My 8 year old grandson was able to take is first ( and second) turkey with me last week on his second ever hunt. I took him on the youth hunt and we didn't see or hear anything. After about an hour and a half we were out of snacks and he was getting restless so we packed it in. I was able to take a bird on opening morning, then spent the nest couple days helping a buddy of mine get a friend of his from Ohio a bird.
While doing that I found a spot with 4 jakes that were eager to play the game. So the next day we set up in a blind and put out the decoys. I called some, he called on a box call and for the next hour the only thing to answer was a neighboring peacock. I looked up from our conversation about baseball to see the 4 jakes in the distance about 125 yards away. I pointed them out to Bryson and asked him if he was ready to shoot one. He got real silent and I could tell something was wrong, so I asked if he wanted to shoot one and if he didn't that it was ok that we could just watch them, he has never killed anything and I thought he might be having second thoughts. He finally looked at me and said " what if I miss Pop". I told him every turkey hunter has or will miss. I reassured him that I wouldn't be disappointed if he did miss and we were having a great time regardless. I told him I was going to try and call the jakes down to us and we could just watch them, as they started our way he said he wanted to try and shoot one. It was amazing from that point on he went into turkey thug mode. He got his gun up, head down , fingers in the proper position, everything we had talked about.
As the jakes got to 60 yards he says " I'm on him Pop, can I kill him?" I chuckled and said wait till they get closer. At 40 yards he say ( I'm on him Pop, now?). I told him a little closer, they got to about 25 yards and stopped. One bird separated to the left a little from the group. I told him to aim at that bird. I turned to look at him to make sure the butt of the gun was on his shoulder securely and he said now? I said yes and he instantly shot. I looked to see two bird go down. The one on the left he was aiming out never flopped, he crushed him. I'm guessing as I turned to check out Bryson's gun position the other jake must have swung around and stepped into the pattern.
He was so happy and a proud pop moment to say the least. After a lot of hugs, pictures and me telling him how proud of him I was, we are walking back to the truck he asked if I had a good hunt, He has no idea How long I had been waiting for this experience.
