I took my first bird when I was 8 and have been hooked ever since. He always let me shoot first(unless I was asleep), and I've taken a many a bird sitting in front of him. Ove the years we started hunting apart but try our best to make a few together each year. Most of the time it turns out pretty good. We've doubled a few times and went to Texas a few years too.
The last couple years he's had trouble hearing and pinpointing birds. And it really aggravates him. Its cost him a few birds over the last 2 years and this year I could tell he wasn’t even showing any interest. He's not hard of hearing by any means but whatever frequency their gobble is, that’s where he’s having trouble. He uses game ears now and they are helping. I asked him Friday night if he was going and he said “I doubt it, I haven’t even got my vest out." I told him to dig it out and where to go(same public land he's hunted hard the last 2 years), and he said he may. Needless to say he went and heard a bird finally and he was pumped, it hung up on a creek and never came within 90yds. Needless to say that put a little spark back in him. Monday he got on another bird and he hung up about 100yds out. I called him Monday morning and asked how he did and told him I'd try to help out with him Tuesday.
Well this morning we got in the woods real early and made it to where the bird had hung up the morning before. It was still real dark when he gobbled about 70yds from us so we just hit the ground and set up in an old pine thicket. We heard him fly down and started drumming. We hit him with a few calls and he would gobble and drum. He wasn’t moving and then my heart sunk because I thought I could hear another hunter calling. I got a little louder with my calls and so did the other caller. Finally I realized it was a hen and she had gotten all railed up so I laid into her and she puffed her feathers up and came in on a string calling like crazy. Perfect set up but the old gobbler wouldn’t budge. Finally he started moving our way and when he got to about 80yds another bird come up the ridge out of nowhere right in our face. I said to myself please don’t be a jake and bust us, but when he hit about 20yds he hit an opening and I saw his beard swing, then I said to myself well that other bird will never make it here now and then BOOOOM the gobbler at 15yds rolls backwards. I was ecstatic that my dad had gotten a bird and one that I call into his lap. Well the ol bird flops around and then falls off the ridge we are on and it was straight down, seems to be like that with deer and turkeys.
We shook hands, he prayed for all we are grateful for, measured him( 1 1\8”spurs and 9.5”beard) and then we made the long walk back to the truck reliving the hunt over and over. It was a great morning and one hunt I am proud to have been a part of. So glad I listened and soaked up all I could all those years hunting with him and now it’s even more fun calling for him.
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