The boy got his first...

[Bwana]

...longbeard that is.

The youngest boy has shot a fair number of turkeys throughout his short career but they have either been jakes or hens and since his sister shot a dandy longbeard on her first hunt
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he felt that he needed to get one of his own and said he wasn't shooting a turkey this spring unless it was a gobbler.

The plan was made to hunt this past Sunday even though the weather man called for wind and rain. Given how often these gents get the forecast right, (not very often) the alarm was set for just after 3 am so we could be out the door by 4 am. Thanks to some drunken bozo who called the wrong number twice at 2:15 am the day got off to an even early time then planned but that was good as the fog was terrible on the drive to the ranch we would be hunting.

We get to our destination and set up the decoys and blind in the dark while a light rain is sprinkling down on us. No big deal, this won't affect the birds and it didn't but the 25+ MPH winds and rain that started shortly after crawling into the blind sure did. Given our eternal optimism and the fact I knew we would get soaked as soon as we left the blind we stuck it out for 3 hours without seeing or hearing a single turkey.

We decided to head back down the road to a place where we had seen some turkeys roosted on our way in that morning to see if we could locate them in order to see if there were any toms in the bunch and yes we did get wet taking everything down and back to the pickup. Got to the area where the birds had been roosted and I spotted a hen with 3 jakes in tow but as soon as they saw us they literally headed for the hills which are VERY steep right there. It was then that I noticed a couple of bigger toms that had been lagging behind but when the other birds took off so did they. Knowing a bit about how the birds react in this area we headed around to the backside of the ridge with the intention of intercepting the birds at the top. Though it was a quick and slippery climb my plan worked and the boy connected with one of the gobblers which made both of us VERY happy and for some reason we never even noticed the pouring rain until it came time to for him to tag his bird. Focus is a good thing when in pursuit.

Sorry for the crappy pictures but I didn't have a camera with me on the hunt and it was still raining when we got home so this is as good as it gets.
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[Chicken Dinner]

Nice bird! It sure looks like spring is late coming up your way though.

[Bwana]

This is the first year where I failed to fill my spring tag but from the onset my goal was to get my 10 year old daughter her first bird, which we did, plus getting to help my youngest boy get his first long beard made this season an AWESOME one. I passed up shots at some jakes earlier in the season and on a bearded hen just last Friday so I could have filled my tag but it just wasn't a priority for me this year.

The weather this year was interesting too in that we had a big blizzard opening weekend that dumped two feet of snow on us, then it warmed up nicely during the middle of the season, and finally the last day of the season was capped of by the boy getting his bird in what turned out to be the record rainfall event for that day which was a record that had stood since 1878.

I'll leave you with our view from the blind on the first day we were able to hunt this year which was a week after the big snowstorm.
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[Penguin]

Nice bird! It sure looks like spring is late coming up your way though.

I was thinking the same thing Hank. On both counts. Nice bird and congrats Bwana.

[HideHunter]

Great bird! Congrats all around. Unbelievable on the weather. I hunted in temps from 29 to 91 this year. Crazy - Oh and the buffalo gnats showed up in force yesterday. At least we didn't have to deal with them this year.

[Captain]

Man that bird has a ROPE!

Congrats to the young man..... And to you!
Looks like some cold hunting
Take Care, Captain

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