It's taken me a couple of days to come down enough to even get on here to post. On Friday morning I took out my 11 year old for turkeys here in KS. The story actually starts last spring though. While she's gone hunting with me many times, she'd never had any interest in being the hunter. Last spring when she heard me mention the youth turkey season, she said she wanted to try it. I was very pleasantly surprised. We went out 2 times with close encounters but no shot opportunities. The third time I called in a long beard and she got too nervous and missed. She got so upset she said she never wanted to do it again. I didn't push the point.
Fast forward to a month ago when she sees me messing with turkey gear and she says she wants to try again. We go out and shoot the youth model Mossberg 20 GA and she is hitting the mark at 30 yards with 2 3/4 inch #6's.
We went out on Friday morning and had lots of birds gobbling from the roost, including several within 75 yards of our popup blind. (a little closer than I would have liked, but it was what it was) The first birds flew down behind us and headed straight out into the field as it began to rain. They didn't even look at the decoys. They gobbled at every call but kept moving away.
We still heard birds on the roost pretty close, so we still were hopeful even though I was thinking they'd probably follow the same plan as the first birds. Legal shooting light was like 6:40 and here we are at 7:15, when I hear flapping wings just to our right. A bearded hen lands 30 yards to our right. I had mentioned this hen to Hannah ahead of time but she had said she wanted to wait for a gobbler. More hens, still more. We have about a dozen hens inside of 40 yards before 2 gobblers strut out of the tree line 30 yards to our right. She's in position and she brings the butt of the shotgun to her shoulder while I hold the primos trigger stick supporting the front end of the gun. She asks me to raise the stick a little bit. I asked if she was comfortable, she said yes. I yelped and both birds raised their heads, presenting a perfect target but I could see the muzzle moving back and forth. I told her to take a deep breath and try to relax.
I suppose this lasted for 30 seconds or so, when a white and red head appears right in front of her gun, about 5 yards from the blind. I said, "holy cow, there's a bird right there. Do you want to shoot that one?" She says, "y-y-y-y-y-e-e-s". This bird came from behind the blind and strutted right past us. He turned and moved a little further away and at about 8 yards, she whispers that she's ready. I yelp, the bird stretches his head to look, she blasts him in the neck, and he falls flapping on the alfalfa.
I'm not sure of the rest of the details because we were both pretty excited. We hugged, we yelled, we smiled, we prayed and thanked God for the experience and for the bird.
Her first bird was a good Rio/Eastern hybrid in the rain
.
23 lbs even
10 1/4" beard
1 1/8" spurs
Here a couple of hero shots with me after we got home.
Can you see how proud I am? What a SEASON already!!!!! My season's a great success. I don't care if I take a bird or not.
Matthew
Fast forward to a month ago when she sees me messing with turkey gear and she says she wants to try again. We go out and shoot the youth model Mossberg 20 GA and she is hitting the mark at 30 yards with 2 3/4 inch #6's.
We went out on Friday morning and had lots of birds gobbling from the roost, including several within 75 yards of our popup blind. (a little closer than I would have liked, but it was what it was) The first birds flew down behind us and headed straight out into the field as it began to rain. They didn't even look at the decoys. They gobbled at every call but kept moving away.
We still heard birds on the roost pretty close, so we still were hopeful even though I was thinking they'd probably follow the same plan as the first birds. Legal shooting light was like 6:40 and here we are at 7:15, when I hear flapping wings just to our right. A bearded hen lands 30 yards to our right. I had mentioned this hen to Hannah ahead of time but she had said she wanted to wait for a gobbler. More hens, still more. We have about a dozen hens inside of 40 yards before 2 gobblers strut out of the tree line 30 yards to our right. She's in position and she brings the butt of the shotgun to her shoulder while I hold the primos trigger stick supporting the front end of the gun. She asks me to raise the stick a little bit. I asked if she was comfortable, she said yes. I yelped and both birds raised their heads, presenting a perfect target but I could see the muzzle moving back and forth. I told her to take a deep breath and try to relax.
I suppose this lasted for 30 seconds or so, when a white and red head appears right in front of her gun, about 5 yards from the blind. I said, "holy cow, there's a bird right there. Do you want to shoot that one?" She says, "y-y-y-y-y-e-e-s". This bird came from behind the blind and strutted right past us. He turned and moved a little further away and at about 8 yards, she whispers that she's ready. I yelp, the bird stretches his head to look, she blasts him in the neck, and he falls flapping on the alfalfa.
I'm not sure of the rest of the details because we were both pretty excited. We hugged, we yelled, we smiled, we prayed and thanked God for the experience and for the bird.
Her first bird was a good Rio/Eastern hybrid in the rain
23 lbs even
10 1/4" beard
1 1/8" spurs
Here a couple of hero shots with me after we got home.
Can you see how proud I am? What a SEASON already!!!!! My season's a great success. I don't care if I take a bird or not.
Matthew
