Indiana Youth Hunt - First Turkey

[jdbell91]

I took my seven year old son, Nick, out for his first turkey hunt this weekend. This was also his first hunt period. He did a great job! Sunday morning at 11 a.m. we had a HUGE tom run into our decoys. It took about 30 seconds for Nick to get the scope on him because the tom was running around my strutter decoy. Finally he got a good sight picture and pulled the trigger. The bird did the old "drop and flop"! We were both very excited.

This bird is the biggest I have ever seen. He was 23 pounds, 11" beard and 1 1/4" SHARP spurs. We estimate him to be three years old or older.

Below is a picture of Nick with the bird, gun and blind. I put a bipod on the barrel to make it easier for him to sight in and shoot. I also found a collapsible table with adjustable legs at Sam's Club and modified it to make a shooting bench/table for our pop up blind. This set up worked perfectly.

I am a very proud father. I know that we made some life long memories with that hunting trip. I am now turning one of the spurs into a necklace for him to wear like a shark tooth. He loves that idea.

Good luck to all of you this season. May it be as fun and memorable as ours has been.

[Steve_In]

Congradulations to Nick. Good job setting him up too. You deserve to be proud. Did he just come right in or did he put on a show?

[jdbell91]

Steve,

He ran in to the decoys and circled the strutter. It happened at 11 a.m. Sunday. We got lucky because I promised Nick we would leave at noon.

I have not been so lucky. I hunted the first two days and only struck one gobbler. He gobbled a lot, but would not move towards us.

I did find a nest with eggs in it. That was a first for me.

Good luck to you this season.

[Steve_In]

Thanks for the reply. There is still a lot of season to go. The weather has not been too good the last couple of days, maybe it will improve next week.

[LELundy]

congratulations nick!! now that is a big grin and very well earned! taking kids out for their first birds is the best time! definitely memories of a lifetime there!!

[Mossberg835]

Awesome man!! i always say getting young ones into the woods is the best thing you can do, what a trophy for his first, congratulations!!

[dewey]

Congratulations to both of you and good work adjusting the table, bipod and the gun to make it a better situation for his hunt. Also that is a very nice gobbler he got. Like others have said getting the youngsters involved in hunting is crucial for the long term success of the sport.

Dewey