Jarrod and Jacob with a nice southern Michigan gobbler. 10″ beard.
I’m really thankful that Michigan’s turkey season is so long, especially for our apprentice hunters, who get to hunt all spring seasons. My son, Jacob, is involved in soccer and swimming, and his sisters are in softball, t-ball, and gymnastics. Needless to say, there hasn’t been a lot of spare time to get Jacob out turkey hunting! I’d taken him out a few times here and there, usually for only an hour or two. We’ve had a little action, but nothing’s been close enough. Well, when my season opened on May 5th, I was able to start carrying my gun too. The goal was to get Jacob his first turkey, and I would only “step-in” if the bird spooked or was otherwise not going to present a shot to him.
After soccer and softball games in the morning, the evening of May 10th was clear for a hunt, so Jacob and I headed out to a favorite spot of ours here in southern Michigan. We would walk a ridge-line of mature timber back about a half-mile to a known roosting area. Just a couple hundred yards in, we spotted a couple hens out in a cut cornfield that’s adjacent to the woods we were in. After watching them in the Vortex binocs for a few minutes, I determined that they were generally headed south, towards where I planned setting up. So Jacob and I circled just a bit to get the ridge between us and the birds, and we continued to our setup. We found a good spot against a giant tree so that we could sit side by side and have good backcover. Jacob is 8 now, and I could sense he’s able to sit still better than even last year when we’d been restricted to hunting from a blind.
About an hour into our hunt, the only action came from close by fox squirrels that seemed to taunt Jacob. He’d shot a couple gray squirrels and a black squirrel this winter but the fox squirrels eluded him and he has his heart set on whacking one next squirrel season. They were safe for now. Then, Jacob spotted turkeys out in the cut corn! Through the mature timber, it was hard to see the birds in the cornfield but my binocs made out at least 2 longbeards and several hens. Then we started hearing the distinct sounds of a hot, raspy hen. She had the toms in a frenzy! They weren’t gobbling but they were fighting and chasing each other all over.
For the next 45 minutes, the birds fed and ran around the cut corn, gradually making their way closer and closer to entering the woods near us. They were still a couple hundred yards out but I could tell we were in the game. Our excitement picked up when Jacob spotted a small group of hens enter the woods and appear below us about 100 yards. They drank in some flooded timber and then made there way up the hill towards us. Being right next to Jacob allowed me to whisper occasional directions to him on when and where to move. The hens passed by about 30 yards to our right as more turkeys appeared down below. This time they were jakes. I’m thinking Jacob would want to blast one of them so I started getting excited, but Jacob said, “No, I want the longbeard!” when I asked him if we wanted to shoot one of the jakes. I couldn’t blame him much when we saw 4 longbeards enter the woods with the hot hen. This was getting intense!
The jakes made there way up the hill towards us too, passing by in range of Jacob’s little Rossi youth .410. But Jacob stayed true to his words and let them go by, saying, “No! I want the big tom!” when I questioned him again. We held stone still and just hoped the big toms that were strutting and chasing each other all over downhill would soon follow the same path.
had a fun photo shoot with the kids after this hunt!
When you can’t move a muscle, 30 minutes can feel like an eternity, but finally, the toms and hot hen broke away from the water and began making their way up the hill similar to the preceding birds. But they hugged the water a bit closer and I questioned whether they’d come by in range at all now! We waited for them to appear…finally, a red head popped up. Then another. And another. We had 2 nice jakes right off Jacob’s gun at about 20 yards. I’d already directed Jacob to take his safety off and be ready to fire when they popped up over the hill. But Jacob held firm to his desire for a longbeard. The jakes were safe today.
Then I saw him. The main strutter appeared to our right, about 40 yards out…too far for Jacob’s gun. He strutted a bit and the excitement grew! I needed him 20 more yards for Jacob’s gun. But it just wasn’t in the cards this day. The jakes were so close that they started eye-balling the 2 shapes at the bottom of the big tree. They didn’t putt or anything, but it was clear that the tom wasn’t going to come any closer because of the jakes’ wariness. The other longbeards had stayed further right and over the hill so the big strutter was our only chance at this point. Seeing that we only had about 10 more feet before the tom would be uphill and out of sight to our right, I whispered to Jacob that I’d better shoot him before they all get away. Jacob declined shooting the jakes again and I knew they would spook as soon as I swung right to shoot, so I waited for the big tom to pop out from behind the big tree that momentarily hid him. When he did, in one motion, I took the safety off swung the shotgun over to the right, and BOOM!!
Birds erupted everywhere. The recoil and other birds flying made me question my shot for a second. But any doubts were quickly erased when I stood up and started running over there. The big tom was stone dead.
I was really proud of Jacob for being able to hold still as long as he did, and for the resolve to let those younger birds pass. I think the best part was being able to hold my son’s hand and help him through the moonlit woods on our long, successful walk out (I’d forgotten a flashlight). It was an evening in the woods I’ll never forget. I thank God for moments like this, sure as a hunter, but most as a father.