Today was the opener for youths here in NC and this was going to be my 13 year old daughter Sophia's first ever turkey hunt. We got to the hog farm that we would be hunting at 5am and got in the blind. After shedding our wet top layer and getting her gun mounted to the dead pod, we we're ready to start our day.
No sooner than we started to go through scenarios and reminders of gun safety and ethics, we watched two trucks pull up to the tree line at the end of the field (they couldn't hunt the field but could hunt the woods on that end) with there lights shinning out onto the field.
Sophia got a little discouraged and said "dad I thought you said we were the only ones hunting here". I told her that it would be ok but I could tell she was a little down.
We sat there and talked and to my surprise, we didn't hear any gobbles (I told here that it might be due to the other hunters but just to be patient). At about 7am, turkeys flew into the middle of the field and we're about 150 yards away.
I began to call using my glass call and could tell they heard me but wouldn't fully commit. There were a total of 3 (2 red heads and one bright white one). I decided that my best chance was to try for the two subordinate gobblers so I kept changing between my glass call and my long box.
Soon the two subordinate gobblers began to turn our way. The dominant gobbler seen this and he to began to head our way. It very quickly became a Sprint to my hen and specifically my Jake decoy. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to hit record.
I focused on my daughter and told her to get ready. At 15 yards from my decoys, they all began to gobble. She was like what the heck is happening and her eyes were the size of dinner plates...
When they started to beat my Jake at 20 yards away from us at 7:19am, I told her to kill the white-headed one but quickly realized that I wanted her to shoot what ever one she felt comfortable with and told her to just shoot that one. She focused her red dot on a red head and her Mossberg mini 510 dropped him in his tracks
We we're pumped but because the other 2 we're still outside the blind, we just sat there and hugged each other. One of the best moments in my life. Had it been adult season we would have had a double.
After they left the area, she went to claim her prize and the cheering began. One proud papa and amazed at what a spectacular young lady she is becoming.
19.74lbs, 1in Spurs, 9.5in beard
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