N80
Super Member
Here is a picture of my daughter with her first turkey that she got yesterday morning (story to follow):
My daughter is 14 and is not an avid hunter, but she has been a few times. My dad has taken her turkey hunting several times and the first time they went he called up 8 turkeys and she missed! She handled the disappointment just fine, but even though she is not a big hunter, she does have a serious type-A personality, and it still bothers her that she missed that time. She even told me that she'd rather not go than to miss another one! (Of course I explained to her that that was not the nature of turkey hunting. If you can't handle getting beat by a turkey, you really do need to stay home because if you plan on turkey hunting you're going to lose more than you win!)
In any case, I took her yesterday morning and we went to our favorite listening spot. As is often the case turkeys started gobbling down and across the creek off of my property. It is usually hard to get them on my place when they roost off it. After calling for a while and getting no answers, we headed across the dam up into the woods. We settled down and the ones across the creek started answering my calls.....but they were gobbling at everything (crows, owls, etc) and they were a long way away so I still wasn't optimistic. Then they hushed up and I figured they has flown down. So we waited and waited. Called some more but got no answers.
I noticed she was fidgeting a little and I was about ready to call it quits. I whispered to her that a good turkey hunter would stay put for hours waiting on these birds and that even if they had flown down somewhere else they'd probably come back here. I also noticed she was shifting the gun around to her left a little. I didn't know it at the time but she heard something coming up out of the valley towards us from our left. Well, I was just ready to stand up when I decided to give one final call.
When I did, two big toms gobbled so close I couldn't believe it. They were coming up from the valley and we couldn't see them. Then I saw her easing the gun up. I thought she was making her move too soon, but she could see them coming now. So, she had the gun up when the first one's head popped up. Then a second one came up to its right. The first one was behind a log with nothing but head and neck showing. Fine shot for an expert but I wanted a better shot for her so I told her to wait. It took two more steps and I told her to shoot. She lined things up and just dropped him in one shot.
She was very excited and so was I, of course. It weighed 18 pounds and had a 10" beard and 1" spurs. Nice bird. I carried it part of the way out, but she carried it the rest of the way.
So far, turkey season has been a bust for my dad and me. Not many on our place, weekends have been cold and rainy. But, this makes all that okay! Calling one up for her is better than me getting the limit.
I consider myself a fair turkey hunter and a so-so caller. I usually get 1 or 2 each spring. But yesterday, even though we did some things right and the calling was apparently to their liking, luck was really with us. First, I was just about to walk away. Second, they came straight to us, just to her left (perfect) and third, they could not see us at all until they got up the hill so we had no chance to spook them as they came up. By the time we could see them, they were in range.
In any case, if you've read this far, you'll get a kick out of this. As we were walking back to the cabin, she asked me if I would post a picture of her with the turkey on 'the tractor website'.
My daughter is 14 and is not an avid hunter, but she has been a few times. My dad has taken her turkey hunting several times and the first time they went he called up 8 turkeys and she missed! She handled the disappointment just fine, but even though she is not a big hunter, she does have a serious type-A personality, and it still bothers her that she missed that time. She even told me that she'd rather not go than to miss another one! (Of course I explained to her that that was not the nature of turkey hunting. If you can't handle getting beat by a turkey, you really do need to stay home because if you plan on turkey hunting you're going to lose more than you win!)
In any case, I took her yesterday morning and we went to our favorite listening spot. As is often the case turkeys started gobbling down and across the creek off of my property. It is usually hard to get them on my place when they roost off it. After calling for a while and getting no answers, we headed across the dam up into the woods. We settled down and the ones across the creek started answering my calls.....but they were gobbling at everything (crows, owls, etc) and they were a long way away so I still wasn't optimistic. Then they hushed up and I figured they has flown down. So we waited and waited. Called some more but got no answers.
I noticed she was fidgeting a little and I was about ready to call it quits. I whispered to her that a good turkey hunter would stay put for hours waiting on these birds and that even if they had flown down somewhere else they'd probably come back here. I also noticed she was shifting the gun around to her left a little. I didn't know it at the time but she heard something coming up out of the valley towards us from our left. Well, I was just ready to stand up when I decided to give one final call.
When I did, two big toms gobbled so close I couldn't believe it. They were coming up from the valley and we couldn't see them. Then I saw her easing the gun up. I thought she was making her move too soon, but she could see them coming now. So, she had the gun up when the first one's head popped up. Then a second one came up to its right. The first one was behind a log with nothing but head and neck showing. Fine shot for an expert but I wanted a better shot for her so I told her to wait. It took two more steps and I told her to shoot. She lined things up and just dropped him in one shot.
She was very excited and so was I, of course. It weighed 18 pounds and had a 10" beard and 1" spurs. Nice bird. I carried it part of the way out, but she carried it the rest of the way.
So far, turkey season has been a bust for my dad and me. Not many on our place, weekends have been cold and rainy. But, this makes all that okay! Calling one up for her is better than me getting the limit.
I consider myself a fair turkey hunter and a so-so caller. I usually get 1 or 2 each spring. But yesterday, even though we did some things right and the calling was apparently to their liking, luck was really with us. First, I was just about to walk away. Second, they came straight to us, just to her left (perfect) and third, they could not see us at all until they got up the hill so we had no chance to spook them as they came up. By the time we could see them, they were in range.
In any case, if you've read this far, you'll get a kick out of this. As we were walking back to the cabin, she asked me if I would post a picture of her with the turkey on 'the tractor website'.
