New member of the 10th Legion (youth hunt success)

[alloutdoors]

This past Saturday my oldest, Evan, was successful in taking his first turkey (video and photos at the end), but that is really putting the cart before the horse. Previously he had always liked to go fishing but had been kind of lukewarm about going along with me when I was hunting or scouting. About this time last year I was asking him if he thought he wanted to go along on any hunts during the upcoming season; he said he wasn't sure and he revealed that the reason he likes fishing better is because he actually gets to do the fishing (he is still several years away from being deemed old enough to hunt in NY). I spent some time thinking about that and considering some possibilities and then told him that if he wanted to try getting a bird himself we would start planning for a hunt during his April break the following year (2020), but that it was something he was going to have to earn and he would need to spend the year demonstrating that he was responsible enough. He agreed readily.

I began looking at shotgun options, with an eye on his upcoming 8th birthday in June. Even the typical 12"-13" length of pull on most youth guns was a bit much for him so I settled on a Mossberg 510 Mini Super Bantam in .410 which comes with a fixed modified choke and has a 10.5" LOP and a spacer that lets you extend it to 11.5". Pattern testing with TSS 9's showed that the gun was capable of reaching to 30 yards, but 25 and in was definitely it's sweet spot. To finish things off I had the gun drilled and tapped and added a reflex sight. I talked to some out of state friends and made plans to travel to GA during the week following Easter when school was out. The promise of the trip proved to be a great motivator for my son, and aside from a couple gentle reminders he did a great job holding up his end the bargain with regards to his behavior throughout the year.

As things turned out we had to make some changes to our plans due to the virus but we still managed to pull off the trip. On the way down we spent a night in southern PA but instead of staying at a  friend's house we slept out in the loft of his workshop. We limited stops, doing the first leg to PA without stopping, filling up my truck the following morning, and only stopping once for gas and a McDonald's drive-through on the way to GA on the second day. Our plan to spend a day at the Georgia Aquarium had to be scrapped and instead of staying with my buddy in Savannah we camped out all week; he joined us in camp but brought his own tent. We brought our food with us so we didn't need to go out while we were there and in the end we probably had less exposure to other people during the trip than if we had stayed home making trips to the grocery store and for take-out.

While we were there the birds weren't really using the nearby piece of private land where we had hoped to find an easy bird for my son, so we spent the entire seven days chasing pressured public land birds. Despite being within 100 yards of gobblers on multiple occasions the birds were not cooperating. They were mostly silent once they hit the ground and every bird we ran into seemed to have hens. My buddy got lucky one afternoon while scouting for the next day and killed one when 5 two-year olds basically ran him over on their way to roost, but aside from a couple courtesy gobbles those were the only birds that really responded to calling all week. That said, we got to watch a bobcat stalk our decoy, my son saw his first alligator, we heard a large bull gator bellowing near camp, we fell asleep listening to barred owls and whip-poor-wills, the tent stayed dry during some serious downpours, and despite not actually laying eyes on a turkey while out hunting (we did see a hen crossing the road) my son never complained once.

In search of gobblers. I figured it out at the end of the week and Evan had walked over 17 miles while looking for birds.

Little gator who had found a small water hole all to himself.

An afternoon hunt that we ended up bailing on. We were in a good spot that we new an older gobbler was frequenting but temps were in the upper 80's, my son was worn out, and keeping him focused on a bird that was probably going to come in silent if he came at all wasn't happening. The water was fluctuating throughout the week in the bottoms and was definitely affecting the birds.

Ibis were everywhere taking advantage of the dropping water.

Evan spotted this girl during a mid-morning hunt after some thunderstorms had moved through.

Found a mud snake (had to look it up) crossing the road one evening.

Supposedly they won't bite even when handled, but this one was at least doing a good job bluffing. It got mad because it had headed toward my truck and I was using a stick to stop it from trying to hide under the tires.

