Babtism of a turkey hunter

**slaw** · 04-08-2007, 11:50 AM

Babtism of a turkey hunter

It began a year ago on what my son and I call “hooky day”. Because his grades were very good in school, I let him take the day off from school to go fishing with me. It was early spring and fishing was great to say the least. After catching all the fish we could stand, I heard a couple of gobblers sound off on the next ridge over from us and decided to try and call them in. They responded to my calls and were on their way in . I told my son come over and hide behind the tree with me and wait for the turkeys to come in. Moments later, 2 gobblers showed up gobbling their heads off. Obviously this turned him on as he told me “I think I want to try turkey hunting . This was a moment I’ve been wanting to hear for some time now. Not wanting to push him into hunting , I wanted to let him decide on his own if he wanted try hunting by his own decision. This set the plan in motion for a spring youth hunt for the following year.

A couple weeks before opening day lead us to Bass pro shops for some new hunting gear. I remember when I was first getting into hunting and going with my father to get new stuff was half the fun. We decked him out with new camo from head to toe. He was now set for the hunt. He must have tried his new gear on several times in the next week or so . His enthusiasm was apparent.

We took to the woods the day before the opener to do some scouting. We located a group of birds roosting on a ridge where I had gotten my bird the previous year. This was where I decided was the spot for his first hunt.

Opening morning came with record breaking temperatures down in the 20s. This was discouraging to say the least. I knew it was going to be hard to have the much needed patience needed for hunting turkeys in that kind of weather for all of us. The landowner was going with us with his granddaughter in his lap to observe. His son was going to videotape the hunt. We got set up in the creek bottom well before first light. As daylight approached so did the eruption of gobblers that were roosted on the ridge in front of us. This seemed to take the edge off the bitter cold that we were experiencing. As daylight became more prominent than the darkness, we had gobblers sounding off in every direction. The landowner mad some sweet calls and it wasn’t long before a group of birds were coming in. A lone hen flew into a tree above us which made for a touchy situation as she was there to observe every move we made. So we had to very careful not to spook her before the rest of the birds came in. A group of jakes were the first to arrive. When they got a good look at the decoys they retreated and went away with the rest of the birds following. It was a close call but no cigar for this set-up. The kids were freezing and so was I. We decided to go back to the house and warm up for a bit and watch the film footage of all the turkeys. It wasn’t long before Steven said he was ready to go back out.

As we were approaching or next set up, we seen 2 strutting toms in the field. We tried to work them in but those toms weren’t budging. The 5 of us were on our way to the next spot when we stopped and Ron gave a few cuts and yelps. The loud thunderous sound of 4 gobblers followed. Two creeks separated us from the gobblers. I didn’t think they would cross those barriers , so we crossed one creek and got to where Steven could shoot across the next one. We had to move quick cause they were close. Ron gave a few yelps from his new raspy hen call and they were there in less than a minute. The five jakes came right up next to the creek across from us. Steven had his gun on the shooting stick pointing in the wrong direction as they approached. I whispered to him if he thought he could hold the gun up to swing around and point it at them. He slowly lifted the gun off the rest and did just that. When I seen he had a clear shot , I told him to bust him when he’s ready. A second later, the boom I’d been waiting to hear for a long time was followed by the flopping sound of a downed bird. A bunch of whooping and hollering , high fives and way to goes as I ran down and across the creek to get his turkey. The bird flopped out from under my foot and fell into the creek. In a split second I seen Steven running down the creek embankment when his momentum took him waist high into the water, within arms reach of his bird. He grabbed his trophy and came out of the water saying “oh man!!! This water is cold!” I felt sorry for the young man, but I knew it wasn’t going to be a babtism he would soon forget.

Special thanks go to Ron Cooper who made this all possible.