Passing it On
My wife gave birth to our first child the first week of February, a healthy baby boy that we tried for a while to conceive.
Being a parent makes you look at the world differently, and we feel so blessed to have the opportunity.
Knowing that because of the new addition, and the upcoming move cross country, my time in the woods this year would be limited.
There is a fellow club members college aged son, that was showing some interest in turkey hunting. I remember being taught how to turkey hunt when I was his age, and figured it would be a great way to pass it on the right way.
Opening morning came, we signed our block out, and eased into a thinned pine area that has a nice hardwood transition that leads to a swamp. I knew the general area of where some birds should be roosting but the moon was so bright we couldn't just waltz in, it started to get light and could hear a faint gobble in the distance but had to wait for the moon to drop to make our move.
We setup about 300 yards down the creek from where the gobblers were, hoping we were on the same side as them. I was shifting my seat and my striker fell out of my vest, landing on a copper call I had laying on the ground, they hammered at that and that is when I knew we were in for some fun.
As it got lighter, a hen started tree calling about 75 yards across the creek from us, I have no idea how she didn't bust us, she flew down and her and another hen met up and walked off behind us. Our birds weren't moving much so we decided to stay put and see if we could get this hen revved up.
She started cutting and eventually the gobblers worked there way down the treeline adjacent to the creek, at about 50 yards they made a 90 degree turn and started strutting out in the pines, I turned around and let out a couple of yelps away from us and they went from 50 yards to 10 steps in about 4 seconds.
Walker shot the bird on the right, and we watched the other saunter off. Ended up being just how you want it to play out, no decoys, not a ton of calling, just good positioning and good hide.
A great bird and his first. We then got on another bird later in the morning and I got to show him exactly what NOT to do, first bird I have ever hit and not killed. Oh well it happens.
He then spent the rest of the season at home working on his calling because he "didn't want to educate the birds"
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Originally Posted by Palmetto Bug
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