Remember the first bird you called in ?

[silvestris]

I don't think one ever forgets their first.  But it is a few special birds that I couldn't kill that are more firmly etched in my mind.  The special thing about my first was not the kill, but rather the life changing event that occurred some three hours following the kill.  The loss of my turkey caller led me to Ken Morgan's house and the beginning of a close friendship that endures more than five years after his death.  Life takes some interesting twists and turns.

[Kevin6Q]

My first hunt was with a homegrown slate using a piece of carbon arrow as the striker and the weapon was an older PSE Thunderbolt with an overdraw rest and fixed pins. I didn't own a shotgun but figured bowhuntiing might be fun. I had never hunted anything before. At 46 years old, hunting seemed like a good activity to have a go. My goals were to find a bird, call in a bird, draw on a bird, shoot at a bird and ultimately kill a bird. Accomplishing any of these would make the season a success.

It was the fifth day  in a row getting up at 3:30 and sitting in the woods behind the house by 4. My setup was not good and by listening to where gobbles were coming from managed to get a bit closer to where they might be. Just like the previous four mornings the gobbling was no closer to where I was and out of pure frustration, decided to take a walk to burn off some aggravation and try to warm up.

Wandering along the cross country ski trails in the area was much easier than going through the woods. Early May in Vermont has a few bugs and without any leaves, the sightlines are great. A gobble came through the hemlock stand up the hill  and lured me back into the sticks. Moving uphill the gobbling kept getting louder so I ducked in behind a blow down white pine for some cover. After nocking an arrow I knelt  sitting on my feet enabling me to draw. My call was weak and scratchy with the occasional squeak. It was not anything resembling sexy as I had heard on You-Tube instructional videos. Whatever sounds I was making did the trick and three gobblers came in. One to the other side of the downed pine. If it was seven feet away it was far. Two more were just up the hill. I never saw any of them.

My inexperience had me just about rubbing through the slate with non-stop noise making. The gobbles were loud and didn't slow down. At this point it dawned on me I was unable to feel my feet or lower leg which were in a slumber so deep Sleeping Beauty looked an insomniac. A glance at the watch shown forty minutes has passed since I'd moved.  The gobbles began to fade and no amount of my "calling" made them return.

The adrenaline rush had subsided and it was time to head home.

At that very moment of concession a GOBBLE, GOBBLE exploded behind me with such noise and power I felt it resonate in my ribs. The new adrenaline hit was so fierce it popped me to my feet. I'm not sure who was more surprised, me or the three birds standing four feet away. They looked at me. I stared back at them. Time stopped for a beat. Simultaneously my hand went for the bow and the Three Amigos turned tail and ran. My draw was smooth and the sights aligned right on the back of a bird as it ran away. Which one is a Tom? RATS! in all my studying to identify a tom or hen it never accrued to me to make the ID from the back. After letting down the bow and watching them all run away I stood motionless and exhausted.

With tingling feet and a post adrenaline hangover the walk home was brutal but gratifying.

The experience reminded me of my days playing video games at an arcade. The first quarter in a new game usually had good results. The next few quarters not so much.

It took two more seasons but I finally got one.



 

[renegade19]

I think the first one I ever called in my buddy killed.  I for sure remember the first couple I did solo.  Both were memorable in their own ways.

[jblackburn]

Yes, spring 1998. called in and killed my first one at a buddy's farm. Weird morning, he gobbled good and was coming in when the cattle decided to come see what the commotion was. He walked off the other way, not willing to cross the cows to come to the decoy. a few minutes go by so i get up to run them off. They are half pets and only start running in circles around me bucking and playing. I'm trying to figure out what to do when the neighbor shoots! I just knew it was "my" tom, but it wasn't.  At the shot, all the cattle ran out of the woods back to the field and as I'm standing there like a moron the tom gobbled about 150 yards away, he never really left and somehow I never spooked him!

I dove back for my cover and started calling, he responded and marched in. I realized I really didn't know what 40 yards looked like and was so frazzled that I shot him at 45 or so. Killed him, but I did have to do the foot on the head. He was walking half strut and probably would have walked right in to 25 yards, but I was an idiot back then. Well, I'm probably still an idiot, but I have more experience!

