Wow what a season so far!!
I knew where some gobblers had been hanging out, and went in the evening before and set up a blind for my daughter and I to hunt out of, as she asked to go along this year. She has only been one other time last year, and it rained the whole time, with no gobbles, yelps, or turkeys seen. This year would be different. Woke her up at 4:40am. and she popped out of bed and put on her clothes before I could blink. We got about 800 yards from the blind, and walked in the dark to our spot, and put up the decoys, we named "Goober" and "Henrietta" from Joe (TRKYHTR), and quietly entered the blind at 6:14am.
The first song birds started around 6:33, and by 6:45 we had heard our first gobbles a looong way off. Unfortunately, there were no gobbling close by. By 7:15 I did some calling, 7:30, and 7:45. Nothing, except a hen yelp at 7:15, which we never saw her at all. It was cold, and my daughter was cold as well. At 7:48 she was shivering and asked if we could go back. I said "sure" and asked if she wanted to go now, or wait another 15 minutes. She replied, in another 15 minutes.
In another 5 minutes, there was a red head coming around the edge of the green field, on the road. He was walking and as soon as he saw Henrietta, he went in full strutt. Then my daughter whispers "daddy, there's two more!" Sure enough two more red heads from the same direction as the first. The first gobbler then sees Goober, and walks over to him in a strutt, and gives him the up and down look of "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"
I ask my daughter if she wants me to shoot one, and she says "yes". I whisper "cover your ears", and she slowly eases her hands up to her ears as we had practiced earlier.
By now, the other two turkeys had run up, eyeballing Henrietta, then Goober, then the strutting gobbler. The strutting gobbler eases up to the back of Goober, and I knew Goober was gonna take a beating. BOOM!!! Goober was saved with a load of H13 #7s.
We watched the other two gobblers run off, and then went to look at our bird. We examined his colors, said a prayer of thanks, and continued to live in amazement of what just happened, 5 minutes after thinking about going home.
Highfive and the view from blind with the decoy setup
Close up
Daughter doing the turkey dance.
Measurements
19.53 lbs, 9 7/8" beard, 13/16" spurs, scored 55.53
Thanks again Joe (TRKYHTR) for the decoys "Goober" and "Henrietta", Scott @ Hooks calls, and Mike Yingling for the Spalted Maple pot call, and thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the beautiful daughter I'm blessed with, as a hunting partner, and princess.
God Bless,
David B.
