot #3
Halfway through a old logging road to spot #3 we jumped up a bird. Relatively sure it was a nesting hen, but still it was turkey #2 for the day. At spot 3 we found a good thick cover of cedars and got sat up and ready for a late morning aggressive call. My grandpa had seen birds regularly headed towards that spot late morning but they crossed off of the property in an open field. All we had to do is turn them and bring them an extra 100 yards further East and we would have a chance. Sure enough, we saw turkeys on the ridge across the road coming down towards my grandpas house. They did exactly what he had described right up to where they normally cross the road. Only this time they didn’t get to cross the road. The field they were in is leased to a farmer who does organic produce and as the turkeys got near the road the semis of chicken crap started rolling in. I guess they use it as fertilizer of some sort, but they ran the turkeys back up into the field, and the stench ran us out of the woods gagging.
By this point we are pretty much done. We ran back up to my moms place and tried calling literally from the front porch, and managed to call in an old tomcat. The morning was over and we all had little stuff to do before the combination Easter and birthday celebration at lunch. Cant win ‘em all, and it’s called hunting instead of killing for a reason... oh well, we had a great morning, and I owe him a serious deer hunt this fall. He has liked a few deer but they have all been yearlings or does. After the shenanigans with turkey hunting I think he is ready to go along just to see the show if nothing else.
I hope y’all had better luck than we did on his first ever turkey hunt, but a morning in the woods is always a good thing.
