Son Had A 2 Tom Kinda Day! Adding The Story

[highside74]

Driving home more story later. 1st one at 7:15 2nd at 9:40. All on film.  Here is a couple pics.

[northwesthunter84]

Awesome great shooting

[highside74]

Before I write a story later I want to give a huge thank you to @avidnwoutdoorsman for putting us on the birds and @Tracker0721 for sending us some 20g loads.

[highside74]

My favorite pic

[Dan-o]

FANTASTIC!!!!

[cbond3318]

Boom!! Awesome stuff!

[grundy53]

Awesome!

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[pianoman9701]

Wow, great shooting. 

[hunthard]

Well done

[redi]

Awesome congrats

[jrebel]

Nice birds young man!!

[CJ1962]

Awesome!

[BNAElkhntr]

Great job young Man!

[polishstunner]

Great job! I always struggle that the pics have to be as much about notching the tag as it is for the celebration.  The truth is, is that there are way too many tattle tails out there thinking "they cheated" that make us have to do that.  When a dad goes thru that kind of effort to help their son, I already know that you did it right. 

[Mfowl]

Fantastic! Congrats! 

[highside74]

Great job! I always struggle that the pics have to be as much about notching the tag as it is for the celebration.  The truth is, is that there are way too many tattle tails out there thinking "they cheated" that make us have to do that.  When a dad goes thru that kind of effort to help their son, I already know that you did it right.

I wasn't thinking anything more than bragging on my son for holding 2 notched tags on opening morning. They are a trophy and he will have them for the rest of his life.

Been driving for 6 hours can't wait to get home.

[MHWASH]

Nice job, we’ve never double tagged out, but we’ve doubled up before.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Before I write a story later I want to give a huge thank you to @avidnwoutdoorsman for putting us on the birds and @Tracker0721 for sending us some 20g loads.

Congratulations to the young shooter! Glad that it all came together and was able to help get your boy his first turkey.... and then a second!


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[JakeLand]

Very nice !! Didn’t he also get a nice buck last year too !

[highside74]

Yes he did.

He is such an eager hunter and an all around good kid. We drove 6.5 hours Friday evening. Was up at 3:55am after less than 6 hours of sleep. Not one peep about lack of sleep or the long drive except to say I snore to much. Then to turn around and do the long drive home all he wanted to talk about was doing it again next year. He makes me want to be a better hunter and get out more. If that makes sense? I'm really glad I reached out to the forum and was lucky enough to get hooked up with avidnwoutdoorsman because without him there is no way I could have pulled this trip off the way it went down. My son thinks I'm the best dad ever.

[pianoman9701]

Your son is a killing machine! Congratulations to him on his two birds.

[highside74]

Avidnwoutdoorsman reached out to say he thought he could make something happen in his neck of the woods. He loves Turkey hunting and would be happy help if he could get some things done but wasn't sure if he could be there or just get us pointed in the right direction. As the hunt got closer he seemed more sure that he would be able to be with us for at least Saturday. In all my thinking about the youth weekend I never put together the fact that it was Easter weekend.  Avid said he would do some scouting around his place Thursday and Friday trying to put together some public and private so we had some options come opening morning. What he never mentioned was he lives about as far as we do from his property. He drove over just to help Nathan have a successful hunt.

[highside74]

On the drive over, the closer we got the turkeys were everywhere. Avid was at a farm getting ready to roost a big flock and dropped a pin for us to meet him for the evening show.

Here is a few of the birds we saw as we got closer to our meet up location. Mind you this was a fraction of what we saw. And the whitetail deer! Are you kidding me with all those deer. Nathan said he saw more deer on that one drive than all his years in the Blacktail woods. Lol

[highside74]

As the sun went down we watched the huge flock with multiple Tom's make their way towards the roost. 4 less dominant Tom's went up the hill and roosted right above the field they were feeding in. The rest of the flock of hens and big Tom's went down to the creek and followed it back towards the farmers house and roosted there. A few hundred yards from where they were feeding. After going to talk to the land owner about what he felt the tendencies of the birds were we made a plan to set up on the group of 4 Tom's and if that didn't work out we would hopefully be in front of the big flock before they made it back to the field in the morning.

