My daughter had today off from school and a turkey tag in her pocket so off we went at 4am to find her a bearded turkey. We arrived to a beautiful sunrise and the birds already on the ground and in full strut across the canyon. The landowner had built my daughter and I a blind the week before as he had taken a personal interest in making sure my little girl got her first turkey on his land. Boy did he make a blind. He stacked tractor tires two high and four across with gaps of about 2 ft between them. He then put dead trees (6 inch trunks) on top the them and laced juniper branches into the trees. It looked better than some barricades I dealt with in Afghanistan. I was impressed. We settled into a suitable gap, camo'ed up, and waited for the birds to arrive. It didn't take long. About 30 minutes into the hunt we had a couple of hens come up over the rim of the canyon followed by an entourage of 4 more hens a few jakes and a couple of nice toms. Well, the whole herd came right to within 15 yards of us and promptly stood RIGHT behind a juniper tree like they knew we were there. Oye!!! Well, 3 of the hens came out from behind the juniper and crossed right through the shooting lane followed shortly by one of the nice toms. WELLLLLLLL, as soon as the tom got in line with the gun........he BUSTED US!!! He gave one loud "Putt", did a fast 180, and drifted back over the rim before she could get a shot, taking the rest of the flock with him. O for 1. My girl was a bit disappointed, which is to be expected, but I explained that everyone gets busted. It's just part of the game. It took another hour or so before we had a lone tom wander in and stop in EXACTLY the same spot as the other birds. However, this time I had moved a foot or so to the left to give my girl a better field of fire and she could actually see the toms head through an opening about the size of a volleyball. I asked if she could see enough to take a shot. She thought she did and the gun roared. I couldn't see the action so I jumped to my feet at the shot to look at the scene and found a very confused tom turkey looking right back at me. I said "shoot again" and the gun roared once more.........and then the tom decided he didn't like the neighbors anymore and flew away, leaving both of us wondering what had happened. Come to find out that she had forgotten that you are NOT supposed to see the WHOLE barrel of a shotgun when you take aim, so she had cleanly missed way high on both shots. Dejected, but no out of the game, we went over the basics of shotgun sight pictures, practiced them a bit, and pressed on with the hunt. 0 for 2. Two hours later a group of 4 jakes waltzed right in and I thought to myself, "Oh yeah, here we go!!!" The came right in and......yep, you guessed it. Stopped right behind that blasted juniper tree. They fiddled around chasing each other and then just walked away......no shot. 0 for 3. Well I decided that enough was enough and if those birds weren't going to read the script, I was going to change the play. I built a whole new blind about 15 yards to the left and NOW we were looking behind that darned juniper. One more hour sit and I heard in excited hushed tones "Dad, there's a turkey!!" I looked over and her comes a lone bird. I immediately saw a beard, but thought it was short so I said "It's a jake, get on the gun. She did an outstanding job of slowly and deliberately bringing the gun to shoulder and when she had the gun ready to go, the bird stopped. I bet you can guess where!! YEP!! Right at the same spot that would have been right behind the juniper had we not MOVED. HAHAHAHA!!!!! As soon as he stopped, he raised his head to check around. I smiled to myself and waited. At the shot, the turkey looked like he'd been whacked in the chin by an invisible tennis racket. He did a very nice back flop and ended with feet and wings UP. I popped out of my chair and said, "Put the gun on safe, put the gun on safe." Upon seeing her secure the gun, I rushed over to secure that bird. I wanted to make sure that bird wasn't getting back up. As I grabbed the bird I discovered two things. One, I had nothing to fear. She had center punched that bird with her load of #4's and he was down for the count and Two, that she had just taken a very large tom turkey. What a wonderful moment! His beard is about 8.5 inches long, but was sticking almost straight out, which was why I thought it was a jake, but the most impressive part is his spurs. An inch and a quarter spurs that come to needle like points. Most definitely the oldest bird I have seen taken. He's significantly bigger than my tom and much older to boot. I'm a bit jealous, but VERY PROUD of my little girl!!!! He weighed between 22 and 24 pounds as the scale we used was a bit suspect due to abuse, but it worked well enough for us. We were all smiles and laughs today. A memory I will cherish until my time on this earth is over!!!
The tag was applied immediately after this photo was taken.
The tag was applied immediately after this photo was taken.
