My 9 Year Old Son's First Hunt: Chasing Turkeys With Ryan

[Scoot]

What brand are your decoys?

Avian X and DSD. I'm honestly not sure which is which though-- someone who knows a lot about the decoys will be able to tell though. Anyone?

[Scoot]

Friday at about 2:00 I got Ryan out of school and we headed for the South side of the Twin Cities to meet Jim. We got there in the early evening and got our ducks in a row for the morning. At 2:30 AM my alarm went off and we were soon on the road. After picking up Jim’s buddy Darren we headed to the field we had permission to hunt. Darren was coming along and scouting for an upcoming hunt, but he would be in another blind about ¼ mile away from us. We tucked back into a corner of the field on the far East side of it. It was an interesting place- we were in a field that was surrounded, at least on our end of the field, by a river. Once one left the field edge the elevation dropped pretty sharply down to the river, creating a canyon that was heavily treed on all sides that I could see. It was beautiful country, and as we’d soon come to find out, was great habitat for turkeys to reside in.

Here’s how the day started for us- we saw this beautiful horizon on the walk in.

Soon the sun threatened to make its daily appearance...

…and we heard a gobble to the NE of us. Then more gobbles, then the cool morning air was filled with the noise of dozens of gobbling turkeys virtually surrounding us. It was pretty amazing!

Before long we could hear a group of gobblers NE of us that were getting closer. Ryan was grinning from ear to ear as they got closer and closer with every set of gobbles.

Soon they got close enough so that we thought we should be able to see them in the corner of the field to the North of us. Ryan peaked over Jim’s shoulder looking for them.

Just before they appeared in the field they ripped off a set of gobbles that sounded like it was right next to the blind. Ryan turned back at me with his reaction.

Seconds later they were in the field. I called a little bit, they locked on the decoys, and immediately made their way towards us. They looked like four thugs coming in for a fight! The combo of it still being a little dark and moving turkeys made for some mediocre pictures to start the day, but these pictures will give you an idea of what unfolded early that morning.

[Scoot]

They got in close and seemed to pay no attention to the hen- they wanted to kick some butt on the jake!

Here are a few pictures of my poor jake decoy getting the snot knocked out of it!

For well over two straight minutes the turkeys put a whoopin’ on my jake decoy. Also, for well over two straight minutes Ryan had been at full draw. Twice I leaned over and whispered “pick a bird and shoot”. He was trying, but in his defense the birds just wouldn’t hold still! It was chaotic and they were aggressively going back and forth, up and down, and all around in an effort to get the next crack at the jake decoy. Two times Ryan locked onto a bird that was still for a moment, but he didn’t dare shoot because there was another bird behind the front bird and I’d warned him about this exact scenario. I was pleased he could keep his wits about him enough to recognize this. Finally, this bird puffed up to the right of the decoy and Ryan let his arrow go.

The arrow missed its mark, just a little too high and clipped the last tip of a feather as it flew harmlessly over the bird’s back. The turkeys had no idea what had happened, but they turned and scurried away.

For at least another 15 minutes they were out in front of us, torturing us just outside of range for much of the time.

[Scoot]

Eventually they wandered away. During this time I wore my brother’s camcorder. It’s like a GoPro (but my bro likes it better than the GoPro’s he’s had). It turns out I sat too high to get decent video, but I’ll include the snippet below to give you a feel for how it went. I spliced together two pieces- first the shot, then Ryan’s reaction. In reality they happened several minutes apart, but they’re just seconds apart in the video. Not good footage, but kinda fun still. Plus, you can tell Ryan was pretty darn amused with the whole thing!

[NoWiser]

Oh man, that was fun!! I was really impressed at how calm Ryan stayed. Most kids (heck, most grown men) I know would have gotten flustered and flock shot at that giant mass of turkeys attacking the decoy. I think had a tom moved off to the side and presented a shot before he had to hold his draw for so long it would have had an arrow in it. But, the end result was the same - a sweet memory!

I'm not sure about others, but the video says "private" when I click on it and I can't view it.

[harvey lee]

You are a great teacher Scoot. I commend you on teaching Ryan how to do it the right way even if it costs you a chance at a deer or a turkey.

All the years of taking Ryan along hunting is now paying off as he will be a great sportsman who will honor your traditions on how to hunt the correct way. Great to see you are teaching Ryan some hunting ethic's.

Both Ryan and yourself will have lifetime memories from this hunt. I remeber last fall when I took my 12 year old granddaughter out for her 1st deer hunt, those memories will last longer for me than any others and mean a heck of alot more also.

Kudo's to both you and Ryan.

[Borch]

Pretty cool!

Looks like what we were seeing as far as toms reaction to jake decoys. Seemed to love kicking the snot out of them.

[sticknstring]

Experiences like that in the blind together make life-long memories! He'll always remember the day 4 toms came to whip the decoy and the miss! That's what it's all about. Way to go No Wiser for helping Ryan get on some birds!

