Rory's Successful Turkey Hunt

By Rory Hawk (Age 15)

It was early morning on April 2nd. My dad and I got up at 3 A.M. in order to make it to Burlington, KS in order to meet Jerame Huginin at Jade Seed and Supply. Jerame is the owner of Jade Seed and Supply, and he had arranged to take a youth hunter out for a turkey hunt through the Outdoor Mentors program. He told me about the different places that were available to be hunted that day and asked me which one I thought we should hunt. I picked a spot where Jerame had an elevated Redneck blind over a plowed field, and we headed off to the field. On the way, Jerame told us about a nice tom turkey that he had seen and called the day before. He expected that the tom was roosted nearby. We arrived at the field before the sun had started to rise and headed to the blind. I had never hunted turkey from an elevated blind, but I was excited to try it and hopefully get a bird. The decoys were set up and we climbed into the blind. After we got settled in the blind, Jerame started to do a few calls in order to see if anything was awake yet. When he called, we heard it. The distinct gobble of the male turkey. We knew it was close, so we started to scan the trees for where he was roosting. We saw him in a tree by himself on the far side of the field from the blind. He was gobbling away. The sun had barely risen to legal shooting light, and the tom flew down. It seemed like he was miles away, but he didn’t take any time at all in coming to us. He ran to about 50 yards from the blind and stopped on a ridge. He saw our hen decoys and started to strut and fan. He was a beautiful bird. I got ready, but wasn’t sure if I could hit him from that far. My gun was patterned up to fifty yards, but I’d never shot anything from that far away. Jerame and my dad were both pretty sure that I could hit him, so I fired, and I missed it. I could see where I hit from the cloud of dust that flew up, but he didn’t run off. I fired at him again from the same spot, and again I missed him. What happened next was super crazy. After my second, shot he actually came in closer! I prepared to shoot him again. He stopped, and I shot again. I missed him! At that point, I really thought I was in trouble. My shotgun still had its plug in it making it only able to hold 3 shells. I had to quickly put another shell in my gun, and that is a loud process. I thought for sure that the bird was going to get freaked and walk off, but he didn’t. I aimed my gun for a fourth shot, and Jerame told me to lower my gun just before I shot. Once I did that, I fired at that bird and hit him right in the head. It was a good shot considering I had just fired and missed him three other times. We scurried down the ladder of the Redneck blind and went to look at the bird. He was gorgeous. His tail was in a really good condition and he had the longest spurs out of all of the turkeys that I’ve shot. His beard was about 10 inches and he didn’t look like he had been in a lot of fights. I was so happy that God had blessed me with this magnificent bird. We were walking out of that field at around 7am with a bird. That was the earliest I’ve ever shot a turkey. We got the tom tagged and headed to town. Jerame asked if  I would want to show the turkey to some of his friends who were visiting from out of state, and I said I would. On the way back, Jerame showed us some of the other properties that we could have hunted if that morning hadn’t worked out. After walking around a bit we stopped by Jerame’s house and showed Jerame’s friends the turkey. Then we headed back to the feed store. It had been a short hunt, but an exciting one. Thank you to Jerame and to Outdoor Mentors for giving me the opportunity of getting this beautiful bird that God created and to my dad for being willing to go with me on this hunt.