Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Kids at the Campfire Mothers Day Gobbler (long winded)

It was a great weekend with the kids. Turkey hunt aside. Weather was great, kids had a blast and I got to teach them some outdoor "stuff" and some life lessons. Not to mention, it was my daughters first time in the woods, that she remembers. I took her when she was 4 but she hadn't wanted to go again until this week. She's 11 now.

They got to skip school on Friday and we headed out on a 4 hour treck. We arrived at the place we stayed, got our gear situated, and headed to the farm to set up and try some hunting.

Friday afternoon we set up a blind at the bottom of a big maple/oak ridge I call "roosting ridge." The birds really like that spot for some reason. They either come down the ridge on the side we can hunt, or they go the other way where we can't hunt. It's a totally crap shoot, but usually a lot of turkey talk, so it's exciting none the less.

So, we set up the blind, went over some rules for hunting the next morning. Then I walked them around the farm to show them the lay of the land, where the turkeys like to go, where we can't hunt and why....normal stuff. Jack has been in the woods a fair amount with me and knows how it all works. Kennedy was excited and taking it all in.

Saturday morning we got into the blind at 4:45 am and waited a bit for the sun to come up, and the turkeys erupted all over the place. Well, all over except where we were. I suspect there was a bit too much movement by us in the early morning excitement. Noise usually shuts them down, even if they're there. We had a hen work her way down the ridge to within 20 feet of us, then off to the south to a swamp. We all thought that was pretty cool!

Shortly after 6am, we finally got a gobbler to talk to us, but he was across a 40ac pine plantation, and a road. Jack and I had confidence though, since that's exactly what happened last year and it worked to perfection. Didn't happen this time. He hung up at the road about 200 yards from us.

The kids wanted me to break out and go after him, but I decided to let him wander off and we would sneak out of this spot and hunt somewhere else. It turned out to be a good move.

Then, we hunted "Oak Ridge", which is a HUGE (3/4 mile long) tall ridge coverd in big, old oaks that the turkeys love. I've never been able to figure this ridge out as far as the birds go. I did get a Jake there about 8 years ago, but that's it. It's a tough nut to crack. It's coverd in birds in the morning, but I can't get in there without busting them out. We hunted there until 1030, then went into town, ate a terrible breakfast, then headed back to "camp" for a siesta. After the rest, we headed back to the woods for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon we hunted from 330pm-630pm. That's all we could take, we'd been up since 3:30am.

Sunday morning was tough to get up for all of us, but we did it! The kids slept on the 1/2 hour drive to the farm, and again as soon as we got into the blind. That made it easier to keep movement down. smile Their nap was short though. 15 min. after we got in there, a gobbler started blasting off on the ridge about 200 yards from us. Kennedy woke up, but Jack slept right through it! He gobbled about 100 times, no exaggeration. I yelped 3 times on the slate to let him know we're here and put it in my pocket.

At 5:15 the hens started to yelp from the trees...A LOT! Then we could hear some fly down on the ridge but couldn't see any of them. I caught a glimpse of one walking around on the ridge, then I saw it... The strutting fan of a gobbler. He was waaaaaay up top. I told K but she couldn't see it. Then J started to wake up with all the excitement. I thought I caught a glimpse of two tails fanned out actually, but wasn't sure.

Then we could pick out hens walking around on the ridge, we could see 3-4 of them. They started working their way down towards us, which I kind of didn't expect. I figured with the tom on top strutting, they'd go off the other way.

A hen flew down out of the trees at 5:30 and landed in the field. That was the best decoy we could have and we didn't even have to make a call. She just picked around in the field, which I think helped. The other hens started to come down towards us. I told the kids "I see 4, no 5, no 6,7, shoot! theres a bunch!" The tom was bringing up the rear.

It was a big turkey train coming down the ridge on a tractor path. They got to the edge of the woods and walked parallel to us. At the tree line, they were about 40 yards away, within range, but it was brushy and the kids still hadn't seen the tom. They were coming right at us, with the tom strutting the whole time. I kept whispering "don't move, don't even twitch." The tom and hens were within 20 yards of us, but the kids couldn't see him due to their angle and I told them not to move, so again, I held off.

At 25 yards, just inside the woods, they finally saw him and got excited. I knew where they were headed and decided to wait for a shot in the open field, instad of the woods. The fence was down and they seem to pop out there, we were 30 yds from it. So, again I held off. (i was getting antsy and nervous at this point)

The first bird out on the field was a jake, but with the tom still strutting, bringing up the rear, again I waited. The hens started pouring out into the pasture, I finally go the gun up and on the tom. He was in a full strut, and it's hard to hit them that way, their neck is tucked into the body and a small target. He broke strut, and chased a hen up the field 10-15 yards. I thought I blew it...waited too long to shoot. He was 40'ish yards away and strutting. That's a pretty fair poke, and real fair poke for a 20ga.

I yelped with my mouth, and he stuck his head up and I shot. Down he went! J yelled out "holy schitt!!, two in a row!" Then K says " can I say schitt too?" I couldn't keep a straight face on that. The birds scattered and I noticed that one of the "hens" was a long beard. I didn't see that before because I was focused on the strutting tom.

I got out and took about 20 steps towards it and realized it was a lot further than the 40 yards I thought. It ended up being 48, which is a jump IMO for a 20ga on a turkey.

He was 23#, 9 1/4" beard, and 3/4" spurs. Nice bird and the heaviest I've shot by a good margin.

Very cool!!!

Even without a turkey that sounded like fun.

It was. Both kids took some wing and tail feathers for "show and tell" to school. Both had assignments of "shoot a turkey" for their missed homework on Friday.

Some schools still aren't too bad.

Way to go Dad!