1st turkeys!

[jkcmj]

My son applied for the special youth turkey hunt this spring and was drawn for the Chatfield area.  We went together with a volunteer guide from the National Wild Turkey Federation.  The guide went through all the work to set up a private land hunting location and place the blind etc. ahead of time.  He did the calling while I tried to video tape the hunt.  I caught a big Tom on tape about 6am that got away when Calvin got nervous and couldn't get the safety off.  I was so nervous the camera was just shaking.  He finally got a nice jake turkey about 10am opening day, but I missed the shot as he came in at an angle we were unprepared for.  I pieced together a short clip anyway.  My hats off to the great volunteers that make these first time hunts possible!



Calvin's photo with his bird.



I enjoyed it so much that I bought one of the surplus liscences over the counter for my Dad's farm in SE MN for the season running 5-10th. 

I got this Jake turkey at around 5:50 in the morning.


 
The night before I heard a Tom fly into his roost and gobble about 4 times right around dark.  I decided to set up at the pasture fence right below the hill he roosted on first thing in the morning. 
 
Pretty cool morning.  I headed out around 5 am and set a single hen decoy out about 20 yards from the fence.  I tucked myself into a small clump of brush on the fence line and did a light hen call.  About 15 minutes later I had a mature Tom fly down to my decoy at first light and land about 75 yards out.  Instead of coming in close enough for a shot he stayed out strutting around and gobbling every 30 seconds or so.  This went on for about 20 minutes with answering gobbles all around on the hills.  Eventually I could hear what sounded like multiple turkeys coming in off the hill gobbling.  The Tom took off running and when I looked over my shoulder there were 3 young jakes about 15 yards out.  I waited till they separated and took the last one.
 
Several times over the season I was able to get turkeys to approach gobbling, but then at the last minute they would not come into view, or would hang up out of range.  Pretty frustrating till it all came together the last day of my season.  Calvin and I both plan on turkey hunting again next year.  Several of my brothers have been calling each day to see if I got one, so I'm guessing we'll have company in the woods next year as well!