So I hear that hunting turkey is like hunting miniature elk. I thought I would share a turkey hunting experience I'm going to call training for my elk hunt. Here it is,
Missouri's youth Turkey Season started today. I asked my daughter if she was interested, she is pretty shy, and didn't give me a solid answer, but mainly she didn't say a firm no. I decided that she was old enough to give it a try. I purchased her tag, and showed it to her. She had a huge grin and was excited. My smallest shotgun I have is a 20 gauge, I borrowed a friends H&R single shot .410, purchased some 3" #4 shells, and we were set. Yesterday, we took the gun out, patterned it, and made sure she was familiar and understood its operation. She did well, once she learned how to manage the recoil, and shot it enough to be comfortable and I was confident in her ability.
I woke her up this morning about 5am, she dressed up in her camo clothing, we ate breakfast, and we were ready. A local turkey hunting friend was excited to setup behind us and call one into where we would be setting. He was excited to get to the turkey woods, and practice up before normal season started in about 10 days.
We were in the woods at our location just as light started to embrace the woods and the wilderness became awake. We called and called, never heard anything that even sounded close. After about an hour of waiting at that location, we packed up, hiked the perimeter of the field. We located a flock of about 9 birds a good distance away, maybe 8-900 yards away. The three of us, circled around the backside of some thick drainages trying to get in with out spooking our prize. We set up about 100 yards away, called about 25 minutes with no response. I'm unsure if they couldn't hear us due to the wind, if they wouldn't cross the thick brush, creek, and fence between us, but either way, that spot failed.
We worked our way, another 100 yards around to a entrance between the two fields. We could now hear the Toms very close by. We moved in very slowly, and quietly, keeping a sharp eye looking for movement. We spotted the hens about 100 yards to our south west. We then heard the Toms about maybe 50 yards to the southeast. Grady, my turkey hunting calling buddy, belly crawled about 10 yards and put up the jake decoy. There was just the slightest hill between us and the heard gobblers. Rachel and I sat at the edge of the field, just barely in the brush. I put my Kifaru Xray between her legs to set the shotgun on to help hold it up while we would probably have to wait for them to come in. Grady had crawled back, and went about 15 yards behind us. He was running a mouth call, and ripped off a few yelps. I'd say less than 90 seconds the Tom came straight at that decoy after Grady yelped, with three more Toms tailing him, to check out the new hen they heard and to see who this new punk in their field was. I saw all four in full strut, and all had beards. I told Rachel that all the birds was legal and for her to take whatever one she liked. She aimed, squeezed the trigger and laid the bird out. She made an excellent shot and the bird dropped instantly. The other Toms didn't know what to think. I hoped up and went in to check out the bird, she did great and I couldn't be a more proud father. The bird had two beards, one 10" long, 1 1/4' spurs, and weighed in at the taxidermist shop at 19 pounds.
On to pictures, did I mentioned I'm proud. Oh yeah, now I know why I need a single shot .410 shotgun. Before today I always liked the idea of cheap 20 gauge ammo over the .410, now between my daughter and younger son, I see the huge reason why I need a .410 in my arsenal. Thanks for looking
Untitled by
redmech, on Flickr
Untitled by
redmech, on Flickr
Untitled by
redmech, on Flickr
Untitled by
redmech, on Flickr
Untitled by
redmech, on Flickr
