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

[HunterLee]

I wouldn't get to worried yet. Plenty of time and if the weather would just straighten out you will be fine. Plenty of birds around but with the cold and rain they seem a lot different than normal around home here. Not sure where you guys are hunting around home, but G-town on your way to work would be another good area to try. I can give you a few hints on where to start.

Good luck and hope he gets a crack at another one.

[Scoot]

Thanks Chris- I appreciate it! I'm happy to report that you'll see in the posts below that this year has wrapped up for us. What an ending to a great time with my son!!!

[Scoot]

This past Saturday Ryan and I decided we should give it another go. Ryan’s friend and classmate, Matti, also agreed to come with. We picked Matti up at 5:00 AM and headed for the blind. It was a cold, crisp morning and we heard a couple gobbles on the walk in. Once we were set up we heard gobbling occasionally to the West of us, about 200 yards away from us. It was an absolutely beautiful start to the day.

Matti was cold, but having fun taking with an entirely new experience.

Soon the gobbling was more and more faint and I figured the birds had headed West, just like the weekend before. Almost an hour after sunrise I heard a hen call just a little ways behind and to the South of the blind. I turned to look at Ryan and Matti’s reaction to this and here’s what I saw.

In case you can’t tell, that’s Ryan as the camouflaged blob on the left and Matti has the hat pulled over her eyes on the right. They were cold and tired and doing their best to stay warm.

Soon I looked to my right and saw this hen had entered the field about 100 yards to the South of us. She was headed away from us- dang!

I showed Ryan the bird, but he quickly realized how cold he was and covered back up. I kept an eye on her for a while, but she continued heading South and East, generally away from us. I looked back to check on the kids for a minute and when I looked back to the South, I was shocked to see a jake standing in the field just 20 yards to our South. I quickly got Ryan’s coat off and his bow in hand. I saw him going to clip his release on the string as I turned back to the jake. Miraculously, he was still standing there, trying to figure out what was going on. I clucked one time and he came in on a string! As soon as he started walking towards the decoys an unseen jake joined him from the long grass just behind him.

This is a picture of them just before they went behind a “dead spot” between windows when Ryan drew his bow.

I leaned a little to my right and was ready to take pictures of the birds. Just as they reached the decoys I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard from my left in a whispered voice “Dad… Dad…” I thought “C’mon kid, shoot” But he whispered it again “Dad…?” I looked to my left and I could see him bobbing his head and pointing with his eyes that something was wrong with his bow. I reached to turn his peep sight (a problem I was sure I had fixed) when I faintly heard something about “My arm”. I looked and saw that the top part of his arm guard had gotten pushed down to the bottom part and it formed a big fold of fabric that would block the path of his string. I reached past his drawn arrow and tried to move his arm guard back. I managed to get it back and immediately moved my hands so he could shoot. I turned to look at the lead jake and when I did I saw he was staring directly at us. He immediately bolted- it was just too much commotion for him and he and the other jake headed out of there.

It was another cool interaction, but I was ready to tear my hair out! We finally got another chance (one I wasn’t very confident we’d be lucky enough to get again this year) and still we couldn’t make it happen. I resigned myself to the fact that this turkey thing for Ryan just wasn’t going to happen. We had a ton of fun and some really great experiences and time together, but his tag just didn’t look like it was going to get filled.

Oh, how did Matti react to this really cool, up close and personal turkey interaction? She slept through the whole thing! She hadn’t seen any of it! She smiled when we told her and we all giggled about it.

[Scoot]

About ten minutes later I looked to the SE of us to try relocate the hen and I saw that a nice tom had entered the field. We had seen this bird several times before and Ryan nicknamed him “Turkzilla” (at one time) and “Turkrex” (at another time). This was the bird my father-in-law had seen many times and kept tabs on for us.

He was out there for a while pecking around, occasionally gobbling, and eventually he followed the hen around once she came back into view.

