mplane72
PMA Member
This is our second year trying to get my son Max a bird. Baseball limits hunting time but with the extended season I was hopeful we could get it done this year. Heading out yesterday afternoon in Eastern Iowa I was not to optimistic about our chances but after our closest call Saturday morning Max was not going to stay home! After getting set up on an alfalfa field and staking the crap out of the blind we did a little sneak and peek around the field and spied some birds about 400 yards down the field. About 10 minutes after we got settled in the blind the rain and wind picked up to a point that we had to close all the windows. Checking the radar on my phone it looked like we were on the edge of the storms so we decided to stick it out and hope for the best. I would open the top of the blind and call into the wind towards the birds we had seen between gusts. I had just pulled back the window facing the decoys when we spied a tom 50 yards out checking out the decoys. Max got his gun up on the stick and waited. It looked like the tom was going to leave so out of desperation I clucked at him a couple of times. All of the sudden from our left 5 toms rushed into the decoys at 20 yards. One went right into a strut as Max asked which one he should try for. I could feel him shaking as I flipped off the safety and said take your choice but hurry up. He rolled the closest bird and I charged out of the blind to make sure he was not going to pop up and take off. He was flapping a bit but going no where. I think Max was a little stunned that it had really happened as I had my foot on the bird before he even got out of the blind but when he did you would have thought he had just hit a walk off homer in game 7 of the world series. This was his first real hunting success and needless to say the best hunt of my life!
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