Youth hunt 2010

[turkey slayer]

Bird are tough in my area. Birds aren't gobbling and still in winter flocks in my area. My youth hunter which is Phantom Gobbler nephew didn't even here a gobble yesterday. He seen a few birds and a tom or 2 but just couldn't get a shot.
Friday went over to scout but the winds were blowing 45mph and horizontal snow for 3 1/2 hours seen a few bird and roosted some but the wind were so bad that the birds left the roost and flew down lower. The up is that they are strutting, but I'll just wait for opener and see what happens.
I was still a fun day being with him on his first hunt.

[ol_grayfeather]

My son got his saturday morning.  My daughter didn't want to go saturday and said it was too cold this morning, so we got out about noon and just got home.  Didn't hear ANYTHING today.  I'll bet we walked 5 miles.  Saw four crossing an old skid road at 100 yards or so, tried to call them.... nothing.

Middle of last week I had one gobbling at my call and we met on a tight corner (he was strutting), he took off up the hill but everytime I'd call he'd gobble back.  But saturday morning my sons didn't gobble once and wasn't strutting either.  Just walked up and stood in between the two decoys and looked around for about a minute. 

Didn't see any other hunters at anytime either.  This is my first year chasing turkeys.  My big question is why are they not vocal at all now?  I was thinking after a few crappy days they'd be out moving around   

[ICEMAN]

Both my kids struck out. Sat am was frozen and crunchy, no birds talking....Sunday was warmer, with some toms talking, but not responding. Really a cold youth hunt. Fun but no birds...

[dawei]

Both my kids struck out. Sat am was frozen and crunchy, no birds talking....Sunday was warmer, with some toms talking, but not responding. Really a cold youth hunt. Fun but no birds...

Were you hunting Easterns or Merriams?

[jackelope]

I saw a flock down in the blues this weekend that was in a barn yard. 5 strutters and about 20 hens or other jakes/toms or so...
I yelped and cut a little at them a few times and all 5 strutters lit up multiple times. There was some other  toms and jakes that stayed quiet but the 5 that were strutting were hammering away. It was 9:30-10:00am and probably low to mid 30 degree range.
I saw probably 3 other flocks that were all huge flocks of 20-30 or more birds a piece, all had strutting birds. I only called at the 1 flock because they were right off the side of the road in someone's yard. I was not hunting so no shots were fired. All the birds I saw were in people's yards and seen from the road.

[Phantom Gobbler]

Had a great hunt, but the toms had shut mouth in the areas we hunted.

Heard some nice birds were harvested further inland (east) from Lake Roosevelt.

It was great to get out.  We also tryed a spot and stalk but got the slip.   Young hunter is fired up to get out again in the general season.

[turkey slayer]

Phantom are those the bird on the other side of the pass that you were talking about

[Birdguy]

We were in birds thick both days . Boy got a shot at a real nice tom at 35 yds. Bird flipped and jumped then laid on it back real still. We ran up to in the highest spirits possible just to see it flip over and run off before flying away  . We looked for an hour or so with no luck . Got back into the birds several more times but he  could not get a shot he was happy with. If the birds were in close there were too many of them to just shoot one, if they were further out (25-30 yds) he did not want to shoot and have another one get away. All in all an awesome weekend. I was so pleased with his choices to not shoot when he could have but was not comfortable. We roosted 80 birds Friday night and got right into them Saturday morning. He was able to use my box call and get 12-20 gobblers to fire off each time he touched the call but they did not come in.
     As a hunter the greatest morning of my life was last Saturday. We sat in the trees my son calling to the turkeys getting just hammered with gobbles, one of the biggest grins you could hope to see. He just kept looking over at me saying "this is incredible" over and over. He experienced the highest of highs with the bird laying there looking dead and the lowest of lows when it took off. He still can not wait to get back into the woods next time.

[ICEMAN]

Both my kids struck out. Sat am was frozen and crunchy, no birds talking....Sunday was warmer, with some toms talking, but not responding. Really a cold youth hunt. Fun but no birds...

Were you hunting Easterns or Merriams?

Merriams.

[turkey slayer]

Good job bird guy. I have herd further you got away from the river the better people have done

[WildfireArcher]

went over to chewelah area north of spokane, and we slayed them. I got a chance to take 2 girls out, and i got an opportunity to take these girls out in the woods and call on my own for them, and the first afternoon i called in 5 jakes to 15 yards for one of the girls and she bagged her 1st bird. That evening i took her younger sister out, and i called in 10 hens and a giant gobbler who strutted for us the whole 100 yard walk to the decoy. She shot the tom like a pro with the 20 guage at 30 yards. Two of the hens were strutting and beating on the decoy!! The bird was about 20lbs and had a 10.25" beard and 7/8" spurs. She was so excited, and was shaking like a leaf. The next morning the older sister shot a TRIPLE bearded tom. 9.5" rope, 6" beard, and a 4.5" beard. Total of 20" of beard and 1" spurs!!! It definitely was a trip to remember for us all. The turkeys were very responsive and gobbling like crazy! The dad of the girls, not being a turkey hunter was as happy and thankful as i've ever seen anyone. I didnt think i could have so much fun since i wasnt a youth and not able to pull the trigger...truth is, i had more fun calling those birds in as i could have ever imagined.  like i said it was my first time "guiding" anyone by myself and i got them their 1st turkeys which was awesome. One of the best turkey hunts i've been on in my whole long 18 years of life  

-Wildfire

[Birdguy]

Way to go wildfirearcher. That is what it is all about . If you take two kids out every year you are able for the next 60+ years think of the impact you could have on our sport! I must say I was more excited to take my boy then I have ever been personally. Though we did not harvest anything, I think I made a hunting Buddy for the rest of my life anyway

[KimberRich]

We were in birds thick both days . Boy got a shot at a real nice tom at 35 yds. Bird flipped and jumped then laid on it back real still. We ran up to in the highest spirits possible just to see it flip over and run off before flying away  . We looked for an hour or so with no luck . Got back into the birds several more times but he  could not get a shot he was happy with. If the birds were in close there were too many of them to just shoot one, if they were further out (25-30 yds) he did not want to shoot and have another one get away. All in all an awesome weekend. I was so pleased with his choices to not shoot when he could have but was not comfortable. We roosted 80 birds Friday night and got right into them Saturday morning. He was able to use my box call and get 12-20 gobblers to fire off each time he touched the call but they did not come in.
     As a hunter the greatest morning of my life was last Saturday. We sat in the trees my son calling to the turkeys getting just hammered with gobbles, one of the biggest grins you could hope to see. He just kept looking over at me saying "this is incredible" over and over. He experienced the highest of highs with the bird laying there looking dead and the lowest of lows when it took off. He still can not wait to get back into the woods next time.

Was a great weekend for sure!! We were in the middle of more birds than I have ever been around.  Watching 80 birds fly up to roost and then watching them fly down in the morning and mill around for an hour was amazing!     I hope the video turns out good and shows how awesome it was.  They were still in large flocks though and the toms/jakes wouldn't break away and come to any calls.  Basically had to get out in front of them and be ready when they went by.  They would gobble like crazy and walk a few steps towards us but then realize the flock was going the other direction and they would turn around and leave.  Had one awesome set up on film with the Tom/hen decoy and 4 jakes came in inspected them at about 15 yards.  First time I've actually had birds come in to decoys.  I was thinking that with the favorable spring weather over there it would be different but maybe in a couple weeks they will start breaking apart into their smaller groups and it will be better for the general season!!       Hope to hear more good stories of the Youth Hunt!   Great for you to everyone that had a chance to get a kid in the woods!!  11 Days until it's our turn fellas!