Doubled with my daughter

[twyatt]

What a much needed day after a LONG, rough week of hunting.  I've been up at 3:45am every day since last Saturday, sitting most days until noon, and it's been SLOOOOW.  Aside from a few roost gobbles, the action has been non-existent around here.
We did have 3 gobblers on camera at a place I take my daughter, and all weeks she's been saying what a dream it would be if we doubled, all while I'm reminding her how hard and rare it is to actually pull that off.
Well, we get set up this morning, after dealing with cows being where I wanted to put the decoys, and then forgetting my phone in the truck and having to run back and get it, and birds start gobbling immediately.  They're roosted closer today than they normally are, so we have high hopes.  After about 30 minutes of gobbling, then comes the silence.  15, 20, 30 minutes of silence and I decide to give a few yelps, and a bird gobbles back hard and close, probably 75 yards to our right.  I tell my daughter to get ready, and then the silence again.  I'm thinking this bird is going to be in our lap any second, and we wait, and wait, nothing.  A few minutes pass and we see a hen come out into the field about 100 yards away and I'm thinking maybe they're following her.  She makes it about 60 yards across the field and finally I see a gobbler step out.  He's about 100 yards away, and immediately goes into full strut when he comes out, and then another gobbler comes out with him.  They turn our way and seem to be coming on a string, one in full strut the whole way, the other walking right beside him.  As they get about 80% of the way to us, a 3rd gobbler comes out and goes into a full sprint and catches up to the first 2 about the time they reach the decoys.  I caution my daughter to make sure they're separated enough, and the strutter walks around the front of my jake decoy perfectly and I say "go ahead", and she drops him hard.  Now, my 410 is leaning up against the inside of the blind, and honestly a double was the last thing on my mind.  My focus was first and foremost to make sure she got a bird.  As she shoots, the other 2 birds start to run, and I quickly grab my gun, turn on my red dot and get pointed out the window, and they stop at about 40 yards and look back, just long enough for me to shoot, and drop one.  Now, he goes to flopping pretty good and I'm thinking, oh no, I can't let that bird get away, this is my daughter's dream, so I reload and shoot again.  He's still flopping all over the place so I reload and shoot AGAIN.  Now I'm out of shells, so I run out of the blind and catch up to him. Whew!.  After cleaning him today I only found a few pellets in his head, so I'm pretty positive the 2nd 2 shots were both misses, but I was in a panic as hard as he was flopping.  Looking back, I'm pretty sure he was dead from the first shot.  I'd sure love to have seen my daughter's face as I'm flinging 410 hulls by her head trying to hit a turkey flopping across the field. Not my finest moment but I wasn't about to let that bird go.
When we get home, she gets me to score her bird like I scored mine for this contest, and of course hers is 63.01 and mine is 58.43.  I'll never hear the end of that, but I love every minute of her excitement and gloating.   This is certainly a day that will be permanently etched into my memory and hopefully hers as well.

[JeffC]

Congrats to you both , See turkey karma came back to her!!

[POk3s]

This is fantastic!!! Well done!

[Yoder409]

Absolutely FRIGGIN FANTASTIC !!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats to BOTH of you !!!!

Don't get no better'n that !!!!

[harleytom]

Congrats to you both! A moment you'll share forever. Great story as well.


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[Hoosier2]

Congrats brother. Great hunt!


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[twyatt]

Thanks for the kind words

[zelmo1]

Best day ever bro. This is what makes it so much fun. The joy and happiness and togetherness is very cool. Awesome hunt and memory. Z

[twyatt]

This will definitely go down as the most special turkey hunt to date, and one I hope she remembers forever.  I know I sure will

[zsully]

What a freaking great hunt!!!!! I'm so happy for you two!

[PharmHunter]

Awesome stuff!

[Tom007]

Congrats, that's fantastic!!

[a_jabbo]

A memory the two of you will share for a lifetime my friend. Couldn't be more happy for the two of you. Congratulation.

[Delmar ODonnell]

Congratulations to both of you!! LOLed at "not my finest moment" We've all been there