5SHOT Posted April 29, 2007 Report Share Posted April 29, 2007 And what an experience that was! First of all I have been waiting for this day since the day he was born but I never dreamed his first day in the woods would have the results it did. Also it was pretty special to have the chance to hunt with my dad and son together. Three generations hunting turkeys together. That is pretty cool! Well anyway back to the story.. A couple a weeks ago my son and I scouted my favorite spot at daybreak and we heard 4 gobblers and they were roosted exactly where they were the last two years so I didn't feel the need to pressure them anymore but we did go back one more time to build a little blind. So it was opening day in Pa and the sky is starting to break and there is no gobbling going on yet but then we heard a sorry attempt of a gobble from a jake about 50 yards directly in front of us. In fact he attempted 5 or 6 times to gobble but each time it ended the same way with a few coarse yelps. Actually I laughed out once or twice because he was trying really hard but failed each time. Finally at about 5:50am we heard our first real gobble of the hunting season and another immediately responded. They too were very close to our setup. They must have been roosted about 60-70 yards away. Things started to get heated up with another gobbler sounding off to our right less than 100 yards away. Now the hens started to talk and the gobblers were really gobbling hard. It was getting close to flydown because the hens were really yelping long and loud. It sounded like we heard a couple flydowns and they were not in our direction so I decided to get in the game and I started to yelp on my mouth call and immediately a hen which had to be the boss cut me off so I did the same thing to her and she definately did not like that and she flew right at us and landed about 25 yards to our left and that started a chain reaction of flydowns. They all followed her move and about twenty birds flew down including two longbeards and they immediately went into a full strut. The boss hen did not stay around too long. She did not see any hens challenging her so she walked quickly out of sight to our left and like a freight train they were gone including the two struting longbeards but while this was going on the lone gobbler that was roosted to our right flew down and was in sight struting in little circles. His head was white like a light bulb and was easy to see in the overcast morning. There was one hen with him and she was directly in front of us starring in our direction. Finally she started walking to her left to catch up with the flock but the longbeard just kept on putting a show for us. Finally he realized he was by himself and started to walk to his left which ended up directly front of us so I told my son who was sitting my lap to take him. The gobbler walked thru a nice opening but didn't shoot so I was getting worried he was freezing up but a second later the gun went off and gobbler went down like a ton of bricks. I immediately jumped up and was on top of him within seconds. By 6:05 on the opening day we were celebrating my son's first gobbler on his first day in the turkey woods. I told him it doesn't usually happen this way so don't expect it everytime he goes out. I was very proud of his composure in this situation. I've seen many people panic under similar situations but he was steady as a rock. His new Mossberg 500 Super Bantam 20ga did the job at 35 steps. The stats on his bird where as follows: beard length:9.5 inches and the spurs were 1&1/8 and 1&1/4 inches and weighed 21 pounds. Here are a few pictures: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adjam5 Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Congrats to your son on the bird and you, for having all those great things happen on the same day. Hope you guys have many more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dartonman Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 WOW..........that is a great bird, congrads to you and your son...simply awesome.......al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnatecsteve Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 That's great! Congrats to your son and you Dad! Can't wait till my boy is old enough! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddyboman Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Thats awesome!! Congrats to you both!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beagleboy Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 That's awesome. An experience that he will never soon forget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest outdoorgirl Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 That sounded like a awesome hunt for the 3 of you. What a proud moment indeed :D Congrats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Oneida1 Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Congratulations on the memory of a lifetime!!!!! There is nothing like taking one of the kids out to really experience the outdoors. Your son, you and your dad will remember this for the rest of your lives. Awesome bird also!!! As of yet my 11 year old daughter will not go with me. I tried to take my son turkey hunting this year. But he was snoring so loud that after 2 hours we left. there was no way we would have heard or seen anything. Hopefully next year if he can stay awake, he can get one. Again Congrats!!!!!!!!!! Oneida1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiteRunner Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Look at the bird!! Congrats!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 30, 2007 Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Congrats to your son on a great 1st bird on his first ever turkey hunt. That's awesome that the 3 of your shared that special hunt together. You'll be talking about that hunt forever. Hope you got someone to take a pic of all 3 of you together to frame for the wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5SHOT Posted April 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2007 Thank you everyone for the kind words. It will be a hunt that will never will be forgotten! He is so excited about hunting that he hopes I get skunked the rest of the week so he can tag along with me on saturday. Nice kid huh? Well he got his wish so far. Just got back from hunting with my dad and we heard alot of gobbling at daybreak but they shut down as soon as they hit the ground. Still it was positive because there were alot of turkeys in this area but we are going back to our first spot tommorrow morning so hopefully lighting can strike twice... Rhino, I didn't get a picture of the three of us together with his gobbler. I guess with all the excitement we just forget about it but we both did get in a picture with him. Here are those pictures: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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