After ALOT of whining about my kids being grown... I had the good fortune to tag along with my huntin buddy, Sean, and his 13 year old daughter, Bailey, this past weekend for Oklahoma's youth turkey hunt.
We found these birds earlier this week and the evening before the hunt we put the whole flock, including 3 longbeards to bed. Being on public land and her first hunt we decided to slip in as close as we dared, as early as we could stand. Set up a blind and keep our fingers crossed... All went well until around 6:30 that morning. The birds woke up roosted a whole 40 yards from us and let out that first gobble that shook the dew off the blind!! Bailey's hat nearly came off when she jumped and her eyes were as big as saucers!!! When they started coming off roost sailing all around us, strutting and gobbling she did great, breathing heavy but steady as a rock. One of the longbeards struts in to 25 yards and BOOM... catch and release!
She shook it off after bit and was ready to go after another. We hit a different area and struck another bird that would gobble some but was headed the other way, off the public land. We went for "brunch" and got back after this bird in the afternoon and after alot of sittin' and callin', here he came. Strutting down an ancient railroad spur right to henrietta... She decided not to release this one! A real nice jake that we are all proud of!
I'm afraid we may have created a monster! All she talks about now is getting back out there....
Ignore the time stamp on the pic, I didn't know how to change it at the time. The pic was taken last saturday...
Steve