[30_06]

Yes, early morning a bit chilly but otherwise perfect weather. Sunrise comes, I hit the call, and immediately get a response from the other side of a field across the river. I'm calling, he flies down and starts gobbling and strutting all over the place! Long story short I called him and his buddies in from across the river, across the entire field, and past two groups of hens, gobbling the entire time!
I thought I was God's gift. I'm telling you I was the greatest turkey hunter that ever lived.....and I missed him. Haven't ever had one react to a call the same since.

Esse quam videri

[MK M GOBL]

"My" first turkey wasn't even mine... So back in the day a buddy of mine had said that they had seen these turkeys where they deer hunted. We talked about it a bit and wanted to try this turkey hunting thing out so we headed out late that summer on a trip to scout for birds and knock on some doors. Once we got there and as we were scouting the area where they hunted for whitetail we seen all these scrapes in places that didn't make sense, next thing you know we bust up a flock of turkeys! So after talking with the landowner and getting permission to hunt there the for next spring, we did a little research and applied for our permits. Back at home we raised some of those bronze breasted farm birds, I started watching those birds to see how they interacted with each other, our hens could fly into the trees at night but the old tom didn't get off the ground but about 4ft. I actually learned a lot from those birds and they talked profusely, them hens were my teacher on cadence and rhythm, body language and more. From the time they woke up and did the tree talk to when they were talking to the old tom. I spent countless hours watching and learning from those barnyard birds, as we didn't have wild birds where I lived at that time.
We were as green as anyone could be and no one I knew turkey hunted or had ever been, so out to the local sports shop and I bought the "Truth About Turkey Hunting" Vol #1 it was the first year it was out (I have bought every one out since then too, been kind of a tradition. Year #28 is out for 2017). I watched that video like it was the bible and bought myself a slate call... really wished I would have kept that one, also had a mouth call from Primos that came with the tape then I bought a Red Wolfe's Gobble Shaker.  I practiced my calling with those hens and the old tom tirelessly, learned everything they were saying and when, made my guesses as to what they meant and learned what each sound was called. I got to see all this day to day what they did at different times and that interaction between those birds. So here comes spring and we have our approvals from the DNR, WI has a lottery system. My buddy bought a H.S. Redi Hen decoy with a moveable head, could just twist it to a different position.
We got up there a day early for a five day hunt to scout and talk with the land owner, she tells us about
them birds and how they come out in the back of the field every morning over there... So we go out and look and see sign, tracks, poop and a wing feather. Yup decision is made lets hunt here, this lead to lesson #1 turkeys do have really good eye sight, spooked a bird that first morning... WI season at that time closed at noon, and the rest of the day was uneventful. Day 2 we setup a little different and we are not having any luck, we see some birds and hear them but just not doing things right yet...Here we are on day number four and we have learned where those birds roosted and we are setup and are in sight of those birds, hens are a talking, toms are gobbling and this to me feels like home. I start with my tree talk, birds fly down and a tom breaks from the flock to my calling, must have been better than 20 birds together out there but this guy was liking my calling. We watched him strut and gobble his way in off the field and down a bit of the old logging road we were set up on, decoy was set a bit past us and as him came my buddy put him down! He was froze, white knuckled and speechless he didn't even get up, I jumped up as soon as I could see that bird go down, ran over and put my foot on him like I had seen and kept yelling to my buddy "Shawn we did it, We did it!"
I never did get a bird that first year, didn't matter we had success and a lot of lessons were learned during those early days. As I told my Dad the story of the hunt and it got him to want to try this turkey hunting. More than anything else my dad raised me on hunting and fishing and "Turkey Hunting" was the one thing I got to teach my dad about...called in his first bird for him too, since then Dad has passed on and I have some great memories and how much this has been a part of my life and still is, it's not about the kill... don't get me wrong still like to pull the trigger but it's about family, friends and those I share the hunt with.

Hoped you enjoyed the read

MK M GOBL

[Gooserbat]

Absolutely.  Was a 17# Jake in southeast Oklahoma.  Rolled him up with my old 3" 870. 

