We were in the woods scouting some Friday before the hunt and only heard 3 birds so we were getting discouraged. We walked a little over 5 miles. We started our hunt Saturday where we heard a bird the day before and also had set up on him last year. Well..... he never said a word Saturday. We finally got one going at a different spot and it ended up being 3 together but they stayed just out of sight at about 60 yards. They finally left so we moved again and located one gobbling on his own. It ended up being two but we bumped them trying to get set up. Needless to say we moved again. We ended up meeting another hunter with his nephew on a side x side and the nephew had killed his first turkey. The guy gave me a location of where he had heard several more that morning so we headed there. We ended up on the edge of a field and as soon as I hit my call he sounded off. I had my boy sit down quick and I got behind him to call. There were 2 headed our way. I got about 20 yards behind him and got'em fired up good. They ended up skirting where my boy was set up and started coming close to me so I went back to the field and ended up flat on my belly calling. They came back to the field and when I saw them I told my boy to shoot but he couldn't get a shot because they were too close together. If some of you remember his first hunt 2 years ago he killed two with 1 shot so he was extra cautious. One finally broke away enough and he ended of missing. It was my fault because I was telling him to shoot and he thought they were too far. He was right because afterwards I stepped off 50 steps and he was only shooting a 20 gauge with a full choke. He immediately reminded me that he had been wanting to use my 12 gauge. We ended up calling it quits for the day and had my buddy come and got us. We had walked almost 7 miles for the day by then. The guy we met ended up meeting us Sunday and taking us on his side x side where he had heard the birds Saturday. We heard what sounded like the 2 from the field sounding off to our right and also 1 closer to or left. We ended up going to the one on the left. He ended up being across a creek and after hitting the ground he headed the other way so we hightailed it to the other 2. The guy had a blind set up from the day before so we set up there. As soon as he set out his decoys he said he heard a few clucks. I hit the call and 2 sounded off. It ended up being 3 good sounding gobblers and what sounded like a jake gobbling 100 yards away in the same field from the day before. After an hour and about 200 gobbles later they left without getting close enough for us to even see them. We eased up the edge of the field and busted 4 hens so we knew why they were stuck where they were. The guy with us ended up heading back home for a little bit but told us to let him know if we needed a ride on his side x side back up to our vehicle because it was over a mile up the side of a mountain. We ended up hunting around the area a little bit and stopped for a snack break. I asked my boy if he wanted to hunt the field for a little or go back to the top of the ridge and hunt. He decided to go to the ridge. As we made it back to where the side x side had been parked we stopped and picked up our water bottle that the guy had left us. I then heard one sound off where we started that morning so we head to him. We get set up as close as I felt we can get a started some calling. It ended up being a gobbler and what sounded like a jake gobbling. After a little soft calling and sitting quite he couldn't resist. I heard some leaves crunching and told my boy to get ready. He finally appeared and I asked my boy if he had a shot but there ended up being a tree limb in his way. When he ended up shooting he was 15 steps away. Needless to say Missouri turkey down! 9 3/4 inch beard, one spur was 7/8 inch the other 1 1/8 inch. We ended up walking about 15 miles total in the weekend. Not bad for my 9 yr old.
