Managed to get a few first birds checked off the list for the Wall’s Calls Team this past weekend.
Our youngest, Belle is six this year so she finally got to hunt and was slated to go with me, while Connor our 9 year old was taking/going with his mom the first morning.
Belle and I got settled into a blind to start the morning. Right off the bat we had several birds work their way in but they hung up gobbling their heads off just outside of range. Around 9 we heard some gobbling coming from behind us, and the bird came in from the right side of the blind about 15 yards out. Would have been an easy shot if the camera tripod, and myself weren’t in the way. Plus we wanted to get it on video and he was coming good so we waited.
Guess old Mr Gobbler had different thoughts and as soon as he saw the decoys he headed up onto the field road. He held at about 20 yards away as I got the shooting sticks moved so she could take the shot. Once I got them moved I turned back to look out the side window and he was still there. He had maybe moved another 5 yards down the road . I told her to put the dot on his neck and take the shot. She’s all the way to the front of the blind trying to take the angled shot to the right of us as I watched out the side window. She then tells me the blind is in the way, so I lean forward and pull the blind back a bit till she says she could see it. The next 3 seconds seemed like an eternity and finally she pull the trigger. I wasn’t able to see while holding the blind so I immediately lean back to check out the situation. Lets just say the bird wasn’t moving at all, but he had moved a lot since I saw his last location. We paced it off at a solid 57 yards, not a shot I would suggest with the load and gun she was using but the results were favorable.
We met up with her mom and brother on the way to the truck got some lunch and hunted the rest of the day. We didn’t have any luck for the remainder of the fist day but we had one extremely happy girl. That evening we roosted a bird on another property for the next morning.
We decided that night that my wife would go after the roosted bird and both the kids would go with me and sit for the morning. We saw a few jakes right away but neither Connor or I were going to tag them so we just watched them work their way across our set up. It had rained overnight and the fog was pretty heavy come 8 am.
On the other property they had the bird gobbling and drumming 20 yards from them. Only problem, the visibility was only 10. Their birds work away from them and they decide to go check another place close by . Nothing was happening at that spot but on their way back to meet us for lunch the fog bird had returned to their original set up so they tried to close in on him. They got a short distance away and one call later he came in and at 15 yards she dropped the hammer. This was her first bird too. (She’s tried several times with the bow but never sealed the deal.)
About the same time this was happening Connor was in a mature pine stand with little to no cover with a bird heading fast at him. Made one call series at the edge of the pasture before heading to the truck and the bird popped out of some grass 150 yards away. Of course it should have just gobbled and walked slowly giving him time to find cover and get set up. I guess them Osceola’s don’t realize how its suppose to work. About 15 seconds later the bird is standing in the same pine row as him at 40 yards and he finishes his second Grand Slam.
I got to hunt the rest of the day and the next by myself while the wife and kids went and hung out. I had a few birds work close but just not close enough. Still a very successful family vacation in my eyes. You may ask what did the others do while I was hunting? Disney was only an hour away but they chose to hang out on a trial by a lake and watched gators. The baby one let them get pretty close they said…. must have been while momma was out eating turtles. The 3rd gator pic is of one of the biggest wild gators in the country according to a retired park ranger they ran into. Think they said he’s over 14 1/2′. Got a ton more pictures to sort through but I’ll try to get some more up.
Cw
Congrats on everyones success 
