Jackson's Owen County Bird

It was a real challenge getting Jackson up Saturday morning.  I set my alarm for 4:00am and Jackson set his for 4:15am and when I went down to start loading the truck he was still asleep at 4:39am. He knew we were leaving at 5:00am to go to John Hunter's farm in Spencer.  The farm we were hunting was on the edge of the east fork of the White  river bordering McCormick's Creek state park.  We had 2 fields to choose from.  Myself and his papaw scouted the field 2 times prior to going over on opening youth weekend. We had aerial photos of the property and after talking to Brian Huber about the way the fields set and we had a game plan.  In between the 2 fields the was a levee and we decided to set the ground blind up on the levee and give it a try.  Once we got everything loaded in the truck we headed over and Jackson started complaining about being hungry so we had to make a stop at McDonalds so he would quit whining.  We finally made to the farm and starting walking to the field about 6:15am and made it to the levee and had everything set up at 6:30am.  The birds started gobbling around 6:45am.  This was the first time Jackson had ever heard wild birds in their environment. Sometime around 7:00am I was noticing something off in the distance and zoomed the camera and could see 2 toms in the field. About 15 minutes later we noticed 2 hens in between us and the toms making there way towards the toms.  I was beginning to think I set us up in the wrong place because nothing was heading our way.  We just kept waiting and watching.  Finally after about 20 minutes I saw one of the hens heading our way and I told Jackson not to move.  The hen came in around the decoys and started to feed around and hang out.  The toms still were in the other end of the field about 200yards away not paying any attention to us or the hens.  The hen right in front of us paced back and forth for about 15 minutes starring right in the blind at times for what seemed like an eternity. While Jackson and his papaw was watching the hen I noticed the toms were making there way closer to us.  some where along the way the toms picked up 2 jakes.  The jakes made there way in first and the toms were not happy and came running in to chase the jakes off.  Once they made it to the decoys they started strutting.  The toms were close together and I told Jackson to wait until they separated.  Once they split I told Jackson that I make a soft call and which ever tom stuck his neck out shoot.  I no more made the call and Jackson shot.  The tom dropped on the spot.   Jackson's papaw took off trying to get out of the blind and just about fell down.  When he made it the bird he grabbed it held it down.  This was papaw;s first time going turkey hunting.. I hope I can get him hooked and get him interested in turkey hunting.  Jackson's official weight was 19 lbs 4ozs had a 10 inch beard and 30 mm spurs. I would really like to thank John for the use of the farm. We are guessing that the bird was at least a 3 year old.  Now it is my turn to hunt and I'm going to try to bow hunt a bird.  Good luck to everyone this coming season.


Mack