My little buddy worked so hard for this bird. Hunted last year, we put in 13hr and 9hr days during youth hunt and he went 2 other days last week. Sunday morning i was able to take him out with my sister's boyfriend. We sat in a blind to start the day and like just about every single time he's been out there's been little gobbling with none near us. We heard some far behind us and he kept saying he wanted to head that way. We were all struggling to stay awake with the rising sun in our face, no sleep, a long week and no action other than 3 hens
It was 52 degrees when I arrived at 4am, but by 8 am the wind picked up out of the north and it was in the low 40s and COLD. We were walking a wood line down into a massively steep and deep ravine. Wind was blowing 20mph sustained with worse gusts. We set up halfway down the ravine to take retreat from the wind. My nephew was struggling. Playing with sticks, not being quiet, not hunting. He was close to defeat. Days of hunting and miles and miles of walking on a bum leg(just got out of walking boot last week after 4 months in one. It feels better, but he wasn't confident in his ankle strength yet) I reminded him that he was the one who wanted to leave the blind and walk to the other spot. We've been discussing choices and accountability a lot lol. If he wants to head in that's cool, but if he says he wants to hunt were going to HUNT. He agreed and said he'd try harder, so we headed up the hill at 9:30am and as we reached the top the wind dies down and it was warming up by the minute.
We had worked 3 toms in this spot for an hour the previous saturday but could not get them to leave the woods or cross a fenceline as we didn't know we could hunt the woods at that time. So we set up in position to shoot them where they were coming and going last week figuring if they did the same thing they'd run us over.
I'm messing around trying to get a few logs in front of us and apparently a bird gobbled and somehow I didn't hear it. Our caller/cameraguy whistles and points. So we turn and set up to shoot as he comes out of the field. I hear it gobble and it's so close a bit of panic sets in. Not sure how much we can move so I lay my nephew against me and hold the barrel of his gun as i can see it waving all over the place. He couldn't get his knee up to help hold it.
The bird gobbles for like a 6th time within 75 yards, but we still haven't seen him. He gobbles again and my nephew sadly whispers "he's moving away". I told him to stay focused and just believe. 30 seconds later he gobbles again, but has clearly moved into the woods and will be coming in how we originally thought he would. He was within 50 yards in OPEN woods but with lots of thorn bushes on the ground which was why we couldn't see him.
I take the barrel of the gun and push it up and over the tree to his left. he's now twisted far to his left and leaning over top of me. i lay back and tell him to use me as a rest. i can feel his elbows in my stomach. I whisper shoot when you can and 5 seconds later BOOM! i grab the gun having not seen the shot and start to reload the single shot. I hear him take off running and screaming "I GOT HIM! I GOT HIM!" i manage to pull him back as the bird is flopping a bit. Hugs and some tears all around and we repeat the story for 15 minutes in the post shot excitement. He just kept thanking us and saying he was glad we all got to be there for his 1st bird. He doesn't have a dad, but I do what I can and my sister's boyfriend is an amazing guy. Then he commented on how quickly it was from when we heard the 1st gobble til shooting(5 minutes) and said he understood why I kept getting on him when he wasn't actively hunting. He learned it can happen at any time and happen very quickly.
He tried his best to haul that bird out, but couldn't. I figured he worked hard enough and took it from him. We all commented on how fat the neck and head were, but WOW i thought when i picked it up. We got back to the house and everyone showed up. All guessing 23lbs, 24, I guessed 25lbs.
We put it on the scale 28! LOL then everyone convinced him he should get a full body mount as no one in the group ever shot a bigger one. he just kept saying "this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!"
28lb lone tom, 10 1/4" beard, both spurs just under 1". 1 super proud uncle