[highside74]

A short restless sleep and a 3:55am wakeup and we were at the gate getting ready for our walk across the field and up the hill into the trees to our first set up not far from the roosted Tom's. As daylight approached we could hear both roosts waking up. The anticipation was at max levels. Unfortunately the 4 Tom's had their own plans and as fast as they were on the ground they were headed down the hill and across the field and along the creek towards the large flocks roost location. I'm talking a mere few minutes for them to hit the ground and cover the full length of the property and disappear.

Time to work out plan B.

[highside74]

After talking with the land owner the night before, we had a good feeling we would be able to set up the decoys ahead of the flock as they fed for the day. Just where, was what we needed to figure out before they worked their way towards the fields. Using the topography to our advantage we worked our way towards the creek. Along the creek we could see a farm bridge that looked to be their likely crossing point and made a plan to set up the decoys on the uphill side and use and old fence corner where most of the barbed wire fencing had been removed as our ambush spot. The spread looked ready with a couple of hens along with a full strut Jake, a standing Jake and a breading hen. These Tom's weren't going to be able to resist. A few soft calls every now and then by Avid made the whole setup come alive. It wasn't to long before we could make out some movement through the willows at maybe 200 to 250 yards away. The birds had fed on the hillside below the farms house and had made their way down to the creek bottom and were working their way around the willows and towards our location. filming and coaching Nathan I sound like I'm a mouth breather on the film lol. So excited I could hardly contain myself as the birds got nearer. They started to hop the creek before the bridge and were now on our side maybe 80-100 yards out. From the night before we new there were 2 or maybe 3 dominant Tom's along with the other 4 Tom's in the group. As they approached and saw the decoys the 2 dominant Tom's quickly headed to the front of the line.

[highside74]

Nathan, doing his best to listen to me about moving slowly and not to much was ready as the Tom's worked along the old fence line. Not having much cover, when to move and how much was going to be very important. We were basically in the fence line facing straight down the line. Nathan being left handed his gun was pointed at the Tom's on the right side of the fence posts as they worked their way to the decoys. The decoys were on our left and the Tom's crossed the fence line which made us have to shift shooting positions with 2 full strut Tom's and countless other birds headed our direction.  Nathan had picked out the 2nd Tom as his favorite that he wanted to shoot and was quickly told by his father that the 1st one was also a shooter and he would be shooting the closest Tom.. The Tom's were less than 30 when they crossed to the left side of the and Tom number 1 picked up Nathan's moment and quickly stopped strutting and was assessing his exit strategy. Tom 2 had no clue what was going on because he was block by the fence in his trailing position. He was in full strut at less than 20. Chris was a few yards behind us and we were unable to communicate at this point. I didn't want the 1st Tom to spook the birds so I told Nathan to shoot the strutting Tom that was moving right to left towards the decoys. His shot hit a bit back and put the bird on the ground. Seeing that the birds head was off the ground I instructed Nathan to rack another round and finish the bird off. He made a perfect follow up shot and the Tom was quickly dispatched. Nathan was stoked to have shot the 2nd Tom at 16 paces. Having a second tag in his pocket we remained still and waited for the birds to move off at their own pace hoping to possibly get a shot at the other Tom. Nathan was shaking with nerves and chill from the brisk morning and was grinning from ear to ear underneath his face mask. A second bird was not going to happen right then so we started congratulating each other and taking lots a pictures. It couldn't have worked out better except for the bird moving during the first shot. But Nathan was up for the task of a quick follow. What a beautiful bird. Even for this colorblind guy his head and feathers were amazing. After lots of pictures and recounting the morning, Avidnwoutdoorsman took the time to show us how he likes to process a bird for eating and keeping the trophy parts for momentos.The Beard was a solid 8 and 5/8 with 3/4 spurs and a black bear weight of nearly 100lbs give or take because we didn't have a scale.



