If I could choose the weather for a Youth Hunt this wouldn't have been what I picked. Raining cats and dogs and 48 degrees.
One of the guys I hunt with had two sons that wanted to hunt the TN Juvenile Hunt so I told him I'd be glad to take one of them. We've been scouting the birds for two weeks and we roosted two groups of gobblers last night at fly up time. When we got to the woods about 5:30 a.m. it was just sprinkling but It got serious after we got in the blind. Andrew the 10 year old went with me and Austin, 15, went with his dad.
About gobble time it came a good clap of thunder and at least six birds gobbled in a 180 degree arc in front of us, all less than 200 yards and two of the birds weren't 75 yards. Due to us being set up so close to the birds I wasn't able to put out the decoys I brought. Bad luck. It probably would have changed the outcome for us. The birds gobbled solid for about 30 minutes then flew down. The two close birds at our 9 o'clock dropped down out of the trees and started toward my clucks and a tree yelp. They hung up at about 40 yards in pretty thinck stuff and strutted and gobbled for a good 30 minutes without coming closer. I think the reason they wouldn't finish and come in was one of two things. The roof on the hub blind we were in was stretched tight and the hard rain sounded like it was falling on a drum head. And later in the morning when I got out of the blind I noticed the wet top of the blind was shining like a new dime. I don't blame the birds, I wouldn't have come any closer either. At lunch time I fixed both problems by putting a piece of tank camo on top of the blind. The hens in the flock started their coaxing yelps and the two birds went to them and circled at about 100 yards. We had birds gobbling all around us until Andrew's dad came to relieve me around eleven but none ever came within range.
Austin and his dad set up on three birds he roosted the night before and set out one of the flip-tailed strutting decoys and a couple of hen decoys in the edge of a field. They set up a pop up blind in the edge of the woods and waited for daylight. The toms fired up when the thunder started. They answered a tree yelp and at flydown time set down in the woods about 40 yards from the field. When they walked into the field Rocco flipped the tail up on the strutter and the three longbeards ran to the decoys. One shot and Austin had his first turkey. It was a good 4 year old bird with 1 3/16 inch spurs.
Like I said it's not the weather I would have picked but the thunder keep the birds gobbling all day. Maybe Andrew will get his bird tomorrow.
