Thought I'd add this to the Youth Section.
This morning (3-18-12) my son Blake and I got the job done. This is Louisiana's youth weekend and after yesterday seeing 15 different birds yesterday and not getting to pull the trigger we thought we had a pretty good game plan for this morning.
We got to the woods and was waiting to hear where the birds had roosted so we could sneek in without getting busted. Well, a bird I had heard earlier in the week started hammering behind us. He just kept on and I told my son we needed to trash our game plan and head after the other one. He was just off of the main gravel and hammering at everything. I got him set up in his gobbler lounger and I backed up behind him and layed down off the road. I gave him a little light yelping to let him know I was there. Well, he ended up staying in the tree a lot longer than he should have waiting on the hen to come to him but he must have gobbled 200 times on the limb. Finally after a little scratching in the leaves, he flew down. It wasnt long before he was coming down the road putting on a show. I had a hard time seeing him through the brush but I could tell what he was doing. After about 5 minutes, he turned and started to go off the road to go into the woods and find (me) the hen. As soon as he got to the edge, I told my son to shoot him. He fired and the turkey started running away. I told him to shoot again and he rolled him up at about 40 yards. By the time I got up off the ground, that boy had already ran about 30 yards to the bird. I have never seen him move that fast. Found out that his first shot cut down a small 1" sapling about 10' in front of him.
Anyhow, it was a good 2 year old. He weighed in at 19 pounds and had a 9" beard and 3/4" spurs. This boy is ate up with it now. This is his third bird now. He's sure made me proud.
