# Taking my 6 year old daughter on her first turkey hunt.



## sharpshooter25 (Oct 2, 2007)

What a great and memoriable hunt I just had with my daughter and cousin and his daughter and son in Nebraska. I apologize in advance for the length of the post, but there is just so much to tell. And yes there are pictures.

My cousin and I met these guys from Nebraska almost 3 years ago elk hunting up here in the Uintah's. And two years ago we went out there for our first spring turkey hunt and had a blast. Well, this year we decided that since an out of state youth tag over the counter is only $6.00 why not take our kids and they can shoot their first turkey. They are not required to have a hunters safety card as long as they are with someone who has one. So we load up the vehicle, and I took my 6 year old daughter, and he brought his 11 year old son and his 6 year old daughter as well and off we were on Thursday morning. 13 hours later and many bathroom stops on the way, and we were at our destination. All I can say is thank goodness for car dvd players.

So we get settled in at the farm house where we stay and make our plans for the next morning. My cousin and his kids would go out with our friends brother Dave, and I would go with Marv. So Marv and I and my daughter set out early the next morning. We get to where we are going to go, and set up our decoys and start calling. Right away we hear gobbles. But they are a ways away, and up this little hill. So we go up to the hill and start calling and these turkeys are across an alfalfa field and down off the little hill. So we are trying to get them to come in, and while we are doing this, all of the sudden we hear two turkeys gobble at us, and they are right there in the trees. The only problem is, we can't see them because it is so thick. We keep calling and they are coming in, and pretty soon it sounds like they are right in front of us but I can't see them. Then we realize that we had left our decoys standing up, and they were at our decoys and we couldn't see them. So pretty soon they figured that out and they left. So feeling a bit disappointed we move out and we see the turkeys walking accross the field and they are two nice toms. So we decide to go and try another place. We get there and we get out of the vehicle and just try a call, and sure enough we hear a gobble right in the trees. So again we get set up, and start calling. Well, this turkey isn't coming in very fast and in fact it seems like he is leaving. So I decide to go down into this small draw and see if I can see him. So I go in and Marv keeps calling him and then I hear some noise. It is a whitetail deer and she runs out, and spooks the tom and I see him run away and then he walks over this little rise. So I go back to Marv and tell him what happened and I told him where he went and Marv seems to think that we might still have a chance if we go around the bend. So we get a move on and work our way back around so that the turkey won't see us and we come around the bend and I have to hit the ground because there is that tom all strutted out with a hen. So, I wait for the hen to clear, and drop my turkey at about 45yards.

My daughter is just excited that her dad shot a nice turkey. So I get back to the farm house, and my cousin had also shot his first turkey, a nice jake. So we have two down in the morning, and four to go. Well, my cousin and his kids decide that they are going to go where I was in the morning to try and get a nice tom, and now it was my daughters turn to get her first turkey and I wanted her to just get one. So Marv said that he knew where these group of jakes hung out, and every night would come in to roost and that we would set up there.

So we get set up in the blind, put our decoy out, and start to call. Right away we hear them gobbling and they are down behind us coming in from the field. So I unzip the side window just enough to where I can see out this sliver and sure enough, there were 5 jakes all strutted out. Well, all of the sudden, 4 out of the 5 started to fight. It was amazing to see them. They would spur each other, and get on top of each other, push each other back and forth, and hit each other with their necks. I was so glad I brought my video camera because I got some amazing footage. Well, for over an hour we watched this go on and my daughter was just loving it. We would call, they would all gobble, and fight. Well, I started to get a little worried because we only had about ½ hour of daylight left and they still had to come quite a ways and they actually hadn't seen our decoy yet. Then something happened that we could not have planned. A hen started to come out of some other trees across the field right toward our decoy and she started to call. Well, as soon as they saw her, they started to come in all strutted out. I got my daughter ready, put the gun against my shoulder, put her arm around it, and told her to put the red bead right on its head when they got in front of us.

Now Marv had a tag to fill as well, so the plan was to wait until the first one cleared and we would shoot the second one, and then he would shoot after my daughter shot. So here they come, and now they have seen our decoy so they are coming right for it, and the first one clears the tree in front of us, and I told my daughter that when the other turkey cleared the tree to shoot it. Well, she was so excited that she really didn't wait until it cleared the tree. As soon as she saw it on the other side of the tree, she pulled the trigger. Now I will tell you, when you have a 3 ½" shell in your 12 gauge, and you are not ready for the shot, your shoulder will feel it. But the shot rang out, and then Marv's shot rang out, and there were two turkeys on the ground. My daughter just started to laugh with excitement saying that she had shot her turkey. What an experience and memory we will both have forever.

My cousin also got very lucky that evening and called three tom's in at once to their blind. Unfortunately for his son his little 410 malfunctioned because he didn't have it locked down all the way and so his gun didn't even go off. By that time it was too late, the tom's were only 10 feet away and they were about to get out of there, and so my cousin had to shoot. He shot one, it dropped, reloaded, and he shot the other one trying to get away. So in one day of hunting, there were 6 birds down. Plenty of turkey meat in the freezer now, and our kids will never again forget it, and they are already talking about going next year.

Here are the pictures from our hunt.









This is what we had to drive through when we were in Nebraska, it was a crazy storm









The group of jakes that we would hunt in the evening.









My cousin with his first jake, and me with my tom and our two girls.









My Tom. He weighed 25lbs, 10 1/2" beard, and 1 1/2" spurs. We was a gorgeous bird.









Marv raises turkeys at his farm and then sells them to farmers and people who want to introduce turkeys into their land. My daughter and the kids loved to gobble at them and get them to gobble back. This is my daughter gobbling at the turkeys.









He also had geese on his farm and my daughter just loved to chase the geese. This goose is trying to fly away.









My daughter chasing a goose again.









These were some fallow deer that he raises as well.









My daughters first turkey.









Our gracious host, and guide Marv with his turkey









My daughter going out to her turkey. She couldn't leave it alone she just loved it.









The goup of us with the four turkeys we had killed that evening. We actually shot the three species of turkey they have in Nebraska. The Merimum, the Rio, and the Eastern. Almost the grand slam but you have to go to Florida to get that.









Leaving Nebraska. We took a picture of this bridge when we left last time, so we had to do it again. Until next year.


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## JERRY (Sep 30, 2007)

Looks like a great time. Always nice to get the kids out and have success. 8)


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## Size Matters (Dec 22, 2007)

It sounds like you had a great time good job getting the kids out thanks for the post.


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