How Long Did It Take You To Kill Your 1st Spring Turkey Without A Mentor?

[zelmo1]

Killed a jake my first hunt, solo. No clue how to hunt these birds, just got lucky to find a lone hot "super jake. It weighed 18 pounds and had a 5" beard and a 90% full fan. Next year I learned how to call a little bit and got a nice tom on May 20th, 9th hunt of the year. I killed birds every year after, but didny truly learn how to call and hunt them properly till my buddy Joe took me under his wing, so to speak. Teaching my wife and kids how to hunt turkeys is my greatest joy outside of being a dad. Al Baker

[MO_HUNTER]

Called in a double on my very first turkey hunt. My buddy shot his, and for good measure I shot it again..in the breast. Didn't have a clue. Next year I killed a Jake. No mentors, just Walter, Wilbur, and Eddie... maybe Bill Jerdin too... but it got easier and harder each trip. I was blessed with great land to hunt in turkey Valhalla, but that sure didn't make it easier. Oh the memories..

[grayfox]

I didn't start turkey hunting until I was in my late 40's so I guess I got a late start. Never had a mentor. My hunting buddy kept after me to go with him so I finally gave in. Neither one of us had ever did any turkey hunting before. I would go & just sit in the woods quietly & would occasionally call with an old made in Birmingham Lynch Jet Slate my daddy bought probably back in the sixties. I would also sometimes use a push button call. Finally killed my first jake with that old Jet Slate on the last day of turkey season in 2005. It was 3 seasons later before I killed a longbeard.

[eggshell]

It took me three seasons or years, which was exactly 9 days.

I'm like several others, I had no mentor. It has been, however; one of my greatest joys to have been the mentor to several other guys. One of the very best experiences in turkey hunting is being with a mentee when they bag their very first gobbler.

I wrote about this in my story thread, here:
http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,100082.msg989823.html#msg989823

You know I think that what I should do is write a story on all my follies, or start a thread of my dumbest stunts while learning to turkey hunt.

[Dtrkyman]

Killed my first the second year I hunted them, no clue what I was doing other than chasing gobbles. 5th and last day on a public land draw hunt.  Had a new girlfriend at the time, she took the 3hr ride with me the night before and camped out.

We heard the birds gobbling from the tent and she heard me shoot!  She is sitting next to me as I type this!!!

[chatterbox]

1st season I hunted on my own I killed a gobbler.
It took me all season, and I finally tagged out on Memorial Day of that year.
I killed another one the next season, got cocky, then got schooled for the next 4 seasons, eating full helpings of humble pie to follow my tag soup.
It has gotten easier as I have learned and grown as a hunter, but those 4 seasons taught me more than any of the other seasons I hunted.


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[paintbrush]

Took me till my second year of actual hunting turkey here in Mn. I had to travel 200 miles south to find such a thing as a turkey. No such thing as a turkey back then up around me, just Ruff Grouse. Got turkeys up here now though. Also, when I first started you were put in a draw for tags and we would get drawn about every other year. Slows the learning curve way down when when you have to travel so far and only get tags every other year!

[Neill_Prater]

Third year, 1979, here in Missouri. Two week season back then, noon closure. I owned a small business then, so could go every morning, but s lot of days had to be back to town by 8:00. The next year I tagged out with 2 birds. I was sure I was a genuine expert turkey hunter.

Some of my most enjoyable, and frustrating, time in the woods. I kinda feel sorry for all the present day newcomers to the sport who can learn more about turkey hunting from watching a couple of YouTube videos than I learned my whole first year chasing gobblers. There's something to be said for learning some things the hard way.

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[ChesterCopperpot]

Third season, but looking back really the first time I was on good birds. I called on one side of a small lip and heard an answer from the other side. Call sounded horrible to the point I thought it was another person. I crest the hill and there's two jakes running hard straight at me with two long beards in tow. They see me and bugger. Figured I'd blew it but I made a mental note of which direction they went and slowly worked my way in a big circle over the next three or four hours. Was sitting on a log eating my lunch and happened to call and get an answer. I set up and those two jakes go racing by me cutting wide open. They pass within five yards and keep on trucking. I sit silent. A few minutes later I see the two long beards working slow wide left. I call a few times and the two jakes come running back. When the jakes get close the long beards work over and I shot the strutter at about ten yards behind me. A lot of good lessons learned that morning.


