John Daniel’s Rookie Debut

John Daniel, or “JD” as most call him got information from his grandpa late in 2014 that Grandpa had found out that JD could legally turkey hunt in Minnesota as a youth at age six.  JD quickly became elated as he has been enthralled to say the least in hunting ever since he could walk and talk.  Over the next few months a calendar date was set and the spring turkey hunting trip to Minnesota materialized.  During this time JD continued to work on gun safety and blew through a couple boxes of .410 ammunition practicing for the moment of truth that he hoped would arrive in May.  Most importantly, JD handled the gun very safely.  His marksmanship showed great improvement over this time as well.  We found out that the biggest obstacle that he found was ensuring that his cheek was down on the gun and that the gun’s stock was properly seated along his shoulder.  (Although the gun was a .410 and not great in barrel size it still was an adult gun.)

As the spring turkey season arrived JD spent quite a few mornings and afternoons in the blind with me as I worked on getting a turkey here in Wisconsin.  -This was “training” for JD as he called it for his upcoming hunt.  He worked on staying quiet, did some calling, and continued to work on his general woodsmanship as he had for the previous few springs.

 May quickly arrived and we found ourselves packing up to head west to Minnesota.  JD was very much excited.  The weather for the weekend that we had picked looked less and less favorable, however this was not going to stop us as we were on a mission and had blinds to sit in and protect us from the elements.

We arrived at Grandpa Dan’s farm and JD and I quickly found ourselves sitting in an afternoon location not too far from the house.  JD helped set up the decoys and the two of us patiently waited and called sparingly about every twenty minutes or so.  The afternoon wore on and JD became less focused so we decided to pick up and call it a day.  Turkeys: 1, JD: 0.

The following morning arrived early for me as JD kept me up all night.  –He said that he couldn’t sleep because he was so excited.  (I am all for excitement, however I hope that this sleeping deal cures itself sooner as opposed to later as the 4:00AM wake-up calls are tough even with getting “a full night’s sleep”!)   This morning we were off to one of Grandpa Dan’s other hand-picked “honey hole” locations that he had been watching all spring.  After arriving and getting set up in the dark the gobbling soon began.  Several toms were located to the south of us and were all roost gobbling for at least a half hour before getting off of the roost.  We scanned the field in front of us and had a few hens show up along with a few jakes through the morning.  We also watched a mature tom strut for a hen for nearly an hour about 300 yards from our position.  There was no sweet talking that would lure that gobbler from the hen.  All in all, it was a very eventful morning and we even saw a coupl coyotes and a few deer.  Once the morning hunt was deeded as over we made the group decision to reposition the blind to the corner of the field where we believed the tom was roosted along a small island of trees for the next morning’s hunt.  Turkeys: 2, JD: 0.

The next morning arrived and brought with it thunderstorms in epic proportions.  If JD hadn’t been hunting and it wasn’t his final day with Grandpa Dan I would not have thought twice about tucking myself back into bed and catching some additional sleep, however we were going hunting---hell or high water.  (High water it was!)  This morning, Nolan, JD’s younger brother was additionally going to join us for the early AM adventure.  Nolan is always a wildcard and is guaranteed to offer laughs even if things are ugly, so we couldn’t go wrong?!  Once again, we arrived at the blind in the dark, however this time there was light rain and the skies were filled with lightning.  The walk to the blind was a bit interesting as we slopped our way across a recently planted oats field that was more like Louisiana Gumbo.



Ok, so even a six year old runs out of energy sometimes...

 After getting settled into the blind we all patiently waited for the storms to subside and for it to start getting light out. I was particularly proud of the boys and how quietly they made it into the blind believing that we were fairly close to a roosted gobbler.  After about fifteen or twenty minutes of listening to the rain as we sat in the dark a closer raincloud let out a thunder and with it followed old tom, the thunder chicken, with a gobble that had to have easily been within 50 yards of the blind.  I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, we’d be rewarded for our foolish choice to hunt in the rain.   Another half hour passed and the skies let up and it began to get lighter and lighter ever so slowly.  I knew that we would have a short window this morning to work the birds as the radar was littered with heavy rain.  With that in mind, I told JD to get ready because the tom could pitch down into the decoys at any given moment.  This didn’t happen, however, after a few short clucks we did hear a bird or two hop off of their roost along the wood line.  We looked up just in time to see a couple of toms that were easily within gun range however JD was only shooting a .410 and was not even set up to shoot that direction.  The birds proceeded to walk to the south where they met another tom and a few jakes.  The birds did not spook, but for whatever reason they were not even moderately interested in our set-up or calling.  Maybe we had got too close to their roost?  Maybe it was the blind?  Maybe they weren’t into hen turkeys?  Who knows?  All that we knew was that the birds were close, but gone now. 

 We hung out in the blind for another couple of hours as it continued to rain.  Disguising the blind as an ark became an increasingly more popular idea to lure in unsuspecting animals looking for shelter.  Meanwhile, Nolan consumed his time with picking night crawlers from the ground under the blind as he became more and more enthralled with them.   Our patience and foolish pride was once again rewarded as a couple of hens appeared and picked their way through the field and soon thereafter some magical jakes just showed up to the east of us about 400 yards, poof!  The jakes were in no hurry to do anything as they meandered this way and that in the field.  They were kind of making their way towards our side of the field, but really didn’t look all that interested.  Over the course of the next ten or fifteen minutes every call in the bag was scratched, struck, blown, or beaten.  These jakes were a Hail Mary and we were desperately hoping these guys would come and take a look at the decoys so that JD could get a shot.   As if our prayers to the turkey gods were answered, two jakes broke away slightly and showed moderate interest.  Within another couple of minutes these two crazy hombres were on a string coming to the decoys on a mad bum rush that looked like a jail break.   (This is what we call the "jake hustle".)  I told JD to get ready and I could tell that he was getting excited by his eyes. 

 Within seconds the two jakes were rubbing up against the decoy.  I told JD to take a deep breath and take his time.  The safety clicked off on his double barreled .410 and a moment later a shot rang out as the birds stood at twelve yards.  The birds continued to stand at twelve yards following the shot though!  I am not certain, but I think JD shot right over the top of the birds’ head.  The jakes scampered away and we nearly coaxed them back for another volley, however it did not happen.  I looked at JD’s face and although he held back his tears I know he was welling up.  (I felt like I may cry!)  Grandpa Dan consoled him and he told both of us that he was sorry.  We both told him that there was absolutely nothing to be “sorry” about.  Everything was done right on the hunt with the exception of the shot, which is not a big deal.   After a few minutes of dejection JD bounced back and was back in the right mindset and was smiling.  

 The weekend was one that JD will never forget as he had the opportunity to share his first hunt with Uncle Nick, Nolan, his dad, a good friend of our family’s, Brandon Cizek, and most importantly, Grandpa Dan.  I am sure that the JD and Grandpa will share many more great mornings together in the blind, however this one will not soon be forgotten.   And JD, I never missed a turkey until I was twenty-four years old; however I never hunted turkeys until I was twenty-four either!  You're years ahead of me! FINAL SCORE: Turkeys: 3, JD: All smiles! J