I to did the youth hunt this season in WI.
Was out Saturday bright and early. I had heard 4 different birds gobbling from a well used roost site on Friday morning and went out Friday night to hopefully roost these birds with no luck.
I went into Saturday morning with the hopes that these birds would be roosted where they were Friday but no luck. We did not hear a gobble on my families 1000 acres. It was fairly windy and we were on top so I elected to move down to a bottom field and sit and wait. I had seen a lone tom out strutting on Friday in the alfalfa field so figured he might come back.
Myself, the kid I was mentoring, the kids dad, and my cousin were sitting around the lone pine tree in a fence line that separated a 5 acre field to our west and a 30 acre field to the east, ridges bordered all sides of the field. I was making some calls every 10-15 minutes and after 45 minutes my cousin had thought he heard a gobble to our east and on top the hill, so I grabbed the camera and prepared for the bird to come down the hill. I upped my calls to a couple every minute or two. I never heard a gobble but after about 5 minutes I heard the kids dad who was looking at the 5 acre field behind me say "right behind us behind us" I turned to see a tom land 65 yards out from us. The bird had flown off the ridge behind us.
My cousin was looking straight south, I was looking west, the kids dad was looking east, the kid was sitting looking south with his left shoulder pointed to where my cousin thought the gobble came from. So this bird has us hand cuffed, the gun was in the kids lap, my camera was on my lap and we had a tom 65 yards out.
I couldn't see the tom very well so I relied on my cousin to relay info to me as to what the bird was doing. The bird stood erect just looking for about 5 minutes I had 2 hen decoys out and a Spin Strut tom decoy out. I decided to pull the tom into full strut and when I did that the bird behind us went into full strut and started his march in. I asked my cousin how far the bird was he said 30 yards, about 10 seconds later he said 10 yards coming strait at us. The gun is still on the kids lap and pointed the opposite direction this bird was coming.For some reason the bird turned at 5 yards and veered to my left/north and crossed the fence in full strut at 5 yards from me. I have never seen a tom's head so red! He was fully focused on the decoy as he walked about 3 yards behind the kid. When he entered the field that the decoys were in he walked straight over to the spin strut.
As the tom crossed the fence I was able to get my camera up and start filming. When the tom got over to the decoy he started pecking the decoy and than jumped up and spurred the decoy making it spin 360 degrees. All four of us jumped. Than he went into full strut facing away so I had the kid get his gun up. Than the tom turned back around and jumped on the decoy again, breaking off the wing and knocking the decoy over. As he stuck his neck out to peck the decoy again I told the kid to shoot. With one perfectly placed shot at 10 yards from his 20 gauge my youth hunter had his first turkey.
This was one of my most exciting boring hunts ever. It was only the third time in 16 season I had not heard a single gobble. The bird weighed 21 lbs had a 7 3/4" beard (was froze off a little) and 7/8" spurs. All of this was caught on film and will make a great memory for the kid and his dad.