It was quite a scene- we had turkeys in the field, a sandhill crane had landed directly in front of the blind, a woodpecker beating up a tree behind us, a grouse drumming in the woods to the SW of us, and two geese buzzed the blind.

It was great! However, it didn’t look like any of the turkeys had any real plans to come over our way. Soon though, the hen started to cluck back, every time I clucked. Before long she headed our way.

Eventually she strolled to within 20 yards of our blind. She just hung out, preened herself, and stayed put for a while. The jakes and tom ever so slowly followed behind her.

[Scoot]

The tom came in to about 100 yards away and was strutting and showing off for a while.

At one point he decided the jakes were getting to close to his gal and he chased them off a little bit.

[Scoot]

Eventually he made his way towards the hen.

She fed her way down into the ditch behind us and he came to the field edge just to our South, only about 30 yards away. When he was there he seemed content to just keep an eye on his hen and occasionally take a peak at our decoy spread. After half an hour of this he finally turned and started to walk towards the hen. I clucked on time and his head snapped back at us. He turned, took exactly two steps, puffed up, spit, and quivered his whole body trying to look tough and impressive. I waited over five minutes without either of us blinking. Finally he looked at his hen and made a slight movement to go towards her. I clucked and he again too two steps towards us, puffed up, spit, and shook. We repeated this for 25 minutes- cluck, step-step, puff up, spit, quiver, repeat. After 25 minutes he was finally only 10 yards away from us and about 15 yards from the decoys. I dropped one more cluck and he puffed up and came in on a string! Here he is as he crossed the window towards the decoys.

…and when he first reached the jake decoy.

He pushed it around a bit, trying to show it who’s boss.

Here is the picture I took just a half-second before Ryan shot.

[Scoot]

Once again, I was waiting for my camera to process (it delays about ½ - ¾ of a second after each picture) and I only heard the shot. I looked up to see a perfectly placed arrow in the back end of the turkey. Ryan had executed a perfect Texas heart shot! I plunged out of the tiny windows in the front of the blind (note: these windows are not big enough for me to fit through, but I wasn’t going to let this bird get away- rumor has it that I looked pretty ridiculous squeezing through them) and chased down the bird very quickly. In fact, it only went about five yards from where he shot it. I looked back at the blind and Matti and Ryan were looking out of the windows in disbelief. I was looking back in disbelief. Ryan came out to me and I held out my arms, lifted him up, gave him a huge hug and I have to admit, I got a little teary eyed. I was excited beyond belief!

Here’s Ryan with Turkzilla/Turkrex/his first turkey ever. He struggled to lift it at first, but finally got it off the ground for a picture.

Here are a few hero shots- some with just the tag holder, some with Matti, some with me, and some with all of us.

[Scoot]

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Ryan insisted that he carry the turkey from the field. He couldn’t handle it by itself, so I tried to attach it to my pack for him to carry it out. Unfortunately I also had to load the pack with a lot of other gear to get it all out of there, so it was quite heavy, especially when we added the weight of the bird on it. I hoisted it up on his back and put it in place. Within about three seconds he was leaning backwards and soon he was backpedaling and before I could grab him he fell over backwards from all of the weight. It was a pretty funny scene. Here he is after I got him upright again.

Here’s the hardware Turkzilla carried with him. He had a 9 ½” beard and spurs were almost ¾”. He weighed 22.5 lbs. Maybe not a true monster of a bird, but he was Turkzilla to a nine year old boy and that is plenty to make me happy.

Here’s a final picture of Ryan notching the first tag of his life- I really like this picture.

Thanks for following along with Ryan’s hunt! We learned a lot this hunt, had an unbelievable time, and enjoyed the heck out of the whole experience. We made some great friends along the way. I taught Ryan a lot about being in the outdoors, appreciation and respect for the outdoors, and how a father, son, family, and friends can spend some great time together.

[Sorgy]

Wow! Great job Ryan. Congrats to everyone all around. Scoot- great write up again...

