Tony's first turkey age 13! He is a grown man and rockin turkey guide for his Ma now!
My son Tony, 17 is an accomplished hunter and is also very fun to be with. He is a very busy teenager so the time I get to spend with him is precious. I was looking forward to hunting with him as my guide as he knows way more than I do. It is super fun to see all the encouragement his father put into his hunting and shooting training pay off. It is what parents hope for, to have their kids love what they do.
I had never been turkey hunting before. I knew guys that had hunted them for years and I pretty much knew I wasn’t going to be able to get one either. Who am I kidding? I don’t know what I am doing! I “self-talked” myself into a major lack of confidence.
I have been practicing with my Darton DS-3800 bow (which I love) for weeks. I was a little nervous because the last few times I had been to the range, things didn’t go quite as well as I wanted them to. I wanted to try for a turkey with my bow but…I am NO Joella Bates! That lady is amazing, she is the first lady to take the turkey grand slam WITH A BOW! I am proud to call her friend but I know I will probably never be quite in the same category as she. BUT she does inspire me to keep trying!
I am totally amazed that anyone can kill a wild turkey at all whether with a shotgun or a bow or any other way. They can see you blink, they seem to hear you think and are incredibly wary. Just getting close to kill distance is super hard. I love hunting pheasants and quail with my shotgun so this would be an awesome thing also, so I wasn’t going to be sad either way, I just really wanted to do it with a bow.
I was whining the night before over a text to another friend Tara Andvik about how I wasn’t sure about using my bow and how I should take my shotgun. She gently but firmly told me I could do it and gave me plenty of encouragement. I felt better, but still wasn’t convinced. Tara is also a bowhunting powerhouse and of course SHE would be able to do it! I got both my shotgun and my bow ready and went to bed.
The next morning I jumped out of bed and got dressed in my Prois hunting gear to go hunting. I woke Tony up, he promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. Teenagers!
I made coffee and then woke him up a little more forcefully…this time he got up since I said I was going hunting with or without him.
I grabbed my bow, paused thinking it was early in the season so I would try with my bow a few times and if I didn’t I would take the shotgun. No real confidence still..but willing to make an effort. I knew I needed to at least give it a good try.
Off through the back door to the dark and quiet field we went watching out for skunks and made sure the horses left us alone. It was cool and we hoped the birds would be moving around.
We worked our way to where we had seen the birds come out a few days before. There was a small group of trees where we felt there would be some decent cover. We set ourselves up and waited for the sun to start coming up. and birds to make an appearance. We waited… and waited…nothing.
It was so peaceful and serene waiting for day to begin. I was thoroughly loving my time outside and Tony was thoroughly enjoying his morning off of school…Yes, I do believe that sometimes hunting with the family is more important than going to school as long as grades are doing well.. but that is another story.
We waited a little longer and my leg was cramped because I had picked the most uncomfortable position possible to kneel. I started to wiggle around to find a better spot so my legs could get some feeling back into them and just about that time Tony called to the birds. There was a huge commotion in the trees and turkeys started making a huge racket. I stopped breathing and froze. Of course I was in some sort of weird mid crouch stretch position and now couldn’t move for fear of scaring the turkeys. The tree I was hiding behind was NOT wide enough for me to maneuver around so I crouched back down to see if the turkeys were coming over the hill. Nope, they just went back to sleep again.
They were quiet and I was too chicken to move now. I knew they would come over the hill soon, and didn’t want to run them off. My leg was totally and painfully asleep and I wondered just how long I could live like that and still function when I needed to shoot. I just squatted there trying to calculate my strength and pain vs my willpower; hoping I had what it took to shoot and grab the bird.
We waited for a bit more and the sun started to peek through the trees a little more.
I felt a drop. RAIN?? SERIOUSLY? It is a very dry year and hasn’t rained or snowed in a LONG time and it rains on us now! I was perfectly warm and dry in my Prois jacket and pants though so I wasn’t too worried, but really! Rain NOW??