Hey wait, we still have a tag and another farm full of birds less than 20 minutes away.

[highside74]

Farm number 2 and Nathan's favorite hunt.

We arrived driving up an old country road that split this property into 2 sections. A lower half with a creek and an upper half that led into the hills. Both sides had 2 large flocks with what looked to be at least 50 or 60 birds in each one with multiple Tom's strutting their stuff. We parked and started making a plan to work the creek side flock that was weaving in and out of the thick brush. We ready our gear and started heading down the road to where we could access the field heading to the creek that gave us the most cover. The farmer greeted us in his little utv and Nathan quickly introduced himself and shook his hand. We all shook hands and went over our plan with the farmer. After chatting with him the farmer we decided to start with the flock that was on the hill side of the property because the creek side flock wasn't going anywhere and the hillside flock would be on the move and he thought we could get in front of them. If that didn't work out we would come back to the creek.

[highside74]

These turkeys were in and out the the scrub brush and trees at the base of this round know leading into the uphill field at the base of a large timbered mountain ish area. The birds were on the uphill left side of this knob that turned into a flat leading to a homestead on the right and a large field leading to the timber on the left side. We used the lower section to work around the knob to the right and up to the flat trying to get ahead of the birds. What we didn't know was how many birds there were and they were pretty much strung out, out of site from our original position.

[highside74]

As we approached the top of the knob flat area (if that's what you'd call it) we were already pinned down by birds. All the decoys were in bags except for the strutting Jake so Avid started flashing it so we could distract them while we decided what to do. Every piece of cover was yards away and we had hens as close as 15 yards at one point with multiple strutting Tom's moving all over the place. The flock was in complete spring chaos and we were pinned down. This whole sequence played out over 30 minutes from being pinned down to pulling the trigger.
 

[highside74]

This first thing we incountered were hens and Jake's. We had to let them move off so we could make it to a tree that we were going to try and setup at. We used the fan as cover as we crowled behind avid to reach the tree. Getting there was just the beginning of our moves. After reaching the tree we were still 50 plus yards away from the Tom's with only the roll in the hill and some clumps of stacked tree debris and a log or 2 to try and hide behind bit none of it was close and 3 people were hard to hide behind one turkey fan.

Nathan wants to work on his turkey fans. I'll be back later.

[Dan-o]

black bear weight of nearly 100 pounds.
 
I literally laughed until I was crying. 

[highside74]

I knew you guys would get that joke.

[highside74]

Avidnwoutdoorsman was peeking and ranging and we were trying to decide how to get close to these Tom's to get Nathan a shot. Lead birds were already nervous and moving up the hill. Fortunately there were what seemed to he endless birds. At one point there were 10 plus full strut Tom's working in front of us just out of clear sight and range. Since we had the creek flock for backup we kind of decided just to keep pushing the envelope to try and make something happen. The plan was for Avid and Nathan to crawl ahead and I would trail and film. We did have some teaching moments as I had to inform Nathan that if he muzzle flashed Avid one more time while crawling we were going to have to stop. Nathan was very understanding of his mistake and took the instruction well and answered with a yes sir. We decided that Avid would crawl with the shotgun ahead of Nathan to the next spot we hope to set up at. Nathan took the shotgun and proceeded to bury the muzzle in the in the ground while trying to situate himself for a shot. Hiding behind the log Avid is frantically trying make sure the muzzle is clear and not get spotted by the dozen of turkeys a short 30-50 yards ahead of us. At one point a couple of the Tom's circle back into the brush to as close as 39 yards.

