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

[drenalinld]

Almost five seasons.


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[THattaway]

4 seasons I guess. Started hunting at 12 and first turkey was a double at 16 years old. Turkeys were ghosts and haints in the woods for the first few years but after those first kills things began to click a bit better.

[arkrem870]

When I was 14 I saw a group fly up to roost from the deer stand. It was fall gun season and I went and got close to them before daylight. They flew down in my lap and I killed a hen.

i took a Lynch box call out that spring and called one up close enough to see him but not in range of my 20 gauge. Dad drove me out 3-4 mornings (dad didn't turkey hunt)

The next year I called up three jakes strutting and gobbling and killed my first one @ 16.

I learned to use a mouth call over the summer. Got proficient with it

Called up a gobbler on the opener the following year and killed it with old Winchester lead #6
Then killed another gobbler three days later

Was hooked after that. Started traveling the next year @ 18 yrs old....to Missouri first then all around the country.

[hpo]

Day 1, heard a gobble after I hit my Primos double slate over glass call and automatically assumed it was another hunter, My curve was steep. It took me years and I choose not to think about the actual number. 

[longbeards]

1979, first time really hunting spring birds and have been hooked since..I laugh at how clueless I was back then! BUT it never gets old,,,cant wait for 21 season!

[captfire]

I got into turkey hunting about 10 years ago in went in to blind didn't know much just found a place set up and called sometime I would get on to gobble I would hammer back but never seen a turkey about 2 years after that a meet a guy that killed them every year I went went with him a time are two but no luck so I started watching Jason cruis on you tube I've pickup a lot from him. I started hunting hunting like him ive killed 1 are 2 turkeys every year. THANKS JASON...

[THattaway]

Might be relevant to add that there wasn't much readily available in the way of how to call and hunt turkeys 40 years ago. Just some threadbare magazine articles and a few cassette tapes. Maybe a book or two but not readily available. Fast forward to internet days and plenty of great info is a google click away. Point is, learning curve is much better these days compared to back then with or without a mentor.

[wbyman]

 I took up Turkey hunting later in life. I studied, read tons of books, watched videos, talked to local hunters and walked the land. Opening day I got set up and called lightly, sun barely coming up, he roared out a gobble!
I was all by myself and I hear a voice in my head, it was my late grandfather, "be patient...wait for him"!
Took my first bird and have been hooked ever since. One of my best memories!

[makestomstremble]

Never had a mentor. Killed a longbeard my first season, which was 1983. My buddy and I, (who was equally as clueless as myself) had actually given up hunting for the day, it was around 2 p.m. and was fishing in a pond. I noticed I could barely hear a tom gobbling about 3/4 of a mile from us in the river bottom. I asked my friend if he could hear it, we grabbed our shotguns and headed that direction. I set up probably 150-200 yards from where I thought the bird was and yelped three times on my Lynch box, and about 4-5 minutes later I could see him walking my direction. Have hunted them every spring since.

[mhamby]

I set out, turkey hunting on my own when I was 17 (1993) and called in 2 Jakes for my Cousin and I. We doubled on those birds (first birds for both of us) and that was it for the season.
The following year, I successfully called in and killed 2 toms by myself.

[Kylongspur88]

First spring I had my driver's license so the way my birthday falls I would have been 17. Got really lucky and called in a jake off the roost with a quaker boy push call and shot him with a #5 federal from the gold box. I almost choked on my skoal.

[roberthyman14]

Took me i think 7 seasons.  But in seasons 5 and 6 I somehow missed a bird both of those years.  All of those years was self taught.  1st couple seasons I'm not sure if ever even setup on a bird.  But I was a pro at making them gobble on the limb until 9 oclock

Prostaff member for Old Crow Custom Calls

[Chad Gus715]

Took me 5 days, i never had mentor or anyone to teach me how to hunt turkey, so i taught myself. I killed my first tom in the last day of our 5 day season ( season is now 7 days) i had giving up on the season, when my dad wanted to go look at my uncle's new horse. Pulled into his driveway just as 5 toms crossed the road a couple hundred yards away. My uncle told me to go after them, i grabbed my shotgun and took off across the road. Went in about a 100 yards at down, called once, they gobbled and came running in, first one i got a clear shot on i killed. Took less than 5 minutes and 20 minutes before the close of the season.

[quavers59]

  I have read all the replys. Alot of Hunters here have struggled  like me. 3 years ,4 years ,5 ,6, + 7 years.
    Too bad you can't  walk them up like a frozen Pheasant. It seems plenty here have had a long Learning curve like me.

[Nathan_Wiles]

3 seasons for me. I had an almost moment in my first season that really got under my skin...probably why it became such a "thing" after all these seasons.

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