[Mazahoochi]

Better than the first I ever called in is the story of the first I ever called in for my son.  We don't always have turkeys around our place, but one spring when he was about 12 we did.  So for a couple Saturdays in a row we'd get out in our woodlot beside the pasture, set up, and call.  They were roosting on the neighbor's property and sometimes came to the pasture, so I set him against a maple tree along the fenceline next to a little cedar and facing in the direction of where we figured they entered the pasture.  I set a jake and a hen decoy along the edge about 30 yds behind him and then set myself up just inside the woods.  Didn't hear any gobbling, so just sat there calling every 15 minutes or so on my box call.

About 10am we hear a gobble down in the bottom where a creek runs through the pasture, about 150 yds from us.  I call, he gobbles, each time getting closer.  He's coming in from the opposite direction from what we set up for, so before he tops the rise, I get up and hustle further back into the woods and circle around to the other side of where my son is.  There was no time to do anything about the decoys.  No sooner than I get set, a jake and a nice gobbler come marching over the rise, spot the decoys and make a beeline to them.  I call, he gobbles, and they start coming down the fenceline looking into the woods for the "hen". 

From my position, and with all the underbrush, I could not see my son, but could see the maple where he was at.  Those birds came down the fenceline right to him, so I quit calling and waited for the inevitable shot.  But there was no shot, and pretty soon they were standing right next to that tree, so I started second guessing myself thinking that must be the wrong maple tree.  The jake wanted to come into the woods towards my position, repeatedly, sticking his head under the bottom strand but then changing his mind and stepping back.  The gobbler was all fanned out and strutting about 5 feet from that maple but not going anywhere, so I yelped again and he gobbled.

Turns out, the kid was indeed at that maple with those birds.  For some reason, he never thought of turning to face the direction they had come from before they came into sight, and so there he sat.  Must have been something with that longbeard gobbling just 5 feet away.  He later told me the gobbler was slightly behind him, but he'd have shot that jake as he was trying to come under the fence, only it was right at his feet.  Eventually one of them spotted him, putted, and they took off back across the pasture.  The kid jumped up, snapped off a shot, and missed.  So we called it a day, but he was so psyched he spent the rest of the morning on the computer shopping for turkey calls, choke tubes, etc.

[turk2di]

It was April 11, 1990. My second hunt in my county's first ever turkey season! Remember it as if it was yesterday, nearly 28 seasons ago

[Rio Fan]

My first one was a Jake. He was gobbling good down in the canyon and worked his way up towards me. I was in a clearing along a hillside but there weren't any trees to sit against. The bird came up, out of range, and was looking for the hen. He then worked back down where he came from so I quickly snuck over towards where he came up, I laid on my belly near a little patch of buck brush and yelped with my mouth call and he came right back up and I whacked him.

[Meadow Valley Man]

It's been really neat to read all the accounts of first turkeys,  Although the stories vary, the one thing that really comes through is how life-changing it was for everyone.

[owlhoot]

78 and first day turkey hunting. A couple hours tops and came in from behind, crosses to the right . Didn't dare move for lynch  jet slate so a cluck on the the penn woods double reed got a gobbling reponse .  As his head went behind a tree I raised the old single shot 12 with 2 3/4" and 4 shot lead put him down hard at 20-25 yards. Easy stuff.
Funny how all this time it don't get any easier or any less exciting.
Gets  you up early and going year after year.

[WNCTracker]

yep it was awesome.  I was using a "raspy old hen" diaphragm and it was raining.  He gobbled and showed himself about 250 yds away up a hill in a field.  He was solo, and walked all the way down the field, hopped a stream, and walked to within 30 yards of me in a cow field.  He never stopped, and never strutted but I think it took at least 20 hours for him to get there

[Bolandstrutters]

Remember it perfectly.  Got one to gobble way down a ridge.  Sounded like he was heading toward a field, so I took off running to get in front of him.  Set up on the edge of the field and hit him with a Quaker boy box call a few times.  He gobbled just out of sight for 30 minutes or so and then shut up.  Out of nowhere he appeared about 30 yards away in full strut.  Came right into my hen decoy and I killed him at twenty steps. 

[wvmntnhick]

I remember it quite well. Dad and I went out together for the first time since I was in middle school. Called in 2 jakes. Dad "messed up" the countdown by firing on 2 instead of 3 but I still managed to get my bird while he missed his. It was a great morning and a blast to be there with my dad.