My dad taught me everything that I know about hunting deer, squirrels, and doves; but he was never a turkey hunter. Growing up I didn't have anyone who was really close to me to get me interested in turkeys so that bug didn't bite me until I was about 14. I spent every spring of my teenage years watching the Primos and Drury guys on VHS and logging time in the woods taking every day as a lesson and quickly learned that I would never know it all. But now that I am 28 and have quite a few kills under my belt I look back at those first years and I am proud of being a self taught turkey hunter. Yesterday was what I consider to be my biggest achievement yet. Yesterday I was able to call up the first turkey for the man who taught me so much about everything else and it was hands down the best hunt I have ever been on for more reasons than just that.

Last Saturday dad and I went to one of our places down the road from the house and had a bird fired up hotter than I've heard in a long time. Only problem was that he was across the property line with a thick clear cut between us and him. Luckily, that property is owned by a distant relative of ours and I was able to track him down and get us permission to turkey hunt it. We were going to go back in there Sunday but the weather wasn't great so we decided to hold off. Not wanting to wait till this weekend and having a really good looking forecast mid week I decided to take Wednesday off with the plan of us slipping in really early to where that bird was roosted the previous weekend.

After studying aerial photos and topo maps I figured out that the gobbler was roosted on a tall point that stuck out between two other ridges with deep hardwood bottoms to either side, an old road running down off the end of the point, and thick planted pines to the back side. The point was flat on top so I figured he'd fly down near there and strut first thing. Due to the terrain and dad not being able to see very well in the dark I decided that we should get there at least an hour before daylight and make a wide loop around the neighbors clear cut so that we could come at this bird from the east, up the road that ran up the face of the point. Turns out the aerial photos that I had been looking at were taken just after the timber was cut, so the roads that I had planned on walking in on turned out to be briar choked fire breaks and skidder trails. But after 45mins of fighting briars, steep terrain, and dad constantly questioning my sanity we were finally within 200yds of the point.

As we neared the point I realized that the road leading up to it that I was counting on walking up was nowhere to be found. A 75 yard wide, 7+ foot tall wall of briars stood between us and the open hardwoods we needed to get to. It was getting light and I was beginning to stress out as I was trying to find an opening to get through. That's when he gobbled the first time....and he was exactly where I needed him to be. That gobble lit a fire in me and I looked at dad and said "just stay tight and follow me" as I pulled my arm over my face and just plowed us a hole through the briars. After a couple of minutes of fighting them we finally broke out into the hardwood bottom and made a beeline for the top of the point. All the while the gobbler was sitting on his limb gobbling with every other breath.

We stopped just short of the top of the hill to avoid being seen and waited for him to gobble again. Looking at the point I realized that we wouldn't be able to get to where I had originally hoped without getting busted so when he let me know where he was I made the decision for us to circle the end of the point and set up on the side of the ridge with him. There was a small saddle and then a high spot between us and where he was roosted. Right at the lip of the high spot was a big pine tree that had died and fallen down across the side of the hill. I told dad to set up where he could shoot at the high end of that tree because the gobbler was most likely going to come around it. At this point he had gobbled probably 40 times already.

Once we got settled I gave it another 10 mins or so for the sun to get up a little more. All the while this turkeys was hammering it at every noise in the woods. I popped my mouth call in and make four or five light putts and he cut me off. I knew he was alone. After a few more minutes I made some wing flapping sounds and he went ballistic. He triple gobbled and on the third he let it roll for a good two seconds. This bird wanted to die and I was just praying that dad would be the one to deal it out. I saw a flash of wings about 100yds from us and told dad to get ready, he had just flown down. The bird gobbled as soon as he hit the ground and I could tell he was just on the other side of the high spot from us so I started scratching and made a few light purrs to which he answered immediately. I could hear him spitting and drumming all the way up his side of the hill and I told dad to go ahead and take the safety off.

The first thing I see is the top of his fan over the top of the fallen pine tree. He walked all the way up to it and strutted back and forth against the tree for a minute or two. He eventually walked behind a thick spot where he couldn't see us so I reached out and made a couple quick scratches in the leaves. He gobbled and made his way back to the middle of the log. He kept sticking his head up and looking around and I was really worried that he was going to bust us, but then he gobbled and then jumped up on the log and spent a good two minutes pacing back and forth on it strutting and gobbling. Again I waited for him to get behind something and made some more scratching noises. This time he gobbled straight in our faces, hopped off the log, and came at us like he was on a mission. Dad let him have it at 35 yards.

This was hands down the most gobbles I have ever heard from one turkey in a morning as well as the best strutting show that I have ever witnessed and I was extremely happy to have been able to share it with dad. After a bunch of high fives, a hug, and a lot of hooping and hollering I lugged the bird back to the truck for him and we went home for a celebratory breakfast. Sorry for such a long story but to me a "hey we killed this yesterday" just wouldn't do this hunt justice. Thanks for reading!

Awesome

cool! congrats man!

Great read! Congratulations!!!

Congrats!! Sounds like a lasting memory was made!!

Great story! Congrats

Congrats!
Great story and read!

Great read, great pics and great hunt. Congratulations to you both and thanks for sharing.

Awesome man! Congrats to you both!

Last pic is sweet

Awesome story, thanks for sharing.

Congrats man! Going full circle on that and now the student was getting his teacher a critter. A day like that is priceless.

That's awesome Coosa1, thank you for sharing!

Congratulations to you both! Thanks for sharing story

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

Good stuff right there

Congrats team mate! I had a similar experience with my dad about 5 years ago. Called in his first long beard ever at the ripe age of 53. We will be meeting in turkey camp next weekend to hopefully repeat the feat!

Awesome man!

Awesome man! Congrats to both of you!

...Good stuff man...Congrats!...