Youth hunt success!!!! Story and lots of pics…..

[eorlando]

What a weekend!!!!! Our first turkey hunt of the season on some public ground in N Florida was a success. After missing the youth south zone opener and regular season opener due to travel baseball tournaments a weekend in the woods was definitely needed and the kids made the bast of it.

The weather Saturday morning was not ideal to say the least. Monsoon rains and gale force winds right at daybreak opening morning were not for the faint of heart. We chose to sit it out and get some breakfast instead and wait for it to pass. After the rain we headed in for a quick hunt before lunch. We saw some birds across the road on the neighboring property right across from where we would be hunting. They had likely crossed the road right before we drove up so hopes were high.

We headed in loaded down with all of our gear to a spot we hunted last year. My buddy Ryan and his son went a different direction in search of a spot and fresh sign. To my dismay the woods that were to our west had all been clear cut and the machines were still sitting there so on we went down the dirt road looking for another spot to hunt. After a decent walk we found a pretty spot and set up. We sat for an hour and a half and saw some deer but didn't see or hear any turkeys so we headed out for lunch.

After lunch we headed back in to a fresh burn close to where we saw the turkeys in the morning in hopes that we would catch them on their way back to roost. We were all setup and settled in to our spot by 245. By 3 o'clock all 3 of us were passed out in the gobbler loungers. Easton was snuggled up between my legs passed out. Getting up at 130 to make the 4hr trek north had taken its toll on us. At about 330 Easton was getting fidgety and woke me up. I sat up and looked out in front of me and saw something on the road that looked like a gobbler. I put the binos up and couldn't believe my eyes there were 2 gobblers and hen standing 150 yards away. If Easton hadn't moved I never would have woke up and possibly never would have seen them.

I woke both kids up and told them to get ready as there were some birds and I might be able to get them to come in. I grabbed my long box and hammered off some yelps. I didn't have high hopes as the wind was really blowing. To my surprise though it caught their attention and they looked my direction. After 30 seconds or so they slowly started our way. I handed my daughter the 20 gauge and told her to get in the position she was comfortable to shoot in. (Easton told her she could shoot the first one because he had killed 2 last year and she only killed one). Once they started our way I grabbed the trumpets for some soft calling and they couldn't resist it. We watched them strut as they made their way to the hill we were on. As they got to the base of it they disappeared for a moment which seemed like an eternity. The hen was the first to become visible as she came up the hill and saw the decoys. She was followed by the Gobblers. As they came into range I told my daughter to make sure she did not shoot the hen. The back bird came into full strut and I told her to shoot that one when she had a chance. He circled the decoys and kicked the Jake for a minute. As soon as he turned sideways I told her to put it on him and shoot. She did not even hesitate. She squeezed the trigger and dropped him. To my surprise the other Gobbler and hen jumped up and flew 15 yards and then came right back in. I was frantically trying to get Easton to sit on my lap as I grabbed the gun from my daughter and racked another shell. The Gobbler is now standing 15 yards from us and my son is half sitting on my lap half standing trying to get steady. He tells me he can't get on him and can't shoot. The gobbler looks in our direction and I think it's over, then he goes back to focusing on his buddy flopping and the decoy. I get my son comfortable on my leg and steady and I can tell he is ready to shoot. He takes a deep breath and I tell him to shoot, nothing, I tell him to shoot again, nothing, shoot him!!!! Boom! He drops him. I can't believe what just happened. Brother and sister double with the same gun! High fives, hugs, and a few photos with the iPhone to send to friends and family. What a day!!!!

Sunday morning rolls around and we are going to try to fill the remaining two tags and my buddy's son is going to try to kill his. We decided to go back to the same spot from the evening before and my buddy went to where he found some fresh sign on Saturday. It was a wee bit cold in the morning at 31° and we were all frozen. As the sun came up there was hardly any wind and I figured the birds would be gobbling good. Not a peep. After about an hour we had one hen come in unfortunately no Gobblers. At this point we were all freezing to death so we decided to call it a morning. My buddy's son was lucky to be able to shoot one Sunday morning!! Mission accomplished, all three kids were successful!

CB11DECE-508E-4516-B7C0-EBF2B05AE487 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

6F459000-626D-4DD2-8890-B7F84AE5B8DF by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

7F642A8E-376C-4ED7-9F90-A5812B90B708 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

087C019B-7B18-4C39-8802-4F25ECDC89C6 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

8E03E6EE-4F3F-4BF1-BC62-B7B41E277B1F by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

84553415-0492-466F-8490-42DE5C720F34 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

6E659266-8F87-4E65-9E66-F4BE37D9A80C by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

3146B9A7-1D01-4961-9CAC-57151D73C58A by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

D5B35417-EA74-4101-8A45-89AEDAAEDEB0 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

3179DC75-229A-4AFC-B4ED-0F52E159D3C3 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

C6398F86-6A62-488A-B94E-C0698CFED90E by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

A6E6F210-2479-4601-8687-69997C69C799 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

63173F54-40C9-4291-9604-CF0BF1143AA0 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

ECB333C1-4E4F-466A-97CD-7FBF89957EC0 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

8FB59121-7E39-4FF5-B037-1CE7BDCE4783 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr

AEC473A7-6A20-490E-84AD-55B6AC14CE66 by Eric Orlando, on Flickr


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[boatpaddle]

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME...

Congratulations to everyone involved.

Talk about a memory, that will last a lifetime...

Great pictures, as well...

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[PharmHunter]

Awesome all the way around man!  Pics are great as usual.  Special moments right there.

[JeffC]

Great write up, even better pictures, thanks for sharing. Congrats to all the successful young hunters!! Missed your seasonal scouting pictures this year??

[Bowguy]

Fantastic story and awesome pics! Congrats to all!!

[Cowboy]

Congrats! Excellent photography on the pics too!!

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[Tom007]

Congrats, great pics.....

[Zobo]

There's no way these pictures aren't from an LL Bean catalog.  Just kidding, beautiful, your doing it right with the kiddos! (Just thought of this, maybe some blaze orange hats while carrying the birds out if that's public land. But if it's back at the hacienda then scratch that)

[ltprod]

Love it!!!
Congrats


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[RED NECK]

Awesome,Congrats and some great pictures!

[Muzzy61]

Love it ! Great pictures. Congrats.

[silvestris]

Congrats to the kids, but I don't read posts unless the photos are properly scaled.

[gobblers roost]

Good deal , congratulations. Best of memories.

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[eorlando]

Great write up, even better pictures, thanks for sharing. Congrats to all the successful young hunters!! Missed your seasonal scouting pictures this year??

Thanks man. I didn't get out for turkey pics this year. Too busy with travel baseball and waterfowl photography. I use them for Ducks Unlimited and Wildfowl magazines. Hopefully I can get out next week for some strutter pics.


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[eorlando]

Congrats to the kids, but I don't read posts unless the photos are properly scaled.

Not sure what you are referring to....  They look fine on my phone using Tapatalk


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