I've tried to mentor 3 people.
One was the land owner at my old lease. He learned enough to kill a few during opening week of the season, then once it gets tough, he gives up. He never tried to learn more calling than a push pin call. He makes it work good enough, I guess. He'd rather work to make money than to learn how to turkey hunt. He leases his land to someone else and hasn't hunted lately.
The second is a the son of a neighbor. They are heavy into duck hunting and the father wanted me to help the boy get a gobbler before he aged out of youth season, then get him started...so I was more guide than mentor. The boy had his own ideas on how to turkey hunt and moved around more like he was hunting quail. He has no patience and hoped turkeys might be as plentiful as ducks, where he could shoot a lot. I called in a nice longbeard, but the kid busted him off by moving to get a better look before he got in range. It rained hard the only other day we both had to hunt. He aged out of youth week and they moved out of state before the next spring.
The last was a man in his 30s who was fired up to learn to turkey hunt. He said he had access to some great family property in a neighboring county. The first time we got together to scout, he brought his over-exuberant Labrador (who went with him everywhere) and the dog ran all over the place, with the guy yelling for it to came back (I wish I was kidding). The next time we got together to scout, he wanted to go to one of my spots (not happening) so we went to some public and located some promising areas. We never went to any of the family land places he claimed to have, yet he kept wanting to go to my spots. When we had the chance to hunt, we ended up heading to some public land, where he told me how fired up he was to get a gobbler... he simply couldn't wait to post a picture of himself with a turkey on facebook...Once I realized that was his entire focus and goal, I bailed. He contacted me again late last winter and said he had some killer land lined up to hunt down east, but I was going to have to have to call for him and the landowner. Sheesh. No thanks.
Basically, I've had people who wanted to use me as a guide, where all they had to do was show up and shoot a turkey. I haven't found anyone who had the dedication and desire to take the time to learn the craft and woodsmanship required to hunt turkeys. So, if they're not serious, I'm not going.
Jim
