Son's first longbeard

[blake_08]

Today my oldest son killed his first tom and he couldn't be more happy. This was an Oklahoma controlled youth hunt and doesn't count towards his normal season limit. The hunt was for an extremely low population area, statistically one the worst turkey hunting counties in the state. 4 kids were drawn to hunt 2500 acres that is normally bow only for deer and turkey hunting prohibited. I've lived here my whole life and didn't even know the area had turkeys. He had all day April 1st and until noon on the 2nd.
     Saturday morning was super windy at daylight, but clear and sunny. We hunted around without hearing anything until we got into the same bottom as a bird and he gobbled back to a pot call, only 150 yards or so away. We didn't have time or space to move around so we had to just sit down and try the setup. The woods were super open and flat, and he was on the only high ground around. He strutted and gobbled into view at about 80 yards and wouldn't come any closer. We watched him for 30 minutes or so then let him walk off to try and reposition. We never did get back on him. We left for lunch and as the day went on, the wind died down. We got back in the woods about 2 o'clock and walked to where we had the encounter that morning. I hit the call and a turkey gobbled up the creek several hundred yards away. We made a move towards him and got on his side of the creek and found a good place to setup. We sat and called and he gobbled closer and was coming in. He was pretty fired up at this point so i just shut up and let him come. When he was almost within view, gobbling about 60 yards away but behind brush, i catch movement out to my right side and glance that way as another longbeard was sneaking in without gobbling or strutting. I repositioned my sons gun at the first opportunity to the sneaking bird and he got a shot on the bird at about 30 steps away. Immediately after the shot, i seen the gobbler get airborne and fly to the next little hill and land, then start walking up the hill and out of sight. We checked for blood and feathers at both the shot place and where the gobbler landed and walked. I found 0 evidence that Tycen hit the bird, but we still looked for about an hour just to be sure. He was so bummed out, he asked to go home because he didn't want to miss another turkey. I told him that's not what we should do or how he should handle it, but it was his hunt and that would give me an opportunity to check the red dot on the little 20 gauge.
     This morning, on the last day of his hunt,  we went back to the same creek as the day before. At daylight we only heard 1 turkey gobble about 3 times,  and he wouldn't respond to locators or turkey calls. So we walked away beginning to look for a new turkey. About an hour after daylight, we stopped to take a break and heard a bird gobbling on his own up out of the bottom by some green fields. I called from the bottom to check him and he answered back, so we began working our way across the creek and towards the bird. We got up on his level and hit the call after about 10 minutes since first contact and he gobbled down in the bottom where we just came from. We slipped right to the edge to where we had the high ground and called and he a,swered, within 100 yards. We got set up and he was fired up and coming, and Tycen's breathing got heavier and heavier. I talked him through it as we watched this bird coming to us strutting and gobbling, and tried to keep him calm and restore a little confidence. When the turkey got to about 30 yards, I gave Tycen the go ahead and he made it count. His first longbeard and a bonus bird that doesn't count towards his season limit of one. I'm super thankful and he is too,  and something good came of the miss. It allowed us 1 more morning of turkey hunting together that we wouldn't have had if he would have killed the first turkey. The biologist over this area said they've done this controlled hunt in this area for the last 3 years and this is the first turkey killed on the place.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Spring Creek Calls]

Congratulations to both of you!

[blake_08]

Congratulations to both of you!

At one point, one of your box calls yelped to this bird. Tycen has a cedar and purple heart half moon box and I let him call to him. Thank you for the congrats.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Cowboy]

Congrats!!

Sent from my SM-G990U2 using Tapatalk

[Muzzy61]

Congrats to your son and you. That's a fine bird.

[fishr64]

Congratulations to your son and to you dad!! Everything came together in the end, nice.

[Seminole Custom Calls]

Awesome congrats!

[raywa]

Congrats!!

[JeffC]

Congratulations Tycen! Sure there will be many more turkeys in the future, but only 1 first Tom. Great read dad and great pictures, thanks for sharing.

[Zobo]

Congratulations, nice one!

[g8rvet]

Congrats young man.  He learned hanging in there is over half the battle.  Great job Dad.

[Vintage]

Nice Bird. Congrats.

[Turkeybutt]

Tycen! Congratulations buddy. Great job you should be very proud.
Blake good job at keeping him calm and restoring his confidence, good for you!

[tomstopper]

Awesome. Congratulations to you both on a fine gobbler

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

[EZ]

Congrats to your son. BEAUTIFUL pics!!!