The turkeys stopped gobbling and went silent….ugh…my leg throbbed and we were just in a holding pattern waiting for something…for forever it seemed.
Tony decided after about 25 minutes of this nothingness and rain that we should back off and try again later in the day. I agreed and really wanted some coffee and breakfast back at the house.
We backed slowly and carefully away from out spots (well, after I paused and straightened my legs out and could actually put weight on them again), and started to head back to the house. We were discussing our plan for the evening hunt when Tony stopped and peeked through the trees. I stopped after I ran into him. He pointed through the trees to just over the hill we had JUST been watching. We saw about 20 turkeys come flopping (yep flopping, ‘cuz that is how they move) over the hill toward us.
We were sort of behind some bushes but also in the open so they could see us if we moved at all. I knew this was not a great spot to be in but we were caught.
We walked straight toward the birds VERY slowly and carefully did not move our arms and barely blinked. We stood still for a long time with Tony calling them toward us. There were about 14 of the birds in the flock; mostly larger jakes and a couple really nice toms with only one or two hens. It was SO cool watching Tony call them and have them come over to us. Then our little flock saw two toms on the far east end of the field and all took off in a fast lope. They were SO funny to see. They ran over to these toms, high-five’d them and then loped back to our side of the field after a nice blast on the call from Tony. They reminded me of football players greeting each other on the field.
During this whole show, several deer came into the mix. The deer were naturally standing behind the turkey’s we really wanted so that messed up our shots even worse. We were not about to try for a turkey and accidentally kill a deer, BAD hunting juju!
Each time the flock came close something would make them stop just out of range. There were even some geese that flew in and landed in the fork of a big cottonwood tree. THAT was weird and resembled an airplane smacking the tree! I don’t know how often the turkeys see that but they all turned and looked at the geese like they were nuts. I had never seen geese fly into a tree so just watched for a while.
After the turkeys volleyed back and forth for what seemed like ages with us standing like statues waiting. They seemed to settle down for a while and were of course just out of range. We carefully moved our bows into position and waited, still standing in the open hoping they wouldn’t spot us.
Tony worked the birds for several more minutes and all of a sudden one started running toward us with the others sort of behind him. I checked to see if he was a he and could tell that he had a bit of a beard and that made him legal. Tony was a bit in front of me and stepped back to let me have a shot. I raised my bow and checked the sight as the bird was coming toward me. I couldn’t believe this!
I let the arrow fly and saw feathers fly. I saw the bird go down but he fell behind a tree. I quickly nocked another arrow just in case and as I did, Tony said “You hit him!”
Tony also said “STOP DON’T MOVE” because he was pulling up on another turkey. Too late! I freaked the others out and they took off. I felt SO bad! (note to self, you are NOT the only one hunting!) I STILL feel bad.
Tony missed the shot but looked at me and with his eyes at big as the moon said “You did it Mom!” I did a little tap dance in the field and we ran over to pick him up. He wasn’t huge, but he was mine!
I quickly took a field shot with my camera and sent it to my husband and then to my friends and of course posted it on Facebook before I even got out of there!
Field photo of my turkey showing the shot!
Tony picked the bird up and handed it to me. I threw it over my shoulder like I knew what I was doing and trudged back to the house…stopping to catch my breath several times. That was a heavy bird!
- Heavy bird, but I didn’t care!!
My pretty turkey!
We took pictures when we got back and tried to get one of both of us with the bird and couldn’t quite get it. I know now what I need to do to get better pictures, but I did get some decent ones. I took several of my shot but I forgot the fanned out tail one…DUH.
My first turkey hunt will most likely be my favorite one. I had my son take me out and we had so much fun together. I was able to see just what an amazing hunter, guide and man my son is. The day would have been perfect if he had gotten one also, but he was SO proud of me (and almost as shocked as I was) that he said he didn’t mind. THAT is an awesome hunting partner and totally the way to make me proud to be his mom.
P.S. The turkey was awesome deep fried that Sunday for dinner!
My turkey rests above my desk in my office with the Muzzy Broadhead attached to the fan.
My turkey fan with the broadhead attached!