[DonBo]

What a great show! He'll remember that long after the sting of missing has gone away. Way to get the kids involved.

[Scoot]

I'm not sure about others, but the video says "private" when I click on it and I can't view it.

Dang it! I'm new with videos-- I'll try fix it.

OK- I tweaked it and I think you can watch it now. Please let me know if it works or not. You have to have the volume turned up pretty high, but you can hear the question I ask and the answer Ryan gives if you listen carefully.

[Scoot]

Thanks for all the kind words, fellas- I appreciate it very much. The experience was incredible! You'll see in the next post or two the whole morning was something pretty incredible!

[Scoot]

Here’s a shot of Jim, our ninja guide for the day.

Ten minutes later I looked over to my left and I saw a big fan cresting the hill to our West.

There were two toms with five hens making their way towards us.

The hens slowly made their way closer to us and all of the turkeys put on quite a show for us along the way.

[Scoot]

Eventually the toms were at 20 yards and it seemed they decided together to walk over and check out the intruder.

[Scoot]

They strolled right up to the decoy as Ryan came to full draw.

The one on the right (below) never stopped, the slowly just walked right past. The other one, however, came to a stop. Unfortunately for us, he stopped right behind the decoy, offering Ryan no clean shot.

Eventually he too turned and walked away.

Ryan let down his draw- he didn’t feel good about any shot that he had in front of him and he did a good job not to just fling an arrow without a clean shot offered. I was very pleased by this. I turned to ask him about what had just unfolded in front of us and what I saw brought a huge smile to my face. There was Ryan, shaking like the proverbial leaf on a tree. His legs were bouncing, his arms were visibly shaking, and his jaw was trembling- the adrenaline had hit him in a big way! It was great!

The two toms and their hens stayed out in front of us at a range of 20-50 yards for quite a while and I snapped pictures the whole time. Here are a few of this group of birds.

[Scoot]

Eventually these birds faded away too. However, in turkey heaven things didn’t stay quiet for long. We waited about 15 minutes and a group of jakes came over the hill from our left. The never came into our spread, but checked us out.

Occasionally a hen would poke its head out of the woods to our right. Usually they’d come out to the edge of the field and go back into the woods, but once in a while they’d come out into the field for us to see.

[triggertrav]

Great stuff Scoot - as usual.

keep it coming and amazing photos.

[Scoot]

Around 11:15 AM a nice tom and two hens came out into the field to the West of us. I called to this tom several times, but he didn’t seem to care much for my calling or our decoy spread.

At about 11:45 Ryan had seen and heard enough- he asked me if he could call to the tom with the box call. I said “You sure can, but it won’t do any good. He’s not interested.” Ryan grabbed the call and slid the top back and forth over the bottom “Rrrrrt rrrrt rrrt rrt!” We stared at the tom for almost a full second when much to our surprise, we were nearly knocked off of our chairs by a group of gobblers less than 20 yards behind our blind! It scared the heck out of all of us! Soon four toms came out of the woods to our right, just ten yards from the blind.

They moved into the field, then turned and headed towards the decoy.

The back bird appeared to be the dominant bird and stayed puffed up for most of the approach.

Ryan came to full draw just as the front three birds were about to tear into the decoy. The back bird stayed a couple feet behind and was strutting his stuff for the intruder and gal. You can see in the picture below, the first three birds caught some movement when Ryan drew his bow and they turned and were walking away. The back bird, however, was in full strut mode and oblivious to us. This picture was taken just a fraction of a second before Ryan shot.

I was looking at my camera, just after snapping a picture, as the arrow was loosed from the bow. I heard the smack of the arrow, followed immediately by the sound of Ryan saying emphatically, but in an intentionally muffled voice “Yes!” I looked up to see the turkey running directly away from us with an arrow hanging out of it right where I hoped I’d see an arrow. Jim got up and started to get out of the blind to give chase, so I flipped the blind up and we all headed after it. We both lost sight of the turkeys when we flipped the blind and once behind them we couldn’t see an arrow anymore. We chased them to the corner of the field and that’s when they all took flight. It was a sad sight when they all cleared the trees and set their wings, headed across the river and for the other side of the canyon. They hadn’t gone far before we lost sight of them due to all of the trees on the steep canyon downslope. Immediately I knew there was nothing we could do. It was private land on the other side of the canyon and even if we had permission to go over there (we didn’t), there was no way to know where the bird had gone. We couldn’t even ballpark where it had gone to. Ryan was upset, we were all upset. We talked over our options and were completely dissatisfied with the fact that we really had no good options- the bird was gone and we would not recover it.

Jim had very clearly seen the arrow hit and he said it hit exactly where he would have placed the arrow. This jibed with what I had seen when I saw the bird running away. We never did find the arrow- still can’t figure out how since we are sure it wasn’t in the bird when it flew away. Dang! We were disappointed, to say the least.

