I've really been looking forward to the 2016 Youth Turkey season and I know for certain that Chandler and Bethany have as well. I've had a bit of a dry spell the last few years during the youth hunt, but it sure wasn't for the lack of trying. Bethany had a ball tournament on Saturday, so Chandler was up to bat first.
Chandler had gotten his first bird back when he was 7 years old on an extremely exciting hunt with me, but despite hard efforts the next few years, we struggled to get him close enough for a shot on another tom. I was really hoping this year would be the year. I didn't have a chance to put in the scouting like I'd prefer, but I had located a few prospect areas with sign a few weeks back and hoped to get in a little scouting on Friday prior to the hunt. The scouting Friday was pretty much a bust due to heavy rain, so I just decided to try one of the areas I'd found sign in a few weeks prior. We woke to cool temps, cloudy skies, and high winds, so I was not very optimistic to say the least. I opted to go to an easy location not far off a main road due to the conditions. We parked the truck on a logging road and eased into the edge of a clearing between two creeks. I put a decoy in the logging road and we backed off about 35 yds and set up 3 lounge chairs behind a brush top about 6 feet off the logging road. Daylight approached and the North wind howled, but no toms fired off within hearing. I threw out some soft talk, but got no response. A bit after daylight, I noticed Chandler was shaking, so I told him we'd give it 10min or so, then head back to the truck to warm up. I decided to get aggressive as there wasn't much to lose, so I did a fly down and started cutting up a bit. About 5min later I thought I heard wing beats, but it was too windy to tell for sure. Then, he hammered!! He was close and the worst thing was he was in the road we were on the edge of, but behind us! I thought it was over at that point, I turned to my Brother-in-law and whispered put your head down, shut your eyes, and don't move a muscle, he's going to walk over the top of us! I then whispered to Chandler "Don't move a muscle, he's right behind us!" I'm thinking the whole time it's never going to happen, I couldn't pull this off alone, and 3 of us are sitting on the edge of the rd he's on and he's on the non-camo side! Then I hear him spit and drum and buddy, he was on top of us! I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and that rascal was at 4yds! By a pure miracle, he didn't spook, but he knew something wasn't right and he turned right out of the road and headed out into the clearing. He wasn't spooked, but he was dang sure aware of us. Then I saw the sprig sticking out, and it all started to make sense, just a jake, that's how we fooled him. At that point I didn't say a word, we were cutting that rascal if he came in, we played the game and this boy has paid his dues. Then I start thinking that's a monster bodied jake. He very cautiously walked into the clearing, then started looping back towards Peggy Sue(Zink Breeder) and I'm starting to think game on baby! He paused behind some brush for a bit, so I took a gamble and hit him with soft talk. Bam! He blows into strut and what's that, it's a full fan! He spit and drummed a bit and finally made it close to the rd, but there were just a few limbs in the way. He came out of strut and was looking hard at us, but we were pretty camoed in at this point. I didn't talk anymore, it was risky enough at this point, it was Peggy's turn to entice. His head cautiously eased fwd and it was so tempting to call it, but I held off. Finally his neck cleared the last limb, then feathers and I couldn't take it any more, Chan was shaking like a leaf. I whispered "Calm down and take him when your ready." The words barely rolled off my lips and BAM! He let the 20 bark and the tom was down for the count!
That little guy was super pumped and shaking like crazy. You should have seen my Brother-in-law high stepping it through some brush to get his foot on that rascals head after the shot lol. It was no surprise when we walked up and saw he was an adult tom. He actually had some pretty nice spurs on him. I assume beard rot got his beard, though most of the beard rot birds I've killed looked like the beard had been snipped with scissors.
The happy hunter:
A proud family:
Daggers:
Beard:
Gun specs:
20ga Rem 870 Youth with a FF2 on a 336 mount, Rem SF, and Hevi 1-1/4oz 7.5 Duck load(old lot 12g/cc).
It was an amazing weekend and believe it or not, it gets better with part two as Bethany was up to bat.
Have a good one,
Loder
