My 9 Year Old Son's First Hunt: Chasing Turkeys With Ryan

[harvey lee]

You are a great teacher Scoot. I commend you on teaching Ryan how to do it the right way even if it costs you a chance at a deer or a turkey.

All the years of taking Ryan along hunting is now paying off as he will be a great sportsman who will honor your traditions on how to hunt the correct way. Great to see you are teaching Ryan some hunting ethic's.

Both Ryan and yourself will have lifetime memories from this hunt. I remeber last fall when I took my 12 year old granddaughter out for her 1st deer hunt, those memories will last longer for me than any others and mean a heck of alot more also.

Kudo's to both you and Ryan.

[Borch]

Pretty cool!

Looks like what we were seeing as far as toms reaction to jake decoys. Seemed to love kicking the snot out of them.

[sticknstring]

Experiences like that in the blind together make life-long memories! He'll always remember the day 4 toms came to whip the decoy and the miss! That's what it's all about. Way to go No Wiser for helping Ryan get on some birds!

[DonBo]

What a great show! He'll remember that long after the sting of missing has gone away. Way to get the kids involved.

[Scoot]

I'm not sure about others, but the video says "private" when I click on it and I can't view it.

Dang it! I'm new with videos-- I'll try fix it.

OK- I tweaked it and I think you can watch it now. Please let me know if it works or not. You have to have the volume turned up pretty high, but you can hear the question I ask and the answer Ryan gives if you listen carefully.

[Scoot]

Thanks for all the kind words, fellas- I appreciate it very much. The experience was incredible! You'll see in the next post or two the whole morning was something pretty incredible!

[Scoot]

Here’s a shot of Jim, our ninja guide for the day.

Ten minutes later I looked over to my left and I saw a big fan cresting the hill to our West.

There were two toms with five hens making their way towards us.

The hens slowly made their way closer to us and all of the turkeys put on quite a show for us along the way.

[Scoot]

Eventually the toms were at 20 yards and it seemed they decided together to walk over and check out the intruder.

[Scoot]

They strolled right up to the decoy as Ryan came to full draw.

The one on the right (below) never stopped, the slowly just walked right past. The other one, however, came to a stop. Unfortunately for us, he stopped right behind the decoy, offering Ryan no clean shot.

Eventually he too turned and walked away.

Ryan let down his draw- he didn’t feel good about any shot that he had in front of him and he did a good job not to just fling an arrow without a clean shot offered. I was very pleased by this. I turned to ask him about what had just unfolded in front of us and what I saw brought a huge smile to my face. There was Ryan, shaking like the proverbial leaf on a tree. His legs were bouncing, his arms were visibly shaking, and his jaw was trembling- the adrenaline had hit him in a big way! It was great!

The two toms and their hens stayed out in front of us at a range of 20-50 yards for quite a while and I snapped pictures the whole time. Here are a few of this group of birds.

[Scoot]

Eventually these birds faded away too. However, in turkey heaven things didn’t stay quiet for long. We waited about 15 minutes and a group of jakes came over the hill from our left. The never came into our spread, but checked us out.

Occasionally a hen would poke its head out of the woods to our right. Usually they’d come out to the edge of the field and go back into the woods, but once in a while they’d come out into the field for us to see.

[triggertrav]

Great stuff Scoot - as usual.

keep it coming and amazing photos.

[Scoot]

Around 11:15 AM a nice tom and two hens came out into the field to the West of us. I called to this tom several times, but he didn’t seem to care much for my calling or our decoy spread.

At about 11:45 Ryan had seen and heard enough- he asked me if he could call to the tom with the box call. I said “You sure can, but it won’t do any good. He’s not interested.” Ryan grabbed the call and slid the top back and forth over the bottom “Rrrrrt rrrrt rrrt rrt!” We stared at the tom for almost a full second when much to our surprise, we were nearly knocked off of our chairs by a group of gobblers less than 20 yards behind our blind! It scared the heck out of all of us! Soon four toms came out of the woods to our right, just ten yards from the blind.

They moved into the field, then turned and headed towards the decoy.

The back bird appeared to be the dominant bird and stayed puffed up for most of the approach.

Ryan came to full draw just as the front three birds were about to tear into the decoy. The back bird stayed a couple feet behind and was strutting his stuff for the intruder and gal. You can see in the picture below, the first three birds caught some movement when Ryan drew his bow and they turned and were walking away. The back bird, however, was in full strut mode and oblivious to us. This picture was taken just a fraction of a second before Ryan shot.

