I started off Friday evening to do some "scouting" with my 3 year old who is absolutely ate up with all things outdoors. We headed out to the club and drove around and I showed him his first turkey track. We did a little walking, caught some tadpoles, played in the mud, climbed brush piles, and a little bit of scouting. We drove around the roads and saw 2 hens in the ditch, and he was excited to see his first ever turkey.
Once it started getting dark, I did some owl hoots and he joined in with his best version which sounded more like a Steven Tyler wolf howl. An owl flew up to us and started hooting and his face lit up. He said "daddy I hear sumpin gobble!" After a short explanation on that was an owl hooting and owls help find turkeys, he decided it was fun to keep calling owls so we went to another spot and called up 2 more owls. He was happy, I was happy and I told him I would go back to the owl spot because he called up an owl and I think there will be turkeys there in the morning.
Opening Day:
My first listening spot (owl spot) didn't produce. I heard 3 or 4 on the roost but the closest was about 400 yards and was on property I couldn't hunt. I hung out in that drain for about 45 mins but the closest bird moved out of hearing range. I walked back to the truck and drove down the dirt road about 3/4 mile and listened. I heard one gobble about 300 yards down in a hardwood drain so I walked into the thinned pines about 150 yards and called... he cut me off. I frantically searched for a decent tree to sit against (this is all timber company land so a pine bigger than 12" diameter is rare) and found one with a couple small cedars around it. I set up facing where I last heard him, called one more time, and it was silent for a few mins. I had a feeling that this was the silence that all of us hunters know as the "this turkey is committed and coming death march". And then SPIT VROOOOM directly to my right... I decided it was make or break so I swung around and repositioned. I hadn't got the gun settled on my knee when he appears and he is looking hard at 35 yards. I let him take 2 or 3 steps and gave him a face full of TSS 9s.
I got back in my truck and headed out to see if I could find my dad a bird. As soon as I got cell cervice, he called and said he was toting a big one out! I met up with him and he had a big 3 year old that had a 10" thick beard and weighed 21 lbs... I told my dad that we needed to go home and show Anders because he helped us kill those turkeys because both birds were killed close to the 2 owl spots So we took a bunch of pics with my 2 sons and it was smiles all around...It was a great day that we will never forget.
I got so caught up in celebrating and taking family pics that I didn't record any pics of the measurements for the travel call contest. He weighed 19.2, 9" beard and 3/4 spurs so he would not beat my first entry. I did snap the pic, at the kill site, with the American Strutter pot to show the 2 beards so hopefully Chad can use that for marketing
Thanks for listening.