Soon we were back in the blind and Ryan couldn’t take all of this excitement.

[Scoot]

Birds continued to poke their heads out of the woods, but things were a little quieter that afternoon (how could they not be after a morning like that?!?)

Ryan made a friend that afternoon.

We ate some grub and hit the rack that night. We hunted for a few hours the next morning, but it was a totally different day. We saw several toms, but they wanted nothing to do with us. It was windy and spitting out for much of the morning and the birds acted just like how I’ve been told when it’s breezy. Around mid-morning the three of us packed up and headed home. It was quite a trip! All three of us experienced the best six hours of turkey hunting we’d ever had! Ryan and I had Jim, his buddy Darren, and the landowner to thank for all of it. We hugely appreciated the chance to experience that day in the woods and had one heck of a time. Here’s one last shot of our turkey guide for the weekend. Thanks again, Jim, for an experience none of us will ever forget.

[DonBo]

What a great hunt! Rarely have I seen that much action in just a couple days. Too bad about the lost bird, but as all archers learn soon enough, it happens.

Glad you finally got to experience what a real turkey hunt can be like, now you probably understand the passion we have for this sport.

[Scoot]

Way to go No Wiser for helping Ryan get on some birds!

Absolutely! We have several people to thank for helping us with our turkey hunting this year- Jim (NoWiser), Darren (Jim's buddy), Kyle (Rochester landowner), Tom (harvey lee), Carter and Ada (landowners in ND), my father in law, my wife (for letting us go and ditch out on a bunch of home-related stuff), and a few other people too. We're very appreciative of the kindness of all of these people.

Jim not only got us permission to hunt down there, but also took us down there and spent a really fun weekend hunting with us. It was a hoot and one heck of a turkey place!

[NoWiser]

Talk about a fun weekend!! My turkey season lasted all of about 20 minutes so I was thrilled to be able to spend some more time chasing them. Doing it with a fun father/son team like Scoot and Ryan was icing on the cake. No doubt I enjoyed it every bit as much as the two of them.

My favorite moment of the trip was when, after watching that lone tom with the two hens for way too long, Ryan decided to take matters into his own hands with the box call. When he let out that loud series of yelps and those 4 gobbles exploded from right behind us I had a heck of a time keeping myself from busting out laughing. I wish we could have seen the looks on all of our faces! It was classic. I still chuckle when I think about it!

Even though I didn't have a tag, it was definitely the most memorable turkey hunt I've ever been on!

[sticknstring]

Action-packed days in the blind like that are truly pretty special. Great job w/ the pics and summary from your hunt - thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Scoot]

Glad you finally got to experience what a real turkey hunt can be like, now you probably understand the passion we have for this sport.

Oh boy do I!!! This is the season I really gained an appreciation for how awesome turkey hunting is! Ryan and I both are really enjoying the season. This is also the year that I really came to see turkeys as beautiful birds. I didn't realize how pretty they are until this year. You're right, Don, I'm finally starting to "get it" when it comes to turkey hunting (not being a good hunter, that is, I mean appreciating and enjoying it).

[Scoot]

I'm at a work conference today. Not sure I'll get a chance to post an update. I'll try but no guarantees.

[Scoot]

I found a little time to break away from my meeting...

Since our trip to the Southern part of the state to see Jim we’ve been out hunting locally a handful of times. So far, most of our trips have resulted in this.

It’s been tough sledding! There are enough birds around to hunt, but we’re finding them very tough to get in front of and into our decoy spread.

On April 30th I turned 42. To say my birthday wasn’t my best one would be an understatement. I had a very unpleasant meeting at work in the AM and I spent most of the afternoon in appointments with doctors and medical folks, in meetings I didn’t want to be at, hearing news I didn’t care to hear. No death sentence and nothing that’s going to kill me anytime soon, but not good news and not what I wanted. I got home and packed up our stuff and got the kids ready for an evening of chasing turkeys. Morgan wasn’t excited about it, but she agreed to go as long as she got to pick out a snack.

Here are the best two parts of my birthday (by a long shot!)

Morgan thought the jacket she wore out there made her look big. She flexed her guns for me and we all laughed.

It was a welcome evening of fun with my kids.

We hunted the next weekend with my father-in-law. It was a cool morning and although we heard gobbling behind us, we didn’t see a bird. Unfortunately I couldn’t locate my camera in the morning and I was convinced it had been stolen out of the front seat of my pickup. As it turned out, it had rolled into my gym bag and I zipped it up and carried it inside of my house with no clue it was there. I finally located it on Sunday night when I repacked my gym bag.

We didn't get out that next week at all- school, work, and busy stuff at home kept us with too much to get out during the week. Our next outting was this past weekend, which I'll try post an update about tomorrow (if I can break free again). Once that weekend is covered, the story will be caught up to present time. We've got a few weekends left of the season still and we're hoping Ryan will punch his tag.