I had a chance to take out a fellow firefighters son who was looking to get his first bird. He has successfully deer hunted before and also turkey hunted but never bagged a bird. We started out in a spot I've hunted before but never heard a peep and soon after first light the wind picked up and the rain started. We decided to move to a new spot to hopefully at least hear a gobble. No luck with the second spot as there was still too much snow on the ground to move quietly. Packing up again we took a long walk through snowmobile trails and deer trails. We did run into a old raspy hen that came in close but not even a jake all morning.
I ran into one of my friends who pointed at a spot of planted pines and said he just saw three jakes run into it. Well we made our entry into the pines walking and yelping slowly. We had all but made it back to the truck when at last a gobbler fired off only 50 yds away. We nearly came unglued!! Quickly sitting down and getting into position and making a few more yelps yielded more gobbles and spittin' and drummin. The bird started to get farther away so I pulled out a Steve Morganstern slate call and started in with some fighting purrs and cuts. He immediately turned around and came in strutting.
As soon as Mason had a shot he took it and dropped the bird at 25 yards. A perfect bullseye at the base of the neck. And the best part is he kept calm and still even though his heart was pounding. I give him lots of credit for covering probably three miles through thick woods at times.
Here's Mason with his first ever bird and it's a trophy. 21 lbs 8 oz, 1 3/16" spurs, 10" beard. Probably the most fun turkey hunt I've ever had!