I was looking at my camera, just after snapping a picture, as the arrow was loosed from the bow. I heard the smack of the arrow, followed immediately by the sound of Ryan saying emphatically, but in an intentionally muffled voice “Yes!” I looked up to see the turkey running directly away from us with an arrow hanging out of it right where I hoped I’d see an arrow. Jim got up and started to get out of the blind to give chase, so I flipped the blind up and we all headed after it. We both lost sight of the turkeys when we flipped the blind and once behind them we couldn’t see an arrow anymore. We chased them to the corner of the field and that’s when they all took flight. It was a sad sight when they all cleared the trees and set their wings, headed across the river and for the other side of the canyon. They hadn’t gone far before we lost sight of them due to all of the trees on the steep canyon downslope. Immediately I knew there was nothing we could do. It was private land on the other side of the canyon and even if we had permission to go over there (we didn’t), there was no way to know where the bird had gone. We couldn’t even ballpark where it had gone to. Ryan was upset, we were all upset. We talked over our options and were completely dissatisfied with the fact that we really had no good options- the bird was gone and we would not recover it.

Jim had very clearly seen the arrow hit and he said it hit exactly where he would have placed the arrow. This jibed with what I had seen when I saw the bird running away. We never did find the arrow- still can’t figure out how since we are sure it wasn’t in the bird when it flew away. Dang! We were disappointed, to say the least.

Soon we were back in the blind and Ryan couldn’t take all of this excitement.

[Scoot]

Birds continued to poke their heads out of the woods, but things were a little quieter that afternoon (how could they not be after a morning like that?!?)

Ryan made a friend that afternoon.

We ate some grub and hit the rack that night. We hunted for a few hours the next morning, but it was a totally different day. We saw several toms, but they wanted nothing to do with us. It was windy and spitting out for much of the morning and the birds acted just like how I’ve been told when it’s breezy. Around mid-morning the three of us packed up and headed home. It was quite a trip! All three of us experienced the best six hours of turkey hunting we’d ever had! Ryan and I had Jim, his buddy Darren, and the landowner to thank for all of it. We hugely appreciated the chance to experience that day in the woods and had one heck of a time. Here’s one last shot of our turkey guide for the weekend. Thanks again, Jim, for an experience none of us will ever forget.

[DonBo]

What a great hunt! Rarely have I seen that much action in just a couple days. Too bad about the lost bird, but as all archers learn soon enough, it happens.

Glad you finally got to experience what a real turkey hunt can be like, now you probably understand the passion we have for this sport.

[Scoot]

Way to go No Wiser for helping Ryan get on some birds!

Absolutely! We have several people to thank for helping us with our turkey hunting this year- Jim (NoWiser), Darren (Jim's buddy), Kyle (Rochester landowner), Tom (harvey lee), Carter and Ada (landowners in ND), my father in law, my wife (for letting us go and ditch out on a bunch of home-related stuff), and a few other people too. We're very appreciative of the kindness of all of these people.

Jim not only got us permission to hunt down there, but also took us down there and spent a really fun weekend hunting with us. It was a hoot and one heck of a turkey place!

[NoWiser]

Talk about a fun weekend!! My turkey season lasted all of about 20 minutes so I was thrilled to be able to spend some more time chasing them. Doing it with a fun father/son team like Scoot and Ryan was icing on the cake. No doubt I enjoyed it every bit as much as the two of them.

My favorite moment of the trip was when, after watching that lone tom with the two hens for way too long, Ryan decided to take matters into his own hands with the box call. When he let out that loud series of yelps and those 4 gobbles exploded from right behind us I had a heck of a time keeping myself from busting out laughing. I wish we could have seen the looks on all of our faces! It was classic. I still chuckle when I think about it!

Even though I didn't have a tag, it was definitely the most memorable turkey hunt I've ever been on!

[sticknstring]

Action-packed days in the blind like that are truly pretty special. Great job w/ the pics and summary from your hunt - thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Scoot]

Glad you finally got to experience what a real turkey hunt can be like, now you probably understand the passion we have for this sport.

Oh boy do I!!! This is the season I really gained an appreciation for how awesome turkey hunting is! Ryan and I both are really enjoying the season. This is also the year that I really came to see turkeys as beautiful birds. I didn't realize how pretty they are until this year. You're right, Don, I'm finally starting to "get it" when it comes to turkey hunting (not being a good hunter, that is, I mean appreciating and enjoying it).

[Scoot]

I'm at a work conference today. Not sure I'll get a chance to post an update. I'll try but no guarantees.

[Scoot]

I found a little time to break away from my meeting...

Since our trip to the Southern part of the state to see Jim we’ve been out hunting locally a handful of times. So far, most of our trips have resulted in this.

It’s been tough sledding! There are enough birds around to hunt, but we’re finding them very tough to get in front of and into our decoy spread.

