Little Pathfinder's 2022 Tom

[Pathfinder101]

Little Pathfinder (not so little anymore I guess since he's in high school now) has been counting the days until the youth hunt.  We have permission on a small piece of farmland near where about 80 turkeys have been roosting.  The roost trees are actually about 700 yards away from our piece, so hunting there is an exercise in patience.  First you have to wait for them to fly down, then you have to wait for them to come within earshot/eyeshot before the hunt really begins.  We have had a lot of birdless mornings in our spot (flew down on the wrong side of the river, or just started meandering the wrong direction), but we've also killed some big birds there.  For the last two weeks every day I pick him up from baseball practice, he wants to head to our spot and scout. 
2 days before the season started, we set up the ground blind so the birds could get used to it.  Opening morning was not an option this year, since I am a teacher and LP is in school, plus baseball practice and a team dinner Friday night.  But we were ready to go Saturday morning.  We got to the blind and had the decoys set up well before first light, but unfortunately there was a stiff, cold wind blowing that had the birds huddled up in the treeline all morning.  We could only stay until 8 because LP had a triple header Saturday and the game went until almost dark, so an afternoon hunt was out as well.
Sunday morning was perfect though. 
Clear, chilly but no wind.  Before long the whole flock was on the ground and we started calling.  We saw a large group of birds disappear behind a hill to our right.  About 30 minutes later we could see 9 birds coming down the hill in a line towards our set.  They all turned out to be hens, which was disappointing at first, but they came into the dekes and after some initial confusion, just started feeding.  Perfect!  For the next 15 minutes they did all the calling for us.  Then the rest of the flock showed up on top of the hill.
They started working their way down towards us, and initially they started working around behind the blind.  That was bad news because we didn't have any of the back windows open so that our silhouettes and movement would be reduced.  Then another group showed up on top of the hill, with several large toms.  They lined out and started heading for our set, angling in front of us.  We ignored the flock behind us and focused on the group coming into the decoys to our front.
I have never been in a situation like that.  Literally, surrounded by clucking, purring yelping and gobbling turkeys.  All told there had to be at least 40 of them.  I was tucked back in the blind calling and couldn't see well because of the closed windows, looking through a peep hole about the size of a quarter at several big toms about 45 yards away.  It took me by complete surprise when the shotgun went off. 
At first, I thought LP had shot prematurely at the birds I had been looking at and I whispered "What are you doing!  They're not in range yet!"  LP looking at me confused for a second and then pointed.  "Uh, yeah he was..."  Shifting in my chair I was able to see a turkey flopping on the ground 20 yards to our front.  "I'm pretty sure he was the biggest one." 
He was. 
Turned out to be LP's biggest bird so far.  11" beard.

[Pathfinder101]

Some more pics

[Pathfinder101]

1 1/8" spurs

[Pathfinder101]

Turkey feast Sunday night.  Chicken Fried Turkey Steaks and Buffalo Turkey Nuggets.   

[pianoman9701]

Beautiful bird.

[Platensek-po]

Awesome! Way to go LP!

[hunter399]

Looks like a tank of bird
Congrats 👍👏
Heck ya!

[ShaneTyTrey]

Great Tom, congrats!!!

[Bob33]

It doesn't get much better than that.

[MtnMuley]

That's great all the way around, Mark

[zwickeyman]

Nice Tom and great vittles too!

[Pathfinder101]

Thanks all.  I had to take my rifle team to a match in Utah over spring break, so we'll be counting on the general season to fill that second tag...

[Dan-o]

Awesome as always. 

[NRA4LIFE]

Very nice, congrats to the young fella.  And I love me some turkey McNuggets. 

[DIron]

What a great experience and super nice bird. Congrats.