Youth season

[FullChoke]

Folks, It appears that the state of Mississippi, in its divine wisdom, has set the date of March 8th as that moment in time when the youngin's of our fair state will have the metaphorical gates throw open and be allowed to swarm the hills and dales in giddy pursuit of our greatest game bird, one wild turkey. I will be taking on the role of guide/gun bearer/snack bar operator and, if things miraculously go well, the deliverer of the eulogy for the feathered dearly departed on behalf of my 13 year old grandson. 

Safety, Fun, Bird. In that order.
Let the Games Begin!   

[jakesdad]

April 12 & 13 here in the show me state.After missing the same bird twice at 15 yds last year my boy is out for revenge!!

[FullChoke]

"Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold."  Don Corleone

[gophert]

March 22-23 Here in TN

[FullChoke]

Are the youth seasons in  MO and TN only 2 days? MS gives them the whole week prior to the general season.

[jakesdad]

Yes 2 days in MO.Youth are allowed to hunt all day as opposed to 1:00 during regular season

They can hunt in regular season but have to hunt by regular season regs.Also if they kill a bird youth weekend it counts as their first bird so they cannot hunt until week 2.

[Eric Gregg]

Norm, Saturday is going to be a great day to go. After all of this ran and cold, upper 60's in the forecast may make the gobblers fire up!

[surehuntsalot]

won't be much youth hunting going on over my way this weekend,
got a message at work today"started logging at camp" bout figures.

[FullChoke]

Special K  and I went out to our spot last night to try and roost one and got no new information on the birds. This morning we went down to where I wanted to start the day and the first bird gobbled on the slough 20 minutes earlier that they had last weekend. He woke up the whole neighborhood and we found that our plan to make it across the slough before they woke up was slipping away fast. We wound up setting up about 100 yards away from him right across the slough. I did a flydown with a wing and clucked around a bit. We started hearing other gobblers start to crank up all along the slough. By final count, we heard 7 gobblers hammer about 50 times this morning. Once the bird across from us was on the ground I yelped at him with a mouth call and he jumped all over it. 30 seconds later, the Wicked Witch of the North cruised in, yelped twice and lead his fevered snood away from all of this. We looped to try and get ahead of them on the slough and after some good old fashioned slough-wading finally got in position. We had a hen comes coasting through about 20 yards out, but she musta been ugly by turkey standards cause she didn't have no husband with her. We pulled the plug shortly after that and took out for the house.

Special K's final evaluation of our fruitless morning was that in spite of being cold, wet and birdless, he still had fun and wants to go back after them soon. That, to me folks, is a good definition of a great hunt with a kid. 

[jakesdad]

"Special K's final evaluation of our fruitless morning was that in spite of being cold, wet and birdless, he still had fun and wants to go back after them soon. That, to me folks, is a good definition of a great hunt with a kid.  "

x 2  Once they learn this,they've started to get a grasp on what its really all about

[Eric Gregg]

I like to hear stories like that Norm!
Sounds like you guys were in the middle of them

[Hooter]

Great story, and hunt. I would have loved to have been there.
Thats what its all about, even if you don't shoot anything.

[xarcher]

He is lucky to have you.  But don't let him know that you had more fun than he did.  It's cool to see the expression on a kid's face when the game is on.  I remember many years ago when I took my nephew out for his first turkey hunt.  He had never even seen a turkey in the wild before and right off the bat we had a gobbler about 5 steps behind our tree shaking the woods up.  My nephew was so jacked up that he was white knuckling the gun.  So I whispered into his ear to relax and let the bird walk in front of the gun barrel.  He still couldn't let go of that death grip on the stock.  Well as luck would have it, some young sweet thing eventually comes in behind us purring and clucking and he walked off after her.  The hen was so close I could hear her walking on wet leaves since it had rained the night before.  That boy has been hooked ever since.  He is about 20 now. 

You keep up the good work with him. 
 

[gophert]

Good stuff Norm!