Iowabowtech
Active Member
After whacking a pretty decent bird this morning, I set the blind up before I left with the plan to return this evening with my 7 year old son Gabe for his first ever turkey hunting experience. I was planning on this whole thing being a bust honestly but thought it'd be great deal for him and I've been dying to teach my son about hunting. So we made lunches, gathered a bunch of snacks, two waters, a gameboy, 4 spare games, 2 Star Wars books and stuffed it all into his backpack which he was in charge of carrying. I left all my stuff in the blind except for my bow so I had the best walk in the history of my turkey hunting career. We got there about 5:15 and it was windy. So windy that at 5:30 I had to get out of the blind and shore up the stake on the Pretty Boy. We had just begun enjoying our dinner amidst the 128 questions he'd asked so far when I saw red heads outside the blind. I was totally not ready with a cracked open gogourt in one hand and turkey loin sandy in the other. I didn't even have my release on for crying out loud! So I dropped everything and whispered to Gabe we had turkeys outside and to be VERY quiet. He did as told and I knew there was no way at getting the release on normally with all the noise the velcro makes so I just held onto it freestyle and went that route. Glad I turned my bow down or I'd have NEVER been able to get it back that way. I had no plans to shoot a jake on this outing but I guess I hadn't really given it much thought because when I had my son at my side at full draw with 4 turkeys surrounding the decoy, I decided it would give him the full experience if he could see it all. So I asked him if he wanted me to shoot and he said yes. The bird went straight down and was the most sudden and final shot I've ever put on a turkey with a bow. I REALLY wanted to try and get one with the longbow this year so it was bittersweet but I couldn't pass this opportunity up with the circumstances being what they were. Every time I look at this pic, I know I made the right choice:
