Little Pathfinder's First Gobbler

[Pathfinder101]

Baseball season always makes turkey hunting a challenge, but we found a good location this year, things all seemed to come together so I decided to make a go of it this spring.  Little Pathfinder is 11 this month, and he's killed a couple of deer, and one fall hen, but we've never called in a gobbler for him "the right way".
A local friendly farmer offered us a spot to hunt, so we did some scouting to find the roosts and geared up for opening day.  Some of his pine trees were knocked down in an ice storm this winter and he had a pile of pine branches in an ideal location for us, so we spent an afternoon piling branches and building a natural ground blind on the edge of his alfalfa field.  Building our "tree fort" was probably as much fun for the little guy as the scouting and he was pumped to use his blind.
  We actually missed the youth season because I was coaching my high school rifle team in Utah that week, but Sunday the 15th we were ready to go.
4am we are on the way and by 4:45 the decoys are out and we start hearing gobbles.  I have always had a tendency to set up too close to the roost, but the pine branch pile had forced me several hundred yards away, which was probably a good thing.  We could hear the turkeys, but from their roost there was no way they saw or heard us set up.
By 5:30 we were pretty sure the birds were out of their roost, but couldn't see anything.  I was starting to second-guess our location and set up, when about 5:50 I spotted 4 turkeys about 500 yards away in the field.  I started calling and that was all it took.  First time I have ever really had them come in on a string like that. 
Three hens came trotting across the field with a monstrous gobbler in tow.  I was tucked in the back of the blind and couldn't see anything after they came inside 50 yards, but I cold tell from the look on my son's face that they were getting closer, so I just purred softly on the call and hoped for the best.
I couldn't see the tom when he pulled the trigger, but he told me that he was fully puffed up on my jake decoy when he shot him.  One shot and it was over with. 

[scotrobe]

This is very cool. Your boy is a natural. Congratulations!


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[Pathfinder101]

The little guy's first turkey turned out to be the biggest turkey any of us have ever killed.  10 inch beard, 1 1/4" spurs.  Biggest body I have seen on a bird as well.  When he held it up, the head was just barely off the ground and the feet are up by his head.  He insisted on packing it back to the truck though...

[Dan-o]

Great story and a REALLY nice bird.

Thanks for sharing.

[Timberstalker]

Good on you for getting him out there. I always thoroughly enjoy your contributions to this site.
Well done, sir.

[Pathfinder101]

Thanks gentlemen. 

[bowhunterforever]

 

[Karl Blanchard]

That's a true limb hanger right there!!!!

[teanawayslayer]

Very nicely done. Great first bird!

[Brushbuster]

That is a awesome bird! 

[nitroelk]

huge bird. Congrats young man

[Gringo31]

Congrats!

Just fantastic 

[zwickeyman]

Love to hear stories of the next generation of hunters. Congrats to little pathfinder

[nwwanderer]

Good job, looks like a Lowden tom

[kevinlisa06]

Congratulations very nice bird!


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[redi]

Great story and bird. Congrats

[Yelper Guy]

Good job Dad!
He'll remember this bird the rest of his life.

[elkboy]

Awesome story! Congratulations to you and your son! Incredible tom.

[Woodchuck]

Well done man, Congrats 

[MooseZ25]

Big old bird right there!  Great job on a great hunt

[WaltAlpine]

That's what it's all about right there!
The best of times.

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[tgomez]

   Congratulations to the young man on a fantastic Tom. 

[Skyvalhunter]

 

[DOUBLELUNG]

Congrats to the young man, and what a tom!  Rare to see those fully developed spurs on birds less than 4 years old.

[Pathfinder101]

Congrats to the young man, and what a tom!  Rare to see those fully developed spurs on birds less than 4 years old.
[/quote

So, I'm not a turkey expert.  How do you know the age of the bird?

[Limhangerslayer]

Congrats to the young man, and what a tom!  Rare to see those fully developed spurs on birds less than 4 years old.
[/quote

So, I'm not a turkey expert.  How do you know the age of the bird?

that bird is a four year.  Awesome tom, congrats!  I've shot about 18 or so toms down there.  General rule of thumb is 1/2 is a two year 3/4+to 1 is a three year old.  A bird with 1 1/4" is for sure a four year old.

[Pathfinder101]

Congrats to the young man, and what a tom!  Rare to see those fully developed spurs on birds less than 4 years old.
[/quote

So, I'm not a turkey expert.  How do you know the age of the bird?

that bird is a four year.  Awesome tom, congrats!  I've shot about 18 or so toms down there.  General rule of thumb is 1/2 is a two year 3/4+to 1 is a three year old.  A bird with 1 1/4" is for sure a four year old.

Cool.  Interesting information. Thanks