Kentucky Gobblers

  What a great hunt Drake and I had in Kentucky! One of the best hunts Ive ever been on. The 7th was the first day of a two day youth turkey season in the great state of Kentucky. We decided, kind of at the last moment, to head down there to some public land that I had some success on a few years ago. We arrived as it was getting dark and was able to get one to gobble to an owl hoot pretty close to the truck. So the next morning we waited for this one to start gobbling but he never made a sound, so we started heading back deep in the woods. It wasn't very much later we heard a distant gobble, so after him we went. We were set up good and working him in when some other hunters came in a scared him off. That happened twice to us that day. Welcome to public land.We finally got one to cooperate but had to set up in a thick area. Well when this one showed himself he was inside of 10 yards!!.. and Drake smooth missed him. It was just too close for that tight choke. Drake was a little upset with himself for missing, but I tried to let him know that was a tough shot, even for an experienced hunter. We heard one more later that didn't want to work and it was about 1:00 in the afternoon when we decided to climb the ridge, more like a mountain, and start the 2 mile hike back to the truck. I thought hopefully we could hear one on the way back. We were resting on the "mountain" and I thought I would give one last call to the valley below that we had just left. Wouldn't you know it, a lonesome gobbler answered right where we had just came from about 15 minutes earlier! We waited a little bit to see if this one was worth going back down after. I looked at Drake and said "what do you think?" and he replied with a big "sigh". The tom gobbled a couple more times on his own and that was enough for me....so back down we went. We got set up pretty good and within a few minutes we could hear him spittin n drummin as he work his way to the decoy. When he strutted out from behind a big cedar at 20 yards, Drake filled his head with # 5s! The turkey dropped like a sack of taters! Drake was fired up! He had redeemed himself for the miss from earlier. Drake stuck with me up and down hills and hollows, on a tough hunt where most men wouldn't have been able to. I am very proud of him. He learned a lot that day, not just about turkey hunting. I've learned to appreciate days like these even more as I get older. Thank God for answering our prayers. We plan on probably going back this coming weekend for the regular season to see if Drake can get his second bird of the season. Or maybe I might try to get one, either way it should be fun... and probably a little tougher. I'm tryin to talk little brother in to going with us. I bet I can make him shed a few pounds!!