Well had a tough start so far, I took a Learn to Hunt student out on her first turkey hunt (It's a morning till noon hunt) had a number of birds gobbling around us and they hit ground all went quiet. About 9a after a calling sequence I had a bird gobble, only answered me once and then went quiet, about 40 minutes later he come in silent and has 4 jakes with him, he was right on top of us and she tried to move the gun on him at 20 yards, they spooked out of there and no shot fired. (Lesson learned for the new hunter, turkeys have really good eyesight and you can't get away with that.)
2nd hunt for mentored/youth hunt, have a friends 10 year old boy with me, set up in the blind. we have 3 jakes come in right behind us silent, jakes stand around for 20 minutes but will not leave the timber (neighboring property and can't hunt it) I quit calling jakes enter field about 60 yards down from out set and begin to fight with each other for 10-15 minutes, he got and eye full of all that. Hour later we have a coyote show up, try squeaking to him, coyote crosses field and goes back in to timber, coyote shows up again at 15 yards sneaking in on decoys, tried to get on him and boy was pretty excited, no time for the shot and coyotes gone. First coyote boy has seen out hunting. done hunting a 10:00a he has to be back to the house. We go back out a 3:00pm, get set back up and hour or so goes by and have a hen start talking to us, she shows up at 10 feet to his side of the blind, I get him settled down. Hear another hen coming in behind us and then a gobble right behind us, I can hear the spitting & drumming, they stay in the timber for 15 minutes or so and him back there strutting around, a hen walks out 15 yards down from us and I have him get the gun up, another hen walks out same, all three hens in field and feeding about, then the old tom walks out at 25 yards, boy lines up on him and pulls the trigger, BOOM bird starts running in circles 3 or 4 times and then runs back in to the woods. He tells me he missed him a bit, he could hardly breathe, and I told well if you turkey hunt long enough you're going to miss one, now that you have that out of they way the next one you're going to kill. I called in a bearded hen later on that he said he didn't want to shoot. I said that's ok no worries about it. About 6p (we were going to stay out till 7p) he says can we go back in, I said sure if you want, he said he was getting a little cold. Told him that's ok we'll go then. Packed it up and back to the truck, I have to check back with his mother and see when his tag is good for during the regular season and we'll be back out.
Tough start on the season for me, lessons learned for those two. Have more hunts coming up first then I'll be on my tag. No matter the outcome it's always great getting the kids and news out for some turkey time!
MK M GOBL
