The Paul Conner Youth Mentored Turkey Hunt...2021

ilovesprig

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Aug 3, 2012
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Escondido
After all the Covid mess and negotiating this event with the county...The hunt was on.

Saturday was cold, wet, and windy...Tough conditions for seasoned hunters much less kids from 9-15...My little girl Chloe (11) was a trooper and lasted till 9:30 am...We never had a gobbler come in, but we heard a lot of gobbles and did have 3 hens investigate the decoys.

Sunday was the opposite, clear, calm, and but still cold (24)...My boy Grant (15) had hunted before and wanted nothing but a longbeard...The 1st place we set-up was where the turkeys were yesterday...Today, they all flew down to where I was the day before...lol...A move was in order...Set-up in Saturday blind location...In short order, we had gobbles...Then we experienced something I have never seen or heard before while hunting (very common pre-season)...Jakes chasing a longboard with full blown fighting purrs...All of a sudden, 3 jakes come flying around the corner of an oak thicket...In the confusion, the longbeard joins them...He comes in and blasts the DSD jake decoy at 20 yds...Jacob tells Grant, "let him clear the jakes"...He does and Grant let's loose...Clean miss...Tries to take a 2nd shot and gets a blooper...No 3rd shot available (thank God)...We had a single hen come in a little later, but that was it.

Back to the blooper and a lesson for everyone...If you get a blooper, DON'T TRY TO SHOOT AGAIN WITHOUT CHECKING THE BARREL...As we're sitting there, trying to figure out what happened...We realized he tried to shoot a 2nd time, but because the action was fast, I didn't hear the 2nd attempt...Jacob actually attempted to put in a 3rd shell and have him shoot...Fortunately, the bird was too far for a 3rd shot...Only after Jacob saw 2 hulls laying on the ground did we know a 2nd shot was attempted...I instantly wanted see the gun and look down the barrel...Sure enough, the wad was stuck in the tight turkey choke...:eek:...If he would've shot a 3rd shot, it would've blown the gun up...Scary!

The week-end overall was darn good for the kids...5 gobblers were taken (3 longs, 2 jakes)...And there were also 5 misses (somehow we need to practice more)…A few pix from the hunts.

ps...Thank you all that put in the time to mentor these kids and folks behind the scene that contributed...Mark Griffin from NWTF and Janice Mendenhall from Lake Henshaw Resort.

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Good stuff stevo..ahh the youth hunts!!! Love um..and miss them dearly..strong work all around!
 
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