April 14 was deemed Marylands's Junior Hunt day and the weather was good except for a little wind at times. I met Jon and his 14 year old son John at the motel and proceeded to the hunting property. We started listening at 5:30 and heard a few within ten minutes. We made a play on the closest gobbling birds gettin within 75 yards of them and their girl friends. Seductive calling didn't keep them from pulling the gobblers away with them. We did see one of the hens at 50 yards. We tried to get in front of them but to no avail. By 9 am I decided to shift into a full blown run and gun operation. At about 10 am, while walking a road, I stopped 30 yards short of a road leading through a cleart cut to a wheat field. I mentioned to Jon and John that if one answers we do have trees to sit against so just get down near the ditch. Well, I called and a deep throated gooble hit us from about 50 yards away. Jon layed prone on the ground behind his son who was sitting in front leaning back on me. With gun across his knees trained 25 yards in front I whispered that the gobbler hopefully will cross the ditch and walk up on the road we were sitting along. We listened to the gobbler drum to the purrs I was emitting for 12 minutes, out of our sight, 25 yards from us. I've got to give it to John as he kept his cool and did all I asked...have patience. Finally, I caught some motion and whispered here comes your gobbler get ready. The bird crossed the ditch and walked up broadside to us looking our way. I whispered "kill him" and his father raised his head up just in time to see his son's load of Hev 13s knock the gobbler off his feet. Another gobbler that we didn't know was with the first exploded into the air at the shotgun,s report and flew away. As we high fived the smiles on both dad and sons faces were priceless. The weighed in at about 19 labs, sported about a 9" beard and had 1" spurs ... a fine gobbler for John's first turkey.
Thanks John and Jon for making my day so much fun. What a way to start off season #49 for me but so much more important for John and fine young man and, now, hopelessly hooked on gobblers. I wish you many more longbeards in the future.
Stay tuned for more adventures as we progrees through this Spring season
