Day 2:
So after a frustrating hunt the day before, I was on a mission to have a better hunt with a different youth hunter. This time I was on a hunt for the winner of a turkey hunt at last years JAKES youth day. Now the hunt was to originally take place on a property near Pinehills (need I say more about this location). Unfortunately the surrounding neighbors are not so nice people and made it extremely difficult to conduct a hunt let alone allow us to have a safe and enjoyable hunt for kids. After asking around few people, I was able to get permission from one of our own here at SCHC and I just have to say these generous people are exactly what helps get these young kids addicted to the wonderful world of hunting. I am forever indebted to them for their generosity.
The morning started out slow as we got to the property right at legal shoot time. As we exited the my car we could hear gobbles off in the distance. We immediately set up under a big oak and I waited for fly down. As the birds flew off of the roost, I began soft calling and immediately I got a loud gobble from a mature turkey. A few minutes of calling and the king of the hill appeared about 150 yards in front of us above a hill. As the gobbler made his way down, a lone hen walked in front of him and pulled him up and over the hill until he lost interest in my calls. We waited a few hours without hearing anything other then "its so cold daddy" from the youth hunter. So I said, lets grab a hot breakfast at the henshaw grill and come back and try again. After breakfast, we drove back and saw a long beard and a group of jakes across the street from the property walking towards the property boundary.
We immediately got the vehicle parked and got camo'd up. We high tailed it up a hill and got a gobble on the box call. We sat near a big oak and waited...and waited...and waited... After a several minutes goes by, I hit the box call and boom goooooaaabbbllleeeee! Right behind us! It scared us half to death and we run around to get rearranged. Just as we get settled we see 6 red heads come up towards us but all we could see is short jake beards... Bummer, we watch them as they strut and gobble and let them pass. As we watch the last jake of the bunch walk past and out of sight, I hit the woodhaven toxic orange and get a gobble right below us. We again rearrange our youth shooter to face the location of the gobble and wait....and wait....and wait.
After about 10 minutes go by I call again and get nothing. I slowly stand up to see if we can see the birds and see couple of bright red heads making their way towards us (patience is the key here). I start soft yelping and clucking and we see several birds coming towards us. The lead bird seems to have a fairly long beard so we start to coach the kid on when to shoot. Just as the birds come under the fence line towards legal shooting line, the father of the kid whispers, "wait till he comes closer to us, boooom!. The Model 500 bantam 20ga barks and the bird drops like a sack of rocks.
We hat there in disbelief of what just happened and the high fives start, but then the turkey begins to flop around and is flopping towards the fence line. I rush and grab the turkey legs just as the tom flopped towards the fence line. We bring the bird to a nice sunny spot and check it out. We spread the tail feathers and I'm shocked, its a jake with a weirdly long beard. We take a small tape measurer and see that it has a nearly 7 in beard but with a jake fan and small 1/2 in spurs! I later spoke to a biologist friend and he stated that the jake was born from a abnormally early hatch. So being bummed out that it wasn't a mature tom, we begin the picture taking and more high fives.
It was a awesome end to a brutally tough weekend.
So after a frustrating hunt the day before, I was on a mission to have a better hunt with a different youth hunter. This time I was on a hunt for the winner of a turkey hunt at last years JAKES youth day. Now the hunt was to originally take place on a property near Pinehills (need I say more about this location). Unfortunately the surrounding neighbors are not so nice people and made it extremely difficult to conduct a hunt let alone allow us to have a safe and enjoyable hunt for kids. After asking around few people, I was able to get permission from one of our own here at SCHC and I just have to say these generous people are exactly what helps get these young kids addicted to the wonderful world of hunting. I am forever indebted to them for their generosity.
The morning started out slow as we got to the property right at legal shoot time. As we exited the my car we could hear gobbles off in the distance. We immediately set up under a big oak and I waited for fly down. As the birds flew off of the roost, I began soft calling and immediately I got a loud gobble from a mature turkey. A few minutes of calling and the king of the hill appeared about 150 yards in front of us above a hill. As the gobbler made his way down, a lone hen walked in front of him and pulled him up and over the hill until he lost interest in my calls. We waited a few hours without hearing anything other then "its so cold daddy" from the youth hunter. So I said, lets grab a hot breakfast at the henshaw grill and come back and try again. After breakfast, we drove back and saw a long beard and a group of jakes across the street from the property walking towards the property boundary.
We immediately got the vehicle parked and got camo'd up. We high tailed it up a hill and got a gobble on the box call. We sat near a big oak and waited...and waited...and waited... After a several minutes goes by, I hit the box call and boom goooooaaabbbllleeeee! Right behind us! It scared us half to death and we run around to get rearranged. Just as we get settled we see 6 red heads come up towards us but all we could see is short jake beards... Bummer, we watch them as they strut and gobble and let them pass. As we watch the last jake of the bunch walk past and out of sight, I hit the woodhaven toxic orange and get a gobble right below us. We again rearrange our youth shooter to face the location of the gobble and wait....and wait....and wait.
After about 10 minutes go by I call again and get nothing. I slowly stand up to see if we can see the birds and see couple of bright red heads making their way towards us (patience is the key here). I start soft yelping and clucking and we see several birds coming towards us. The lead bird seems to have a fairly long beard so we start to coach the kid on when to shoot. Just as the birds come under the fence line towards legal shooting line, the father of the kid whispers, "wait till he comes closer to us, boooom!. The Model 500 bantam 20ga barks and the bird drops like a sack of rocks.
We hat there in disbelief of what just happened and the high fives start, but then the turkey begins to flop around and is flopping towards the fence line. I rush and grab the turkey legs just as the tom flopped towards the fence line. We bring the bird to a nice sunny spot and check it out. We spread the tail feathers and I'm shocked, its a jake with a weirdly long beard. We take a small tape measurer and see that it has a nearly 7 in beard but with a jake fan and small 1/2 in spurs! I later spoke to a biologist friend and he stated that the jake was born from a abnormally early hatch. So being bummed out that it wasn't a mature tom, we begin the picture taking and more high fives.
It was a awesome end to a brutally tough weekend.