Dinner time

[highside74]

Lots of situating and trying to prepare for a shot that might present itself took place over the next several minutes.Birds were feeding and filing up the hill. The farmer drive up above us and watched from his utv which some of the birds seemed to notice. Again, there were so many it didn't seem to matter. At one point it was almost comical the amount of Tom's the seemed to keep appearing as they moved up from below the knob. They kept angling away and out of reach for Nathan's, dad imposed range of 30ish yards. We were stuck with no more cover for 20ish yards and the Tom's were doing there thing without a care in the world. Avidnwoutdoorsman and Nathan were going to make one last move behind the decoy in hopes of cutting 10 or so yards off the distance. As they did more Tom's came strutting into view. These were slightly closer than the other group and with the slight move that the boys just made they found themselves at 32 yards from the Tom's. Avid signed 32 yards looking for the okay from dad for a shot which I answered "shoot any one of them" ( I think). Nathan took the shotgun and knelt on one knee and propt his off hand elbow on the other as he prepared for the shot. These toms were so into themselves that they gave Avid and Nathan plenty of grace for the amount of movement that was happening. They didn't pay  any attention as they strutted and gobble until they finally separated enough for Avid to call the shot for the Tom on the left. The shotgun barked and the shot was true. Avid exclaimed "Yes, that Kid" as he high fived Nathan. The bird started flopping so they hurried down to save the bird from destroying his tail feathers. Nathan had shot him head on so as it turns out the tail took some collateral damage anyway. More congrats and pictures then a walk down to meet up with the farmer and give him many thanks. We all shook his hand and Nathan told him his story. He invited us back anytime. He said specially when the work starts this summer.

What an amazing gift Avidnwoutdoorsman gave us. His time, his knowledge and his friendship. All things he gave freely and with joy. Nathan and I will never forget these hours spent chasing turkeys as long as we live. It was a fairy tale ending with 2 big Tom's down. One that this dad and his son will be able to talk about for many years to come.

Thank You Chris very much.

[highside74]

Oh and I stopped the film and counted over 80 birds on the screen at one time as they left.    

[MtnMuley]

Great write up and congrats to all

[highside74]

Thank you I really liked telling the story. He is hooked and we will be doing it again. 

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

It was a fun hunt for me. I told my wife of all the things I was looking forward to this spring and the one thing that wasn't negotiable was the youth hunt.

I appreciate the learning opportunity myself and took several things away that I would do different next time for the better. You are always learning when you are hunting.

I don't think there is anything more rewarding then watching someone else kill or catch their first. This was Nathan's hunt. These are Nathan's kills. He was a trooper and got it done when it mattered.

Congratulations!

[hunter399]

It was a fun hunt for me. I told my wife of all the things I was looking forward to this spring and the one thing that wasn't negotiable was the youth hunt.

I appreciate the learning opportunity myself and took several things away that I would do different next time for the better. You are always learning when you are hunting.

I don't think there is anything more rewarding then watching someone else kill or catch their first. This was Nathan's hunt. These are Nathan's kills. He was a trooper and got it done when it mattered.

Congratulations!

I totally agree
There nothing better than seeing your little ones succeed.
 

[DOUBLELUNG]

That's the good stuff!  Thanks for sharing.

[brokentrail]

It was a fun hunt for me. I told my wife of all the things I was looking forward to this spring and the one thing that wasn't negotiable was the youth hunt.

I appreciate the learning opportunity myself and took several things away that I would do different next time for the better. You are always learning when you are hunting.

I don't think there is anything more rewarding then watching someone else kill or catch their first. This was Nathan's hunt. These are Nathan's kills. He was a trooper and got it done when it mattered.

Congratulations!

@avidnwoutdoorsman
Very awesome of you to help out this young hunter with his birds.  Sounds like it was a very exciting day!

[Birdguy]

This is what it is all about!! Great sportsmen making more great sportsmen! So very cool of all involved to take a young man out and make it happen! So many memories, so many birds, life lessons of helping others and stories for years! Just plain AWESOME!