We got out plenty early Saturday morning and spread out to see if we could hear any other gobblers before we headed towards the one we roosted. But nothing gobbled on the roost, so we slipped into the 15 year old pines where this bird was roosted, got him to gobble, and eased up to him real nice and snug.
Well, long story short, he wouldn't respond to us, and I never got him to come in. But we heard a second bird farther back in the pines, and as we were working our way to him, he had slipped by us out in a field a couple hundred yards away, and started giving us the "come on and catch up" gobbling routine. So, we took off and tried to swing up ahead of them but the birds went way out into the field and we spotted them about 300-400 yds out there, safely out of reach of any further flanking maneuvers.
So, I decided we'd just sit there in the edge of the woods and watch their reaction to my calling. After I'd been calling off and on for 10 or 15 minutes, the birds started to slowly start working in our direction. One of them got out in front of the others and started making a slow bee-line towards us. Then a truck drove by on the dirt road a couple hundred yds away, and slowed down and stopped to look at the turkeys in the field. Well, when the truck stopped, the slow bee-line towards us turned into a fast trot. The truck drove off, and the lead turkey was now only 150 or so yds away, continuing the bee-line to us, with the other 7 or 8 strung out behind him a hundred or so yards back.
They were coming through a soaking wet wheat field, and I could tell the two closest birds at least were male. I could see what looked like mature male heads, but I couldn't see any beards, and my grandson didn't care about a long beard for his first turkey anyway. So I had him set up looking through a small opening facing the approaching turkeys coming across the wheat field. I was behind him coaching him through it, but I could tell he was nervous about shooting. Now Trevor is so afraid of missing because he has had a few tough days shooting at and missing small game and waterfowl, when I've had to give him a lot of grandfatherly encouragement and BB gun practice to build up some confidence. And this was the first time he'd gotten this close to the moment of truth with a turkey. Anyway, I gave him the go ahead when the two lead birds got into range, and I repeated three or four more times for him to go ahead and shoot as they got closer and closer. Well, I knew what was going through his mind, and the birds came in and slipped over to his right, behind a wall of briars, about 5 yds away.
And you know what happened next. The closest one made him, putted, and started quickly walking away - but right in Trevor's shooting lane. I nearly shouted, "shoot him!", but Trevor didn't pull the trigger. He just froze up. Now, I'm thinking it's all over, because the entire flock (6 or 7 gobblers and/or jakes with a couple hens) stopped dead in their tracks. But the 2nd bird that had come in close was still standing over to the right behind the wall of briars, putting. So, I told Trevor to ease his gun over there and shoot him. Well, he tried but by then the bird was backing off putting as he walked, completely blocked off from Trevor's sight by the low wall of briars. Now there was only one more thing to try. So I told him to stand up and shoot the turkey! At this point, Trevor got a handle on himself, stealthily eased up, put the gun on the turkey, and finally let the Franchi 48AL 28 gauge eat. I jumped up at that point, and saw the turkey laying dead still in the wheat.
At that point, I still didn't know what he had shot - jake or tom. And as we walked over to look at him, I saw the mature wing speculum and was very glad that it was a tom, though I don't think Trevor cared at all. He ended up being a very small bird, weighing in at 13.97 lbs, but had 1" spurs and a 10-1/4" beard.
