Being a young hunter of 24 years old I am still what they like to call “Wet behind the Ears.”  I have yet to shoot a wall hanger, and have been outsmarted by deer and other game on multiple occasions and even missed obvious clues about a animal patterns that have been right under my nose.  But, at age 24, I’m sure most veteran hunters can remember back when those same things happened to them.  The key to these mistakes is making the most of them and turning them into success stories for the future.

This year I had the chance to take a fellow family member of mine on his first turkey hunt.  Although he is older than me, up until a couple of months ago he had no idea how to hunt turkeys, call turkeys or cook a turkey.  In Minnesota we get 5 full days to hunt these birds and he was lucky enough to draw the 1^st season.  We started off with high hopes by “putting the birds to bed” the night before opening day.  Within 10 minutes we didn’t have a gobble but walked up on a Tom dancing for a hen, luckily they didn’t see us and we were able to get out unnoticed and went into opening morning beaming with excitement. 

Opening morning came and passed with many gobbles, but of course no turkeys.  Not discouraged, we knew the turkeys were in this small 40 acre ridge.  The evening hunt was very positive with seeing 12 birds; 6 toms/jakes and 6 hens.  We anxiously waited for them to come towards us to roost on the ridge behind us.  With 45 minutes left until sunset the hens went into the woods about 300 yards down the field.  The Toms/Jakes, however, were interested in our calling and decided to come check it out, however they didn’t want to check it out any closer than 75 yards.  They eventually went around us and into the woods.  Baffled and discouraged we hunted another property the following morning with no sign of turkeys and only a couple of gobbles.  Unfortunately, as it usually does, work got in the way.  The two excited and positive hunters that I talked about on the first day were now puzzled, discouraged hunters.

We were unable to hunt the following evening and morning hunts, so that lead us to converse back and forth as to what we think we were doing wrong and what we needed to do to fix it.  Were decoys hurting us more than helping?  Is it my calling?  The weather?  After the meeting of the minds was over we came to the conclusion that we never spooked any turkey we saw, they were obviously interested in the calling, but the decoys still had us wondering. 

Saturday morning came and we had 20 birds total, at different times, come within 70 yards of the decoys and just turn and walk away, with 1 Tom coming from behind us about 40 yards away.  Unfortunately, due to our position, it was not possible to get turned around and make a good shot.   Saturday night came and passed with one lone Jake and a faint gobble as the sun was setting.  The drive home was quiet, wondering what the heck to do about these birds, it had seemed that nothing was going our way and we couldn’t get a bird to commit.  We decided to sit in the same place the following morning our last chance to get my cousin his first turkey.

Sunday morning came and to our surprise the woods were ringing with gobbles; a surprise to us because we had heard nothing at dark the night before.  We decided to sit below the ridge and get closer to the birds before they flew off the roost.  We finally got situated and it sounded as if they turkeys were getting farther away and we were now hearing an abundance of gobbling on top of the ridge where we just were.  Taking a chance we hiked our out-of-shape bodies up the hill.  After the hard breathing subsided we moved swiftly and quietly to our spot.  Of course, after we get situated in that spot the turkeys begin to gobble non-stop below the ridge.  Is our youth and inexperience showing itself?  After 20 minutes the woods were quiet, and so were 2 very disappointed hunters.  We were only able to hunt until 8:00 that morning.  As time ticked by so did our chance at being able to shoot a turkey.  At about 7:30 we had heard some gobbling a good distance out; I looked at my cousin and said “Last chance.”  To our surprise they had gobbled back, not entirely sure it was at us, I continued to give some loud yelps, or in our case cries for help.  They gobbled a few more times and still sounded a ways out there.  5-10 minutes had gone by with zero gobbling.  Again, disappointed, we began wondering why we do this to ourselves.  Why do you spend countless hours in the field to become disappointed in the end?  Why do we spend so much money for the best gear to not be able to really use it?  Just as we got done discussing our bad luck with hunting we had 3 thunderous gobbles that pounded the silent air.  These gobbles were no longer a long ways out, but now close enough that after peeking over a log we could see three Toms making their way to through the woods to the field edge.

The Tom’s stepped out at 65 yards on a mission to gobble at everything we sent at them.  However, not using any decoys on our last morning hunt, they didn’t see anything to associate those clucks and purrs with.  So, they decided to stay out and walk on the backside of the field eventually getting behind a large pile of logs and brush.  I whispered to my cousin “Those birds are right behind that brush pile, stay low and run up behind that pile and you should be able to get a shot.  I will continue calling to them to keep their mind on me and keep them from moving further away.”  He ran up to the pile unnoticed, took one peek and saw the birds to be close enough for a shot.  The second peek was to draw the gun and during that time the turkeys started to “putt” as he had been busted.  Unfortunately, for one of them, putting wasn’t enough.  My cousin was able to get a shot off, and drop the bird where it stood.  25 lbs, 10 inch beard and 1 1/8” spurs, not bad for his first bird.  I don’t know who was more excited him or I.  I looked at my watch when he got the bird and it said 7:47.

This turkey hunt taught me a lot.  I’ve spent many deer seasons with the same thoughts and emotions as I had towards the end of this 2010 turkey season.  Wondering why I waste my time and money.  But, this just showed me the roller coaster of emotions that happens during hunting and that it’s all a part of the experience.  Even though I wasn’t the hunter; being the guide, friend and family was just as fun.  I’ve learned to just be patient, persistent and have faith that it will work out for you, and at times you may have to think outside the box to get it done, I don’t know why or how I thought of running behind that brush pile so quick and the fact that it worked was unbelievable.  After the hunt we both agreed that this hunt has just taken over as the best hunt both of us have ever had.

Whitewater Outdoors Turkey Vest

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