Steve

[monstermoose78]

Awesome Scoot! Hearing this ending makes me feel a little better and that I should get back out there.

[x1957x]

Congrats!! Nice bird ryan! Get back after them Moose! It will happen..

[ANYFISH2]

Fantastic ending for ryan's season!!

Your story stirred the emontions a bit. As I have been tryi g to get my sometimes reluctant daughter a bird this year as well. We have had some close encounters but yet to that right opportunity.

I can only guess how proud you are and how powerful those moments were for you. Congrates scoot.

[NoWiser]

Awesome! A couple things come to mind seeing the end of this story.

1. I REALLY admire how Ryan stuck with it. Most people, let alone 9 year olds, would have given up long ago. It's not easy getting up that early to shiver in a blind. That makes it that much more sweet.

2. You can finally catch up on some sleep.

3. Will there by a life sized turkzilla gracing the walls of your house?

4. When you get the chance, I'd like to hear the story straight from Ryan's mouth. Maybe this weekend I can get a chance to talk to him.

5. I wish I could have seen your exit strategy out of the blind. A certain scene from Ace Ventura comes to mind.

6. I've read every one of your stories on HSO and, no doubt about it, this is my all time favorite!

Congrats again to Ryan on his first punched tag. He definitely earned this one! I have no doubt we'll be reading about his first deer soon!

[pumper317]

That is a great end to an already great story! Congrats to Ryan for his persistence, and trophy! It sounds like you guys had a great time, and the icing is that he gets to punch a tag. This whole thing will stick with you all forever! Congrats dad, on getting him out there.

Thanks Scoot! As always, a great story!

[DonBo]

Unbelievable, that is SO awesome. Congrats to both of you. Got a little teary eyed myself. Great write up, great photos, great ending.

[Cheetah]

Great story and the photos are top notch too!

[pumper317]

On another note, I can't stop reading it. Just finished my 4th time today. You did a great job with playing it out slowly. The pictures you took were really amazing as well!

Congrats Ryan!

[Borch]

That was so cool!

What persistence Ryan has,(you too). That what a person needs to be successful in turkey hunting and life in general. Get past the rough spots, learn from it and keep your goal in mind.

I'm sure you're so proud of him.

It all worked out in the end for such a great story and outcome.

[sticknstring]

Heck yeah - congrats! What a great ending to the season for you guys! The missed opportunities in SE MN, the jakes getting away earlier in the day, all transitioning to Ryan getting "Turkzilla" on your own! I think NoWiser is onto something about that bird going on the wall!

[Scoot]

Thanks guys- I appreciate it a lot! It was so fun! I can't get over it! I'm still fairly shocked and super happy that it came together for him.

1. I REALLY admire how Ryan stuck with it. Most people, let alone 9 year olds, would have given up long ago. It's not easy getting up that early to shiver in a blind. That makes it that much more sweet.

[HunterLee]

Glad to see him get a crack at one, I was wondering who's blind was out in that field. There was turkeys around it for alot of the time when I went by there. Even a bigger feat is that turkey had been hunted pretty hard from what I have seen. Seemed to be someone hunting in the area quite often.

Good job and I think it is good to have a kid get success as it will make him want it more down the road.

[triggertrav]

Awesome stuff right there! Probably be one of your best hunts ever. Congrats to you and Ryan.

[1eyeReD]

Been following Ryan's season on here and I gotta say. This is hands down my most favorite hunting story I've read on any internet forum. Congrats to the young man and way to go Dad for putting this all together. Yes, I got a little teary eyed myself. Just too awesome!

I totally saw in my head how you squeezed through those windows to go after turkzilla!!

[Wanderer]

Excellent hunt and story!! Congrats and thank you for posting it!

[huntnfish]

Yeah Ryan! Way to go! That's awesome for you and your son, Scoot. I sure wish there was video of you going out that window. The smile on his face says it all. Its going to be something he'll remember all his life. I don't think I would've handled that miss like he did. He's a real trooper.