Need to brag about my son's first turkey

[longshot1154]

Youth weekend for turkey opened this morning with shooting hours starting at 5:47 am. A little after 6:00 I looked to our left and a hen was running towards our decoys and ended up setting up camp in front of our ground blind, about 3 yards away from us. This Jake took his sweet old time as he had to put on a show all the way to us. Finally got to our decoys which were set up around 14 yards in front of us and began to dance around my Jake decoy. Told my son to shoot when he turned towards us. He finally did and my son missed the first shot, but before the turkey could run off he fired a second time and folded the turkey up. Ended hunting at 6:10 am. Wish they were all this easy.

My son turned 12 at the beginning of this month. Turkey weighed in at 15 pounds. Not the big one we saw in the field two days ago, but it will do for a first.

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[farmallcrew]

Nice glad he got one. Today opened Spring Gobbler here, buttttttttt i have to work. Urgh. But glad to a young hunter all smiles in the pictures with their kills.

[Hogdaddy]

Congrats,, Your son will never forget his first bird ; )
H/D

[longshot1154]

Have a call into his friend's dad who does taxidermy, going to have him do up the fan for him.

[41 mag fan]

Awesome job on his first bird!! He'll remember this "1st" for the rest of his life, esp when he gets older and remembers you were there with him.

My wife will want to see this pic...she's a die hard turkey hunter, so far we've been skunked 3 days of hunting here.

Just showed my wife the pic....first thing she said was awwww...look at his smile!

[Bad Water Bill]

About 50+ years ago I shot a Big Pheasant. Well I did not have a clue about mounting one or the money either.

Dad said "ask mom for a POT PIE TIN"

Mixed up some PLASTER OF PARIS and poured it in the tin. As I pulled the tail feathers they were inserted in the mix.When everything dried I popped my mounted tail out of the pot and cleaned the pot up for more pies.

The base was painted green.

That trophy STILL sits in my gun room.

Have SMILEY do that with his next one and remember we want a picture with BOTH TROPHIES and an even bigger smile.

Good going both dad and son.

[Hamish]

The smile say's it all, nice bird!

[runfiverun]

I didn't even see the shotgun the first time I looked at the picture.
that smile was blocking everything else out.

[TXGunNut]

Nice job, both of you! I hear jakes eat better anyway.

[longshot1154]

Yeah, he's getting to the age where you don't see the smile nearly as often. He had a good couple days, this turkey today and he out fished Dad for the first time yesterday. His 3 rainbow trout to my one, plus he got the biggest of the day with a 15 1/2 inch trout. He also admitted that fishing was better than X-box! Glad he can find pleasure in the outdoors, I don't remember 6th grade being as hard as it is on kids these days.

[ph4570]

Sweet -- that smile is priceless.

[smokeywolf]

Any time you can pry them away from the video games you're doing great. When they say that hunting or fishing with dad is better than video games well, you've just had a major win. Good going dad! And, congrats to the turkey hunter.

smokeywolf

[292]

Who is the happiest, son or dad? You can mount the fan, similar to the way Bad Water Bill told you about, using hot glue and wood. Would be a good father and son project and cheap. Tell your son great job.

[300winmag]

AWESOME, another heart warmer.
300

[shdwlkr]

bragging I failed to see that, all I could see is one proud hunter and his trophy
Tell your son he did good and that next time we expect a bigger trophy ha ha

[longshot1154]

Regular season starts in a couple days. Hopefully the next photos will be of my wife's first turkey. She's been deer hunting for a couple years now, no luck yet, and I got her out goose and duck hunting last year. She enjoys goose and duck hunting as, in her words, she may not get anything but at least she gets to shoot her gun. I like to fill my tags but it's so much better when someone you bring can fill theirs.

I was probably happier than my son about this turkey. Really was great seeing how excited he was when the turkey was making his way to us. Thought the turkey was going to see the ground blind moving, my son was shaking so much. Got to love those adrenaline dumps. Was waiting for the hen to spook at any time, she was so close to us.

[DLCTEX]

Give my congrats to him!

[DIRT Farmer]

Congrats to you on his bird. Your effort will pay dividens with interest. I just got back from a turkey hunting trip with my sons, they insisted on paying most of the bills and doing most of the work.
Even better than hunting is sitting in camp with the boys.

[longshot1154]

Figured I'd put one last picture of the bird. After a few hours in the smoker.

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[alrighty]

Congratulations to you both on a job very well done.So glad to hear a miss ended up with a successful hunt.Some times a miss is all it takes for one to lose interest in hunting.
You both have something to be proud of and this memory will last a life time!
Our season ends today and in a few days I will miss it but for now I am almost glad it is over.My season started out with a miss as well.
Opening day a friend killed a nice bird and we was walking back to the trucks.We heard another gobble in front of us.He stayed back and I walked up about 50 yards and set up to call.Called and three birds started coming in , all gobblers and I assume two year old's.I got anxious and shot over the top of the lead bird at 30 yards.It happens!
I did get a nice gobbler the following Monday but it has been a tough season.Unusually cold temps and a very late spring.The woods are just now starting to fill in enough to move without being seen.The hens have just now started leaving the gobblers as the season is over.
First is a picture of the one my friend got opening morning , a very nice bird.It weighed 22 pounds and had true limb hanger spurs of 1 1/2 " long.The beard was unusual in that it was almost gone.It looked like a big jake about 4" long and an 1" wide.It only had one long strand left and it was slightly over 9".This was his first turkey and 1 1/2" long spurs don't come around very often!
Mine was a typical bird with 1" long spurs and a 9" beard and weighed 21 pounds.
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[longshot1154]

Both of those are real nice birds. There is a big one where we got this one. Hopefully he'll come in during the regular season.

[alrighty]

Both of those are real nice birds. There is a big one where we got this one. Hopefully he'll come in during the regular season.

I hope he does , that would make an already great season even better!