Before we knew it an entire week had passed and it was time to head north. When we were leaving PA after another stop over there my PA buddy suggested he could try putting us on a bird the following Saturday. I mentioned the possibility to Evan, and even though we had already done 30 hours of driving he didn't hesitate at the thought of another 5-hour drive to southern PA (of course not, he sits in the back watching movies the whole time). With that settled my buddy spent a morning over at the farm listening for birds later that week and on Friday we jumped back in the truck and got down there just in time to head over and try to roost some birds. We watched a pair of jakes cross a field and go to roost as it was getting dark, then I hit the owl call and we got a gobble from the opposite end of the same field the jakes had been in. We moved to try to get a bearing and the bird gobbled again on his own while we were walking. We thought he was right on the edge of the field corner and made plans to slip in under him the next morning.

We were up at 4:00 and headed to the farm by 4:15. We took a longer than needed route to the bird because my buddy wasn't familiar with all the gates on that side of the farm, but we got where we needed to be, and there was plenty of fog that morning for cover anyway. I set out a jake and hen decoy and we were setting up a pair of ALPS Deception blinds when the bird started gobbling. We had slightly misjudged his location and he was actually over on the other side of a large creek (more like a small river) that borders the property. The other side is steep and nasty and according to my buddy the birds regularly fly across to the farm so we weren't particularly worried, and we were still in a decent location. We settled in and the bird cranked up, probably gobbling 50+ times from the roost. As it got light I gave him a few soft clucks and tree yelps and then did a flydown with my hat a few minutes later. After another minute or so I sent him a series of three yelps and then went silent. The bird was at a fever pitch at that point and after five or six consecutive gobbles he left his tree. We couldn't see him because of the fog but when he gobbled again it was clear he had flown across to our side. He gobbled a few more times on the ground and we could tell he was walking back and forth in the open ground along the creek. After five minutes or so he appeared out of the fog in full strut on the far side of the pasture just beyond the fence. If you want to see how it played out from that point you can check out the video below. Apologies for the video being a bit rough in places, it's a bit of a tight fit in that little blind and video capture was not my primary concern on this hunt.

Needless to say, things worked out in our favor.

For those that like stats - 18 yard shot, .410 TSS 9's, 20.5 lbs, 10.5" beard, 3/4" and 13/16" spurs, and one new turkey hunter for life. He's already talking about going back to GA next year to get even with those swamp birds.

[Steuben Jerry]

That's a great story! And a great video too. Congratulations Evan!

[ATbuckhunter]

Congrats! Sounds like great memories that'll last a lifetime 

[Sambuca]

Wow!  

What a great video.  We now have another lifelong turkey hunting addict.  What a memory for Evan.  He won't need to watch the video, he'll remember every second  of that hunt for the rest of his life.

[mowin]

That was fantastic.  Congrats to Evan, and good job dad.  

[crappyice]

Atta boy


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[First-light]

WoW! You guys have patience!!!! Congrats little man. 

[doebuck1234]

Great video and congrats to all involved on that memorable hunt.hes hooked!!!

[alloutdoors]

WoW! You guys have patience!!!! Congrats little man. 

Wouldn’t have needed so much patience if I had just kept my mouth shut and told him to take the first clean shot instead of trying to quarterback it. He probably would have been fine and killed it when I was still adjusting the camera. I’m also cautious of the delay between seeing a good shot, getting the words out of my mouth, having a kid register it, and then actually make the shot.

Last time I had a young first timer out that delay was enough for the gobbler to go from broadside with his head up to quartering away and starting to tuck his head. The shot raked him over the back and shoulder and enough hit his head to kill him but it wasn’t as clean as it should have been.

[Moho81]

Awesome write up and experience. Something neither of you will ever forget!


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[grampy]

Congratulations Evan! Great job Dad!

The story and video, was absolutely great. Stuff like this is what it's all about!

Thanks for making this old guy smile!