Adam’s 1st turkey – and it’s a BBD!

After spending many hours this season chasing turkeys here in WI, I was hoping the 5th season would be the charm for my son Adam. With school and baseball practices, we were not able to take any time off during the week so it all had to come together in 2 days. With Adam at baseball practice Friday night, I pulled the camper down to Merrick and set up quickly in hopes of putting some birds to bed. I had a good idea where to go but wanted to get them targeted for the morning. Well as my luck would have it, not one bird sounded off to my owl calls. So we would be going in blind in the morning.

4:00 a.m. came early for us on Saturday but what a great morning it was, clear and no wind…1st time this year for me where I didn’t have to battle high winds or rain. I wanted to get to the edge of the ridge to listen for distant gobbles. Our plan was to be very aggressive and get as close as we could to him before setting up. As day break came we still didn’t have any gobbles close to us. Then at about 5:40 I heard one sound off deep in the valley…it was time to put the move on. We had several roads to travel down which made it very easy to walk and stalk. We headed down about 200 yards to where the road came to a point and I made a call…BOOM he gobbled and he was closer than I 1st thought. We found a large tree for both of us to sit down and I began calling softly. He was gobbling now at every sound we made but keeping the calling to a minimum was the key as he started to make his way to us. We couldn’t see him but we could track him by the gobbles as he made his way along the same road we are on. Unfortunately he got to what I would guess was 150 yards and he hung up. After about 10 minutes of no calling or gobbling he sounded off and I could tell he was making his way back in the direction he came… it was time to get a little closer.

We made our way down the valley about another 100 yards to where the road branches off in two different directions. Here is where we set up again with Adam now about 10 yards in front of me. I again made a soft call followed by some scratching of the leaves and he sounded off. He was only 100 yards away as the crow flies but a good 200 yards on foot. Again I hit him with soft calls and scratching but this time there was nothing. I waited another 5 minutes and called again but still nothing. I figured one of two things happened….he either busted us some how or he was on his way to us. After about 15 minutes of silence I told Adam that I thought I could hear him walking just below us and to our right. But after another 5 minutes I couldn’t hear anything. Now from where I was sitting I could see the road below us where it branches off but Adam couldn’t because there was a little rise in the road. But I figured I would be able to see him cross below us before he made his way up to us. Well I was wrong. I gave one more soft call and he sounded off directly below us and IN THE ROAD. I couldn’t believe it…I told Adam to get ready and he was already on the sticks and ready to shoot. I barely got the video camera on when I saw his head pop up at about 30 yards. I watched as Adam slid the safety off and I told him whenever he was ready he could shoot. From that point on it seemed like an eternity…I could hardly breath as I knew what was about to happen. As he squeezed the trigger all I could see was the bird flopping down the road. As a father I couldn’t have been happier. From the moment he was born I always imagine what this day would be like…and it was better than I could have ever imagined. As soon as he shot he jumped up and instead of heading towards the bird he turned and jumped into my lap. I don’t get many moments like that from my 12 year son old but I’ll certainly take it. Words just can not describe that feeling of pride and for those of you who have already experienced it you know what I’m talking about.

One of the greatest hunts I’ve been on and I can only thank the good Lord for such an experience. We retrieved the bird and it was only then that I realized the size of this beast. He was bigger than any bird I’ve ever taken…25 ½ pounds, 10 ¾” beard and 1” spurs! I believe that puts the NWTF score at 67! What a great day and I’m looking forward to experiencing it again for the first time when my daughter takes to the woods next year!