Husker
PMA Member
Our local chapter of the NWTF (Bluff Country Long Spurs) held our 7th annual learn to hunt last weekend. We were able to introduce 10 youngsters to the world of turkey hunting. We try to take out kids who may not have the opportunity to hunt turkeys or hunt at all to introduce them to the sport and give them a running start at becoming hunters. We had a beautiful weekend, sunny skies and around 70 degrees. The kids were a joy to be around, well behaved, interested and very excited to get the chance to hunt turkeys. Wisconsin does not have a youth turkey hunting season, this hunt is done through the cooperation of the WI DNR, and NWTF chapters willing to put forth the effort.
The young man I mentored on the hunt had never fired a shotgun before Sat. morning, when we patterned shotguns he was nervous to say the best. He did an excellent job and after four dead targets felt we were ready for the next days hunt.
Sunday morning came and we were set up on top of a ridge in prime turkey real estate, however when I "woke up" the birds with my owl call the only response I got was across the valley on the neighbors land. Just before fly down time I had them responding to my calls but had little confidence in calling them across the gravel road and up the bluff to our position. From 6:15 until 10am we did not hear a single gobble, Clarke was getting bored as 12 year olds will, (breaking sticks, tossing the broken sticks, wanting to move positions every oh... 15 min) you get the idea. At 10:00 after our 3rd move of the day I said that I would do a call to the north where we heard the birds at first light and if we got a response, would see what we could do. Well I went to the edge of the bluff and looked down and ....... lo and behold here was a gobbler in full strutt with another gobbler and hen in tow. They were 500 yards away on the neighbors land, we hopped in the truck and went back to the rural firestation that was our headquaters for the hunt to see who's land it was. Turns out it was land we had permission to hunt so off we went back to the woods. We did a big circle to try and get around the birds, with a couple of crow calls to locate the gobblers (who obliged nicely with multiple gobbles) we got set-up within 75-100 yards of them. It took some pretty agressive calling to get him to respond, but when he did it was double and triple gobbles. 20-30 minutes went by and the boss hen gave me a good tongue lashing, but matching her note for note only seemed to make the gobbler go balestic. At this time Clarke turns to me and says "I'm shaking" to which all I can come back with is " I know, isn't this great!" In the next 3-5 minutes I hear the gobbler spitting and drumming... told Clarke to "take your safety off, he's close" bout a min later there he is 10-12 yards away, he snuck in thru some multi-flora and a deadfall. He gets him in his sights and pulls the trigger. BOOM Turkey drops, I jump up and start running at the bird, bird gets up starts running,........... then flying,..........and floats off down to the valley below. We go inspect spot he was standing and find no sign of a hit
I was sitting behind him looking over his shoulder when he shot and my best guess is he flinched just before he shot. Between that and his shot pattern could have only been the size of a pop can or so at that range contributed to the shot.
But the bird hit the ground??? all I can guess is that being in full strutt and in his haste to leave the immediate area he fell spurs over snoot to get the He!! out of there. Clarke was pretty bumed out at missing but did manage to crack a smile when one of the other mentors told him that he had missed 2 years ago 3 times by 8:15am.
All told we had 4 kids out of 10 harvest a bird and 2 others had the opportuninity but missed. The biggest bird was 26.5lbs down to a 18lb jake. All the kids went away with smiles, and I think we have 10 new hunters among us.
I will get a pic from one of the guys and post it as soon as I can.
The young man I mentored on the hunt had never fired a shotgun before Sat. morning, when we patterned shotguns he was nervous to say the best. He did an excellent job and after four dead targets felt we were ready for the next days hunt.
Sunday morning came and we were set up on top of a ridge in prime turkey real estate, however when I "woke up" the birds with my owl call the only response I got was across the valley on the neighbors land. Just before fly down time I had them responding to my calls but had little confidence in calling them across the gravel road and up the bluff to our position. From 6:15 until 10am we did not hear a single gobble, Clarke was getting bored as 12 year olds will, (breaking sticks, tossing the broken sticks, wanting to move positions every oh... 15 min) you get the idea. At 10:00 after our 3rd move of the day I said that I would do a call to the north where we heard the birds at first light and if we got a response, would see what we could do. Well I went to the edge of the bluff and looked down and ....... lo and behold here was a gobbler in full strutt with another gobbler and hen in tow. They were 500 yards away on the neighbors land, we hopped in the truck and went back to the rural firestation that was our headquaters for the hunt to see who's land it was. Turns out it was land we had permission to hunt so off we went back to the woods. We did a big circle to try and get around the birds, with a couple of crow calls to locate the gobblers (who obliged nicely with multiple gobbles) we got set-up within 75-100 yards of them. It took some pretty agressive calling to get him to respond, but when he did it was double and triple gobbles. 20-30 minutes went by and the boss hen gave me a good tongue lashing, but matching her note for note only seemed to make the gobbler go balestic. At this time Clarke turns to me and says "I'm shaking" to which all I can come back with is " I know, isn't this great!" In the next 3-5 minutes I hear the gobbler spitting and drumming... told Clarke to "take your safety off, he's close" bout a min later there he is 10-12 yards away, he snuck in thru some multi-flora and a deadfall. He gets him in his sights and pulls the trigger. BOOM Turkey drops, I jump up and start running at the bird, bird gets up starts running,........... then flying,..........and floats off down to the valley below. We go inspect spot he was standing and find no sign of a hit
But the bird hit the ground??? all I can guess is that being in full strutt and in his haste to leave the immediate area he fell spurs over snoot to get the He!! out of there. Clarke was pretty bumed out at missing but did manage to crack a smile when one of the other mentors told him that he had missed 2 years ago 3 times by 8:15am.
All told we had 4 kids out of 10 harvest a bird and 2 others had the opportuninity but missed. The biggest bird was 26.5lbs down to a 18lb jake. All the kids went away with smiles, and I think we have 10 new hunters among us.
I will get a pic from one of the guys and post it as soon as I can.
