I was able secure my first permission day before opener for my 12yr old daughter to hunt Turkey's. Went on a drive with the land owner and he showed me how the Turkey's used a certain field.
After getting my daughter all geared up and her gun dialed in she was ready. We headed to the field after school..when we arrived there were 12 birds in the field. We worked our way around the edge. As we walked over they crested a bank on the far side but by the time we got to our spot against some trees along the field we barely had enough time to sit down before we saw them all back in the field.
Got set up and gave the old pot call a couple scratches and the boss tom let out some thunder. He started to strut and seemed to be interested. Gave a couple more calls and he started to beeline it towards us. He was coming directly to our right but we had some thick brush to our right. My daughter got to see him all puffed and and strutting. He made it to about 40yds and my daughter would of had to sit up out of her chair and move around the corner to get a shot but would risk scaring him off so we sat tight. I think he was trying to flank us and come around. He ditched down behind us but eventually worked his way back into the field uninterested since there were plenty of hens feeding in the field.
At one point we had 22 turkeys feeding in the field..got to watch the jakes chase eachother around do turkey stuff..They stayed about 75+yds out in front and never got closer besides that tom when we got set up.
At around 7pm we were going to try and make a play on them and come around the edge of a field but as I was checking my map we noticed they all started walking in the direction we were going to head like they were on a mission..then my daughter points out 3 other youth hunters walking down the middle of the field. Made sense now..they were getting scared off. If we would have made the play earlier they would have been pushed right into where I was thinking of trying to set up.. the edge of the field drops down a steep bank that leads down to the river..we made it to that side and ran into some birds..saw a red head and told my daughter to get ready to shoot..she started to fumble with her ear plugs and I told her to take it but she wasn't ready and we watched him fly across the river to an island as did all the rest.
One of the the young men that busted them out of the field noticed us out there and came and got us and apologized for busting them out..he didn't know we were out there and told us they had 3 toms in sight on the side of the hillside and asked if we wanted the shot..we headed over but as we crested the hillside they too flew across the river. At this point we had to call it a day.
My daughter was kicking herself for not being ready but I told her it happens to the best of us and she'll be replaying all the shoulda, woulda coulda's till next time and she asked me "so when is next time" I think she's hooked lol
After getting my daughter all geared up and her gun dialed in she was ready. We headed to the field after school..when we arrived there were 12 birds in the field. We worked our way around the edge. As we walked over they crested a bank on the far side but by the time we got to our spot against some trees along the field we barely had enough time to sit down before we saw them all back in the field.
Got set up and gave the old pot call a couple scratches and the boss tom let out some thunder. He started to strut and seemed to be interested. Gave a couple more calls and he started to beeline it towards us. He was coming directly to our right but we had some thick brush to our right. My daughter got to see him all puffed and and strutting. He made it to about 40yds and my daughter would of had to sit up out of her chair and move around the corner to get a shot but would risk scaring him off so we sat tight. I think he was trying to flank us and come around. He ditched down behind us but eventually worked his way back into the field uninterested since there were plenty of hens feeding in the field.
At one point we had 22 turkeys feeding in the field..got to watch the jakes chase eachother around do turkey stuff..They stayed about 75+yds out in front and never got closer besides that tom when we got set up.
At around 7pm we were going to try and make a play on them and come around the edge of a field but as I was checking my map we noticed they all started walking in the direction we were going to head like they were on a mission..then my daughter points out 3 other youth hunters walking down the middle of the field. Made sense now..they were getting scared off. If we would have made the play earlier they would have been pushed right into where I was thinking of trying to set up.. the edge of the field drops down a steep bank that leads down to the river..we made it to that side and ran into some birds..saw a red head and told my daughter to get ready to shoot..she started to fumble with her ear plugs and I told her to take it but she wasn't ready and we watched him fly across the river to an island as did all the rest.
One of the the young men that busted them out of the field noticed us out there and came and got us and apologized for busting them out..he didn't know we were out there and told us they had 3 toms in sight on the side of the hillside and asked if we wanted the shot..we headed over but as we crested the hillside they too flew across the river. At this point we had to call it a day.
My daughter was kicking herself for not being ready but I told her it happens to the best of us and she'll be replaying all the shoulda, woulda coulda's till next time and she asked me "so when is next time" I think she's hooked lol
