My nine-year-old, Justin with his first gobbler...finally. Last year, I put five birds on him in four days. He never fired a shot. He was trying to take a fine bead with his rifle sighted Remington 1100 youth 20 gauge (all he'd shot at live game was a .22 and .223 Rem).

After a lot of clay shooting and turkey target shooting, I convinced him that the scattergun would scatter!

On the first day of Kentucky's youth hunt, we had a lot of rain in the early morning. It continued to sprinkle rain throughout the mid morning. Finally, we left for the woods at 12:30. We hunted hard and worked one bird. I decided to leave the bird and try him the next day. On the way out, we spotted a group of birds. I'd left the binoculars in the truck, so we hid and called a little. The birds were in some sparse cover and 175 yards off. When I started cutting, the gobblers revealed themselves. We sneaked in a little closer and set up. I put a hen decoy on the ground beside me...we were not going to be able to set her up and I thought getting the decoy out was probably a waste of time.

After some calling, the birds began to feed away from us! I thought the hens were probably a little jealous. I started calling with a set of fighting purrs from Knight and Hale. The flock continued to feed away from us. After another thirty minutes, I saw some of the birds probably 150 yards from us feeding toward the cover to our right. I waited until they'd cleared and turned to my son. I knew he would be disappointed, but I thought we should leave and come back another day. There was not enough cover for us to get in front of the flock and they were feeding toward a property that we did not have permission to hunt.

I started to get up. My son whispered, "Daddy! What are you doing?" I explained the situation and told him we'd try again in the morning or set up near a roost for the afternoon. He whispered again, "There's four birds right there! (motioning with his eyes)."

I looked and didn't see anything. He's at that age and he'd already heard at least fifty gobbles, seen a dozen strutting toms, and maybe a dinosaur or two so, I didn't pay much attention to him, but I decided to sit for a few more minutes and let him decide when we should leave.

I continued to watch a short ridge line visible from our vantage point. Bam! There they were! He'd seen this group of birds coming from our right. I don't know if the gobblers pulled away from the flock that had left us or if they slipped into the area as the flock was leaving, but who cared...we had birds within 75 yards.

The birds fed and looked our way. I called sparringly because we were not covered that well. We were sitting beside a large beech tree that had many old and some new strands of barbed wire stapled to it. To our right was the small 2 acre grove of timber the birds were in and to our left was a wide open pasture field.

When the toms came of the ridge and got out of our sightin the hollow between us, I helped Justin rest his shotgun on a strand of the fence using a glove between the wire an stock. Since I was minus one glove now, I put my hand inside the decoy lying beside me. This was perfect. At any moment, one of the toms would crest right in front of us present Justin an easy 15 yard shot.

You can imagine what happened. Toms never come the way you think they will and these were no exception. They came out fifty yards down the fence line in front of us. Four came first. There was one straggler, but he started to catch up fast when I started to call. I hoped they'd make a 90 degree turn and come down the fenceline because once they got into the pasture field, we were going to be busted.

That is just what they did. At forty-five yards, the first four toms spotted us. What a sight we must have been...two mossy-oak clad hunters crouched in front of a beech tree with nothing between us and the toms but grass nubbed by the huge herd of cattle that also inhabited the farm.

What to do. I've never hunted turkeys with a 20 gauge and I felt sure that 45 yards was too far. The birds were starting to get nervous. I raised my decoy covered hand making the hen decoy appear to be feeding. I popped her head up and gave a series of cutting. One of the birds went into full strut and two of them gobbled.

In the midst of the strutting and gobbling, I'd gotten so excited I'd forgotten about the straggler. He ran right between us and the group of four toms. Justin had moved his gun off the fence earlier. I cuould tell that the straggler was a smaller tom than the four birds further out. So, I wanted to hold out for one of the bigger toms now that they were interested in the decoy.

I heard breathing. I turned my eyes as far to the right as I could. I saw Justin's gun barrel weaving and wobbling. I realized the little guy was not going to be able to hold the shotgun up much longer. I whispered, "Bust him!"

"Which one?", he asked.

"The closest one", was my reply.

An instant later, the 20 gauge disrupted the peace and the closest tom fell to the ground. I walked up to the bird and man, he was bigger than I thought. After hugs, congratulations, and my complaining about having to buy the gas, calls, licenses, and having to tote the bird, we arrived at my dad's house. He has a good set of scales that are calibrated frequently. The bird weighed 27 lbs., had a 10 1/2" beard, and 1 1/4" beard. My best bird weighed 25 lbs and had an 11 1/2" beard with 1 1/8" spurs. Man have I heard about it too!

I don't know if I misjudged the other toms or not, but I truly belived this bird to be the smallest of the group. I hope so. Adult season is next Friday...can't keep me down long!

Thanks for reading...sorry about the length...just an excited dad!

Fantastic post.

Many people put down the 20 ga. but it is an excellent gun, not only for youth, but anybody.

Give him another hug.

Congrats! What an awsome experience!

As a hunting Dad I can say that the bonds formed in hunting with your kids are some of the strongest.Nate

Congrats! I don't have kids but once I took a buddy and his 10 year old son on his first goose hunt. Watching that kid shoot his first goose is something that I will never forget. Your story sure beats the heck out of the mud slinging, name calling junk on the wolf thread.

Excellent story. I am proud of you letting your son decide when to throw the towel in. Wished I had a dad like you.

Your son will remember that experience his whole life.

My son has shot the same shotgun for the last five years, until this year as I traded him my Benelli SBE for his 20ga. 1100 NWTF 25 Year Commerative for my wife to use turkey hunting. He sure got the better end of that deal, but he is growing older (16) and needs a man's gun for the years ahead.

How come the newbies we take hunting always seem to bag the bigger/better. Oh well, as the good book says, it is better to give than receive.

Seeing the look on your son's face with that bird is what it's all about. Well done!

I called in my son's first tom last year and hope to do so for my daughter in a few weeks. Nothing I've taken compares to seeing the thrill they get. Well done by both father and son.

Jeff

Thanks to each of you.

Skibum,

My 8 year old daughter is ready to go too. She's asked to hunt with a bow. She is very recoil shy and naturally, is not as strong as her older brother. It will be a couple of years before she can handle the 20 gauge. She has shot a single barrel 410 at clays some in our back yard, but she is recoil shy. I have stopped letting her shoot clays because I fear she is developing a serious flinch.

She does however love archery. I was an avid bowhunter only for years and I still shoot the compound some although I have never hunted turkeys with a bow.

You watch...I'll take her with a bow in a couple of years and she'll nail a tom with a bow. Then, both of them will have me beaten...but that's ok.