On April 30th I turned 42. To say my birthday wasn’t my best one would be an understatement. I had a very unpleasant meeting at work in the AM and I spent most of the afternoon in appointments with doctors and medical folks, in meetings I didn’t want to be at, hearing news I didn’t care to hear. No death sentence and nothing that’s going to kill me anytime soon, but not good news and not what I wanted. I got home and packed up our stuff and got the kids ready for an evening of chasing turkeys. Morgan wasn’t excited about it, but she agreed to go as long as she got to pick out a snack.

Here are the best two parts of my birthday (by a long shot!)

Morgan thought the jacket she wore out there made her look big. She flexed her guns for me and we all laughed.

It was a welcome evening of fun with my kids.

We hunted the next weekend with my father-in-law. It was a cool morning and although we heard gobbling behind us, we didn’t see a bird. Unfortunately I couldn’t locate my camera in the morning and I was convinced it had been stolen out of the front seat of my pickup. As it turned out, it had rolled into my gym bag and I zipped it up and carried it inside of my house with no clue it was there. I finally located it on Sunday night when I repacked my gym bag.

We didn't get out that next week at all- school, work, and busy stuff at home kept us with too much to get out during the week. Our next outting was this past weekend, which I'll try post an update about tomorrow (if I can break free again). Once that weekend is covered, the story will be caught up to present time. We've got a few weekends left of the season still and we're hoping Ryan will punch his tag.

[HunterLee]

I wouldn't get to worried yet. Plenty of time and if the weather would just straighten out you will be fine. Plenty of birds around but with the cold and rain they seem a lot different than normal around home here. Not sure where you guys are hunting around home, but G-town on your way to work would be another good area to try. I can give you a few hints on where to start.

Good luck and hope he gets a crack at another one.

[Scoot]

Thanks Chris- I appreciate it! I'm happy to report that you'll see in the posts below that this year has wrapped up for us. What an ending to a great time with my son!!!

[Scoot]

This past Saturday Ryan and I decided we should give it another go. Ryan’s friend and classmate, Matti, also agreed to come with. We picked Matti up at 5:00 AM and headed for the blind. It was a cold, crisp morning and we heard a couple gobbles on the walk in. Once we were set up we heard gobbling occasionally to the West of us, about 200 yards away from us. It was an absolutely beautiful start to the day.

Matti was cold, but having fun taking with an entirely new experience.

Soon the gobbling was more and more faint and I figured the birds had headed West, just like the weekend before. Almost an hour after sunrise I heard a hen call just a little ways behind and to the South of the blind. I turned to look at Ryan and Matti’s reaction to this and here’s what I saw.

In case you can’t tell, that’s Ryan as the camouflaged blob on the left and Matti has the hat pulled over her eyes on the right. They were cold and tired and doing their best to stay warm.

Soon I looked to my right and saw this hen had entered the field about 100 yards to the South of us. She was headed away from us- dang!

I showed Ryan the bird, but he quickly realized how cold he was and covered back up. I kept an eye on her for a while, but she continued heading South and East, generally away from us. I looked back to check on the kids for a minute and when I looked back to the South, I was shocked to see a jake standing in the field just 20 yards to our South. I quickly got Ryan’s coat off and his bow in hand. I saw him going to clip his release on the string as I turned back to the jake. Miraculously, he was still standing there, trying to figure out what was going on. I clucked one time and he came in on a string! As soon as he started walking towards the decoys an unseen jake joined him from the long grass just behind him.

This is a picture of them just before they went behind a “dead spot” between windows when Ryan drew his bow.

I leaned a little to my right and was ready to take pictures of the birds. Just as they reached the decoys I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard from my left in a whispered voice “Dad… Dad…” I thought “C’mon kid, shoot” But he whispered it again “Dad…?” I looked to my left and I could see him bobbing his head and pointing with his eyes that something was wrong with his bow. I reached to turn his peep sight (a problem I was sure I had fixed) when I faintly heard something about “My arm”. I looked and saw that the top part of his arm guard had gotten pushed down to the bottom part and it formed a big fold of fabric that would block the path of his string. I reached past his drawn arrow and tried to move his arm guard back. I managed to get it back and immediately moved my hands so he could shoot. I turned to look at the lead jake and when I did I saw he was staring directly at us. He immediately bolted- it was just too much commotion for him and he and the other jake headed out of there.

It was another cool interaction, but I was ready to tear my hair out! We finally got another chance (one I wasn’t very confident we’d be lucky enough to get again this year) and still we couldn’t make it happen. I resigned myself to the fact that this turkey thing for Ryan just wasn’t going to happen. We had a ton of fun and some really great experiences and time together, but his tag just didn’t look like it was going to get filled.