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[owlhoot]

Two days so about 11 hours. At least 2 hrs of non stop gobbling trying to get him in close. Maybe 25 yards. Heard no less than 20 gobblers.
But I cheated. Borrowed a 33 record album,  Leroy Braungardt from Moscow Mills Missouri. Tips on calling, patterning and turkey habits. A borrowed single shot 12 gauge full choke with 2 3/4" shells (all i had an was a improved cylinder 20). Penn Woods mouth call and a lunch jet slate. Woodland camo pants and shirt.

[Tail Feathers]

Second morning.  Early in my turkey hunting I went into the woods 10 times and brought back 7 dead turkeys.  Took a few seasons as we have a one bird limit.  Then I traveled and added a few. 
But locally I was hunting turkeys that had never been hunted.  I felt invincible for those first few years. 

[G squared 23]

2nd or 3rd hunt I believe.  Had a jake half strut in towards my decoy, had several other turkeys with it that I thought were hens.  When I shot the jake, the rest shock gobbled, so they musta been jakes too.  I feel like it took me a few years to get a longbeard, the early years were filled with frustration and an occasional jake getting it.  Kinda similar to these days I guess.

[MK M GOBL]

Never had a Turkey Hunting Mentor... Dad taught me hunting but here in WI never had turkeys when I was a kid.

Taught myself with some "help" from our farm birds. I called in a tom for my buddy 1st year, 2nd year I did not draw a tag, but dad did and I called his in, then the next year filled my first tag on a jake, year after gobbler, this was the start of this 30 years ago.


MK M GOBL

[rstewart8706]

 Killed my first bird last spring, 2nd day of the season.  I didn't really start to turkey hunt until 2015.  I had deer,turkey and hog hunted with my dad and grandpa as a kid in the 70s but I never caught the fever like I did for fishing.
Then I discovered girls and the outdoors fell to the wayside.  I joined the Navy and travelled around the world for 4 years and landed in the ATL.  I lived in Pinhoti Dave's part of the world, Acworth, GA.  Deer hunted and fished but never turkey hunted.  Then my life fell apart.  I got divorced and became a single dad of 2 and eventually moved back to my hometown to raise my kids in the same environment I was raised in. 
Fastforward to 2014, my kids are grown and gone, and I'm getting bored.  I love to fish but I started feeling this desire to start hunting again.  I don't know why but the desire continued to grow and I decided what the hell, I'm going to turkey hunt this spring instead of fish.  Borrowed a shotgun and some calls from my dad, I only had an fixed choke IC shotgun.
Didn't know the first thing about how to call to a turkey.  Dad showed me a few things, by this time he was too old and broke down to hunt, and I was off.  The 2015 season was my first spring turkey season since 1981, when I was 14 years old.  I hunt in the mountains and it took me a while to get my ears tuned to hear where the gobbles are coming from.  That first year I didn't even come close to a bird.  2016 I had surgery and missed the spring season, in 2017 Dad got sick and I missed the season taking care of him, he passed away later in 2017.  Work prevented me from hunting in 2018 but I was back at it in 2019 with a mentor.  One of my dads friends was a great turkey hunter.  I had known Pee Wee my whole life and I would run into him in the mountains while I hunting and he became my mentor.  Pee Wee died last Jan from cancer.  He didn't get to be there when I bagged my first bird but I know he was looking down on me,  grinning like a jackass eating sawbriars when I killed that jake last year.
I had completed my early morning hunt and decided to take a drive to see if I could prospect me a gobbler.  I drove up on top of the ridge and just held my call out of the truck window and called.  One responded, then 2 responded.  I backed my truck up to the curve in the road, grabbed my shotgun, 1 shell, my call and headed into the woods.  I made my way along the ridge top and setup.  I called again and both birds immediately responded.  1 min later I hear something walking in the leaves coming up the ridge.  Over the crest of the ridge comes Mr Jake.  As soon as he got into the clear I dropped him in his tracks with No 6 Longbeard XR from my Winchester 1300.  I was on top of the world.  Best feeling I can remember since discovering girls, if you know what I mean!. 
Now I can't wait for this season.  I have been putting in my time this off season learning my WMA, it's close to 300K acres and getting into better shape.  It's hard on a fat old man hunting in the mountains.

[perrytrails]

Took 2 years to kill my first one. I was a teenager in 1983. Didn't hunt much the first year. Wasn't a big fan of getting up that early. Lol. Boy how things change when you actually do call one in and seal the deal. Killed it with my grandpa's old model 12 Winchester. Pure luck I'll admit but it started something.

A addiction with no cure for me.
Absolutely love it.