He Shoots, He Scores! Youth Turkey Success 2008

[Rangerman]

On Saturday my son and I worked a bird until 11am but he never would commit to come into the decoys. He was in a very small strut zone with hens coming to him left and right and he wasn’t moving! He finally moved out of that strut zone and we made our move. We get setup and make a few calls and nothing in return, all is quiet. After about an hour of nothing we decide to go get some lunch. On the way back to the truck guess who we run into??? Yep, ole Mr. Longbeard just a swanging. He saw us about the same time we saw him and scurried into the woods. DANG! After lunch back to the woods were we never heard or seen a thing other than plenty of deer. Figures!

On Sunday morning, after the morning gobble-fest on the limb all was quiet, and I mean quiet! We never heard nary a peep, cluck, yelp, nada thing except a few deer which blew our hats off around 10:30am. We move into a well known strut zone and made a few calls around 11am. A couple birds from across the road on another farm gobbled back a couple times then got quiet again. We sat there for about an hour and finally we did what turkey hunters do best on slow mornings, we took a nap. After our nap I decided to make a few aggressive calls in hopes of getting something going. I was immediately greeted with some aggressive yelps in return about 70 yards out. For the next 15 minutes or so we exchanged some serious calling, everything you can think of. Once I got her fired up and coming she never shut up and neither did I. We were getting glimpses of her as she made her way towards us but never saw anything with her. When she finally got about 10ft from us I heard a FFTT-VVVUUUUMMM, the unmistakable drumming sound of a gobbler. I whispered to my son that I heard a gobbler somewhere. He whispered back that he saw something coming behind her. About that time, ole Mr. Longbeard came waddling into view walking between us and the decoys. He never broke strut and was standing there looking towards us at 10 yards, then finally turned towards the decoys. This gave Mason enough time to get his gun up and safety off. As he struts back to the left I tell Mason to take him if he can. He responds with a stone cold, graveyard dead shot at 15 yards with the clock reading 1pm.

Here are a couple pics of Mason and his 2008 gobbler which weighed 22lbs had 1” spurs and 10” beard. This is Mason's 3 spring turkey in as many years.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...s040608002.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...s040608007.jpg

[fishing4kids]

Congrats to Mason on a great hunt. Rangerman if you are like me I was jumping up and down when my daughter shoot her first turkey she looked at me like I was crazy. Wait I am crazy.

Congrats and keep up the good work.

Your dad is OK and make sure you thank him.

Eddie

[olducker]

Congrats

[Rangerman]

Congrats to Mason on a great hunt. Rangerman if you are like me I was jumping up and down when my daughter shoot her first turkey she looked at me like I was crazy. Wait I am crazy.

Congrats and keep up the good work.

Your dad is OK and make sure you thank him.

Eddie

Eddie,

Hey man, how you been? Good to hear from you since our conversation about you seeing Charlie Hartley. Yeah, I was tore up! The way that old bird came in and then all of the sudden he was standing 10yds away from us looking at Mason in full strut. I didn't think we were going to be able to hold it together since we were not in a blind much less Mason get his gun up at make the shot. Pretty awesome. This was his third bird in as many years and I get excited everytime. I am trying to make a fisherman out of him too. Of course you know I can't do that very well so I might have to solicit your help on Green or Nolin. Maybe you could teach the boy something!

Take care man!

Marty

[fishing4kids]

Eddie,

Hey man, how you been? Good to hear from you since our conversation about you seeing Charlie Hartley. Yeah, I was tore up! The way that old bird came in and then all of the sudden he was standing 10yds away from us looking at Mason in full strut. I didn't think we were going to be able to hold it together since we were not in a blind much less Mason get his gun up at make the shot. Pretty awesome. This was his third bird in as many years and I get excited everytime. I am trying to make a fisherman out of him too. Of course you know I can't do that very well so I might have to solicit your help on Green or Nolin. Maybe you could teach the boy something!

Take care man!

Marty

Call me when you are going that way maybe we can get together and catch some fish.
Eddie
Keep in touch

[mhall]

Nice story I enjoyed, WTG, nice bird.

[tracker4stroke]

good job congrats on the nice bird