Oh, how did Matti react to this really cool, up close and personal turkey interaction? She slept through the whole thing! She hadn’t seen any of it! She smiled when we told her and we all giggled about it.

[Scoot]

About ten minutes later I looked to the SE of us to try relocate the hen and I saw that a nice tom had entered the field. We had seen this bird several times before and Ryan nicknamed him “Turkzilla” (at one time) and “Turkrex” (at another time). This was the bird my father-in-law had seen many times and kept tabs on for us.

He was out there for a while pecking around, occasionally gobbling, and eventually he followed the hen around once she came back into view.

It was quite a scene- we had turkeys in the field, a sandhill crane had landed directly in front of the blind, a woodpecker beating up a tree behind us, a grouse drumming in the woods to the SW of us, and two geese buzzed the blind.

It was great! However, it didn’t look like any of the turkeys had any real plans to come over our way. Soon though, the hen started to cluck back, every time I clucked. Before long she headed our way.

Eventually she strolled to within 20 yards of our blind. She just hung out, preened herself, and stayed put for a while. The jakes and tom ever so slowly followed behind her.

[Scoot]

The tom came in to about 100 yards away and was strutting and showing off for a while.

At one point he decided the jakes were getting to close to his gal and he chased them off a little bit.

[Scoot]

Eventually he made his way towards the hen.

She fed her way down into the ditch behind us and he came to the field edge just to our South, only about 30 yards away. When he was there he seemed content to just keep an eye on his hen and occasionally take a peak at our decoy spread. After half an hour of this he finally turned and started to walk towards the hen. I clucked on time and his head snapped back at us. He turned, took exactly two steps, puffed up, spit, and quivered his whole body trying to look tough and impressive. I waited over five minutes without either of us blinking. Finally he looked at his hen and made a slight movement to go towards her. I clucked and he again too two steps towards us, puffed up, spit, and shook. We repeated this for 25 minutes- cluck, step-step, puff up, spit, quiver, repeat. After 25 minutes he was finally only 10 yards away from us and about 15 yards from the decoys. I dropped one more cluck and he puffed up and came in on a string! Here he is as he crossed the window towards the decoys.

…and when he first reached the jake decoy.

He pushed it around a bit, trying to show it who’s boss.

Here is the picture I took just a half-second before Ryan shot.

[Scoot]

Once again, I was waiting for my camera to process (it delays about ½ - ¾ of a second after each picture) and I only heard the shot. I looked up to see a perfectly placed arrow in the back end of the turkey. Ryan had executed a perfect Texas heart shot! I plunged out of the tiny windows in the front of the blind (note: these windows are not big enough for me to fit through, but I wasn’t going to let this bird get away- rumor has it that I looked pretty ridiculous squeezing through them) and chased down the bird very quickly. In fact, it only went about five yards from where he shot it. I looked back at the blind and Matti and Ryan were looking out of the windows in disbelief. I was looking back in disbelief. Ryan came out to me and I held out my arms, lifted him up, gave him a huge hug and I have to admit, I got a little teary eyed. I was excited beyond belief!

Here’s Ryan with Turkzilla/Turkrex/his first turkey ever. He struggled to lift it at first, but finally got it off the ground for a picture.

Here are a few hero shots- some with just the tag holder, some with Matti, some with me, and some with all of us.

[Scoot]

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Ryan insisted that he carry the turkey from the field. He couldn’t handle it by itself, so I tried to attach it to my pack for him to carry it out. Unfortunately I also had to load the pack with a lot of other gear to get it all out of there, so it was quite heavy, especially when we added the weight of the bird on it. I hoisted it up on his back and put it in place. Within about three seconds he was leaning backwards and soon he was backpedaling and before I could grab him he fell over backwards from all of the weight. It was a pretty funny scene. Here he is after I got him upright again.

Here’s the hardware Turkzilla carried with him. He had a 9 ½” beard and spurs were almost ¾”. He weighed 22.5 lbs. Maybe not a true monster of a bird, but he was Turkzilla to a nine year old boy and that is plenty to make me happy.

Here’s a final picture of Ryan notching the first tag of his life- I really like this picture.

Thanks for following along with Ryan’s hunt! We learned a lot this hunt, had an unbelievable time, and enjoyed the heck out of the whole experience. We made some great friends along the way. I taught Ryan a lot about being in the outdoors, appreciation and respect for the outdoors, and how a father, son, family, and friends can spend some great time together.

[Sorgy]

Wow! Great job Ryan. Congrats to everyone all around. Scoot- great write up again...

Steve

[monstermoose78]

Awesome Scoot! Hearing this ending makes me feel a little better and that I should get back out there.