Youth Turkey 2017

[Johnsfolly]

I was able to get the time to be able to take my daughter Olivia out for this year's youth turkey season. She had never really hunted anything than a half hearted squirrel hunt. This was going to be her first real hunt. 

I haven't been real successful in getting my kids onto turkey or big game. My oldest got as close as 100 yards to a couple of jakes, but they picked us off and never came to the calls. Those were public land birds that ended up on private land in short order. A couple years later, I was able to secure some private land access for my son's turkey season. We rode an ATV to the farm, walked through an open field, up the hill and into a blind on the edge of a large field. We heard gobbling behind us and well below us. By 9 am we never saw a bird, but kept hearing the one below us. Decided to leave the blind and ended up looking at a gobbler strutting in front of several hens within 15 yards of the ATV. Needless to say we were never able to get that bird to leave his hens and close the 80 yards to us. The next year on that same farm we never saw or heard any birds.

So this year it is Livie's turn. She had been out to the range shooting the 20 ga. She even shot one of the turkey loads without fear of the recoil. So we are ready with the gun. I was able to secure access to a friends farm. He has two farms in northern MO. Both have birds on them and the one in Sullivan county is always thick with them. I got to hunt that Sullivan farm and was successful on a jake a couple of years ago (posted about that hunt on OAF). I didn't want to ruin Mike's chances at a bird so I kept mentioning that we could go to the other farm. No Mike insisted and said we should go his Sullivan farm. Maybe it's because he likes my daughter or feels that I may not be able to be successful on the other farm or he didn't want Livie to have to share the other camper with the mice. Anyway we were going to head to the Sullivan farm.

Friday we packed up and headed to Harris MO and to the farm to meet Mike. I had plans to set up a pop-up blind in the corner of the farm where two creeks meet with a fair amount of heavy trees where the birds could roost. Mike was out and about on the farm Friday morning and he heard birds all over the farm. He had set up a ground blind with brush in the corner where I wanted to set up the blind. He had shot a gobbler out of that ground blind and that was also the blind that I shot my jake. So I took his advice and did not try to put in a pop-up. Olivia and I went down to the blind around 2:30 and got her sitting in the blind and the gun rest set up so that we would not need to mess with it in the morning. I also paced out 20 yards and planted a rolled up net style half blind that we would use in the morning. It was posted where I wanted to set up the decoys. We were going to have to get out really early as to not alert any of the birds that were likely to be roosted near the blind. So having a marker meant that I did not have to pace it out in the dark the next morning. I could just set the decoys and grab and set up the netting near the blind to provide cover off our left sides.

Later that evening we drove to one of the corners of the farm that we could not see from the camper and saw a flock of 12 to 15 birds including three to five gobblers/jakes in the flock. They spooked as we came up the road but they headed back onto the farm towards our blind. Back in the camper we watched another part of the farm and saw lots of turkeys and one large strutter in that group. I was already planning on where we would set up Saturday afternoon if we did not get a bird in the morning.

The alarm went off at 4 am, but both of us were up well before it went off. We headed down to the blind at 5:10. I was worried about the bright moon, but it was starting to set as we headed to the blind. So we had some darkness to cover us getting the blind. I set up a jake and hen decoy. The jake was about 22 yards and the hen was about 20 yards from the blind. Livie got set up and as I was getting the decoys set, a gobbler sounded off from a big oak in the corner of the field. He continued to gobble and gobble. As the sun started coming up I could see the bird easily from the blind. Around 6 am it was light enough to see several of the gobbling birds at this point. From the blind I could see at least four hens and six jakes/gobblers in the trees around us. As the sun was coming up there was a cacophony of hen calls and gobbles. I would add light clucks and yelps just to let any of the near birds know where we were. I know that they could see our decoys. I kept watch on the birds that I could see.

The early gobbler dropped down out of sight and headed behind and away from us. As birds dropped, none dropped in front of us. By 7:10 am most if not all of the birds we were near were on the ground. Lots of gobbling and hen calls. I was matching many of the hen calls. After we felt like we were alone, I heard a loud hen behind us. I told Livie that I was going to try to make her mad. Every time she yelped I would cut her off and yelp louder. She was getting closer and I just kept trying to goad her into heading into our field. I finally saw birds off to our right side. Livie had been sitting with the shotgun on the rest and at the ready since it first started getting light. My friend Mike is left handed. So the blind is set up to shoot as the birds round a clump of tall grass to Livies right. Unfortunately with Livie being right handed she would not be able to shoot hard on her right side. We could clearly see three jakes, a strutting tom and three hens in this group. They kept coming towards the decoys. The lead jake kept looking at the decoys and back towards our blind. They stalled about 30 to 35 yards away and just to Livie's right. Then the jake saw something that he just didn't like and with a putt he headed up the hill away from the blind taking all of the other birds with him. I was wearing my fishing hat and had not taken off the silver pins before this hunt.  We were sitting with the su in our faces. So I couldn't help but think that maybe there was a little flash from those pins or they could see our eyes behind our face masks since the sun was right in our eyes. Whatever it was that the birds saw, they were now gone.

Livie was really disappointed. I told her that we still had plenty of birds still running around us and we would just wait them out a bit longer. I took the pins out of my hat just in case. I told her that in about 15 to 20 minutes I would call again. After 15 min. I let out a couple of clucks, purrs, and yelps. I could still hear birds behind us. Then I saw a gobbler coming across the creek in on left. He passed me at about 15 yards and headed towards the decoys. I tapped Livie on the leg, "Turkey to our Left. Get the gun ready." He was eyeballing that jake decoy and did partial struts as he got closer. Livie had rested her gun by her right side and had to carefully move it into position for an opportunity for a shot. She couldn't get the gun up and also position the rest while the bird was strutting in circles around our decoys. So she had to try and shoot without the rest. He started to get concerned about the lack of movement of the two birds. I gave out a couple of light calls to try to get his head up. Once he got his head up, I told her to shoot, SHOOT! She got the safety off and BOOM the bird dropped in its tracks. I got out of the blind and onto the bird quickly. Once I got my hand on the bird, the nerves fired and his wings and legs went crazy. I held him down and Livie wasn't sure that she would need to shoot him again. I knew he was a dead bird and just waited until he got dead calm before having her come over to see him.

This was a really nice 2 year old gobbler, about 22-23 lbs, he has a thick beard and 3/4" spurs. Not bad for her first game animal. She and I were both really excited about this bird. What a great day! I have to give thanks to Mike on letting us hunt his farm.

This smile should say it all!! Now her brother may want to get out again after his little sister shot a bird before him. I think that we should be able to make that happen if he really wants to get out.

[BilletHead]

   Well done Olivia!

 Well done to you too Dad John,

BilletHead

[grizwilson]

Great Job!

[JestersHK]

Well done Livie!  Awesome bird you got there.  Awesome story John and I'm glad you guys were able to have a successful hunt!  

[Johnsfolly]

Thanks everyone. It was a great hunt and a great time spent with my daughter!

[moodyfour]

Awesome!!!

[Johnsfolly]

I still have not been out on my own yet this season. Seems a repeat of last couple of years. Not enough time to make serious commitment to turkeys. Still can't imagine a better hunt than this season's youth hunt. may try to get out later this week and weekend. Or just fish!