Apprentice Turkey Hunt
The only thing we love more than the spring thunder of a wild rio grande is sharing the experience with others, especially kids. There's something special about seeing the excitement in a child's eyes when they hear a gobbler hammer on the horizon heading towards us. It is our passion to facilitate and witness the spark in someone's eyes for the great outdoors and that's what makes us work so hard to deliver an experience similar to the one that sparked our own. That being said, the drive to ensure a great adventure for juniors is exponential therefore we give it our all and more.
As the California apprentice turkey season neared, our scouting efforts were in full swing. The countless hours spent looking at maps, glassing flats and hiking ridge tops trying to strike and locate a gobbler for Alex was destined to be worth it. As most efforts during this odd weathered year weren't panning out we kept faith and continued to push forward. Finally on the morning before the season opener we located a group of gobblers and as the morning progressed, I was under the impression that the next morning we were going to be in the middle of multiple thundering gobblers. But, the birds had a different idea for the morning. Alex and I got to the spot I carefully selected that would put us merely 60 yards from their roost tree and waited until sunrise. Nothing, not even a distant gobble, yelp or otherwise. Having mid day plans we decided to pack up, regroup and reassess for the next morning.
New game plan, I located some gobblers on one of our ranches about 10 miles away and we were on the road the next morning. As we made our approach to the edge of the flat I threw out a locator call in hopes of pinpointing the roost tree....Nothing. I assured Alex that it didn't mean they weren't here and that I was still confident we would get into birds. We picked our spot, set up our beautiful Dave Smith Decoys and made our stand. As the dawn approached, Bam birds hammered in the trees about 100 yards from us. Then more birds hammering behind us, now things were heating up. I made a couple yelps in hopes of being the deciding factor of which way these gobblers wanted to fly down. Alex is getting even more excited with every gobble, I can see it in his eyes. Finally fly down and as the birds in front of us hit the ground so did the birds behind us and we were in the middle of 7 thundering longboards challenging each other.
The longboards behind us were clearly much more aggressive and came on a string but were just out of range when they decided to go after the strutters in front of us. By now the strutters in front of us had shied to the aggressive gobblers and made distance between them which put them about 150 yards from us. As the two groups of gobblers met, Alex got a show of flying spurs. As these birds became more aggressive, I decided to change my calling strategy and it immediately showed promise. 7 longboards strutting and gobbling made their way to us slowly until the last 70 yards and started running to our decoys. Ive hunted over multiple brands of decoys before but there is something magical about DSD decoys. With 7 longboards in our spread, some fighting our decoys and some trying to breed them, Alex and I picked out a beautiful gobbler that was safely clear of any other birds and I gave him the word.
Leading up to the season, Alex had put in many hours practicing shooting his new shotgun and practiced shooting from multiple positions. The work that this young man had put in was something to be admired and the outcome gave me the confidence that we would be making a confident ethical shot if it came down to it.
Alex let his Benelli loose and dropped this beautiful longboard instantly. When that bird dropped, the excitement and spark I saw in his eyes proved to me once more that passing on this passion for the outdoors is what I enjoy most. Alex got his first turkey and it was a great adventure and experience for the both of us. Congratulations Alex on your 8 1/2" double bearded tom with 7/8" spurs!
