My daughter and her best friend both took my Hunter Education class last month and wanted to go hunting. I bought them turkey tags and had them practicing with the bows. Neither of them wanted anything to do with a shotgun after their experience in the class; I made everyone shoot 3 shots with a single shot 20 gauge, and I won't make that mistake again.
Our first night out was absolutely dead, and I figured they'd be done with hunting. But they decided to try it again this week. We got into the ASAT ground blind about 5:45 and didn't hear a thing. I had a decoy set at 15 yards from the blind. All of a sudden a turkey flew down from about 500 yards away and landed almost on top of the blind. None of us were ready for that, but I thought the girls (both 12) were going to wet their pants!
I got the camera rolling and got a bunch of video of the nice tom strutting and trying to impress this hen decoy. He was a bit leery of it, though, and he didn't come right to it. My daughter drew her bow took the shot when he was as close as I figured he'd get: 21 yards. On the range, all of her 20 yard shots hit a 3" circle. Throw in buck fever, and I think she missed high left by over a foot! I got it all on video, though, so we've got a good memory captured!
They both asked to go back again right away, so I think I may have a couple of young hunters hooked! Now that they know about buck fever, I'm sure their practice sessions will have a bit more focus.
