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Yesterday was a day I've been waiting for. The day I get to take both my boys into the spring turkey woods and begin to share my passion for the wild turkey with my youngest son. He's seen his older brother be successful in the past but he's been so pumped for weeks because it was finally his turn to be up on the gun. He put in lots of work practicing gun safety, patterning guns, and some early morning scouting trips to keep tabs on these birds. All of that work paid off! We went out Friday evening to roost bird but it just seemed like one of those evenings that you couldn't buy a gobble. But we've all been there and I was confident from past history and all of the preseason scouting that there would be at least one bird on the ridge. 4:00AM wake up and he was right up and out the door we went. We got settled in to a blind and waited for the day to come alive. He's out like a light sitting on my lap when 5:45 a bird gobbles right in our direction maybe 150 yards out. Out of a dead sleep he whips his head around with the biggest eyes and says "he's close". We also had a group of jakes gobbling to the south of us about 250 yards and we happened to be right in the middle. As they continued to gobble I began some soft tree yelps but would only call when the jakes gobbled and that drove the gobbler on the ridge insane. In no time I could tell he was on the ground. He closed the distance quick and it all happened like you'd see on a hunting show. I'm not a fan of decoys but I chose to use them today to keep the focus off of us. He marched down off that ridge and straight to the decoys exactly how the "professionals" do it. Bryce was already on the gun, asked if he could see his red dot and if he could where we practiced right at the base of his neck. He whispered yes and clicked the safety off. I said when you're ready you can kill him. I no sooner got those words out of my mouth and he touched one off. I said you GOT EM BUDDY! He smoked that bird at about 15 steps. We all ran out yelling and high fiving!! I couldn't be more proud off how he handled himself for seven years old and his very first turkey hunt! It's was awesome to also have his brother and my dad along to see Bryce harvest his first bird and I thank the PAGC for giving us this opportunity to get these kids out at a young age and introduce them to the things we love! Heck of a first bird, he only had a 2" beard due to "beard rot" but had a great set of 1-7/16" spurs and was just over 20lbs! Perrytrails Split V mouth calls have been hard on the birds in my area. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230423/9704b9b28b294caa3601429e99b46ff7.jpg)
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Great job that's what it's all about!! Congratulations to the young man!!
Awesome job on the story and pictures Dad, Congratulations to the young hunter.
Congrats! Like you I am very happy for the youth hunts. We are building a foundation of future hunters coming up through the ranks.
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Nice post. Congrats to all. :funnyturkey:
Congrats!
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That's awesome! Definitely making memories. Congratulations
Making memories! Congrats!!
Congratulations!
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Congratulations to the young man on a fine bird and to you for getting him involved.
That is excellent.
Congrats
Congratulations, nice one, that's a brute!
Great story and congratulations to you and your son! Awesome photos!
Great story & good job on raising your boys right!