After only a couple,...well...several...failed attempts to harvest her first turkey, my daughter Emma, gave up on me,…her DAD!,…. and started going with her Pawpaw hunting.
I really don’t blame her, though, its hard getting up at 5:30 in the morning for nothing. Man, I had the most absolute, perfect, mind blowing, place to hunt. Everybody who knew my “honey hole” was overcome with some down right mean jealousy. Only Emma and Me were allowed to hunt on this prime piece of real estate. I just knew that on youth day it would be a “sure thing” for my daughter to kill a monster turkey….and…. she actually had a chance. That morning, on youth day, we got to the blind at 6am and set out a decoy. About 30 minutes later the sound of 4 different gobblers woke us both up. Man they were tearin it up. They would gobble at everything. I did a few hen calls, did a fly down call and got a TRIPLE gobble from what sounded like a monster. I new it was only a matter of time. Sure enough at 8am I saw turkeys on a road bed about 100 yards from us and one was struttin his stuff. I broke out the binoculars….3 Jakes. We made the decision that if they came close enough she would take one. While watching the jakes make their way toward us, out of the blue came a monster gobbler right in front of us!!! Where that big boy came from I have no clue. Emma got her gun up and ready but the gobbler wouldn’t stop. He must have seen us and got nervous. Emma moved her gun and tried to get ready. I whispered to her, “Make sure you get it on his”... BAAMM!!!! Before I could say “head” she shot!...and missed. My heart sank for her. She was a little upset only because she thought she disappointed me. After making up some good excuses for her miss, we had another opportunity. Those jakes had made their way up to within 75 yards of us. We could tell they were a little spooked and uneasy. I did some fairly aggressive calling and they came, but, they were among some trees and Emma couldn’t get a good clear shot at the head. During those moments, though, I realized that my 10 year old daughter had IT. WOOOHOOOO!!!! She’s got TURKEY FEVER!!!! She was shakin’ all over and breathin’ heavy. She was a tee total wreck!!!! I WAS SO PROUD! I think she was even seeing double… She said something about 5 jakes and there were only 3!!! Unfortunately the turkeys figured something wasn’t right and moved away from us. We sat there in our blind for a little while and figured it was time to leave. I just knew that we could come back and have a chance at another.
WRONG!!!! We went back the next Saturday and nothing. I mean NOTHING!!!! No gobblin, no tracks in the road, no evidence of fresh scratching in the woods, NOTHING!!!! We hunted hard….walkin and callin…setting for a while in different spots….we saw and heard NOTHING. We gave up and came home only to hear that everybody else had turkeys gobblin their heads off. The “honey hole” was DRY??!! You would have thought that Jeremy Harrill had walked around on the property, and put upon it, his curse of dryness…. that’s how bad it was!!!
A few more dry days and Emma finally gave up….. ON ME! Pawpaw (my Dad) offered to take her and she accepted. The first day with Pawpaw she missed again!! But Pawpaw was proud because he realized also that she had that turkey fever. He laughed as he told how she was shakin all over and breathing heavy. Anyway… they went again and this time, they went down a road bed to a river bottom. Dad said they got to the blind at 6am and at 6:30 the gobblers were doing their thing. At 7:00 a hen flew in and started feeding on some clover in a deer food plot about 30 yards from them. Dad saw movement up the road bed and sure enough….it was a gobbler. He said that bad boy strutted the whole way down to them. It came within 30 yards and kept drawing circles around the hen in front of them and never would stick his head up for more than a second. Dad told Emma to ready herself and follow him around and when he stuck his head up take the shot. Well…. The gobbler made that fatal mistake. Emma laid the big ol kaboom on its head and bagged her first gobbler. A 21 lb monster with a 10 inch beard and 1 3/8” spurs!!!!!! WOW!!!!! Can you say PROUD!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! ….that’s my baby girl!!!!!!!
I love the outdoors. I love to hunt and fish. It’s needless to say that I am very proud of Emma because she loves the outdoors also. She too loves to fish, now she loves to hunt, and she’s looking forward to deer season. I already have the 243 ready and waiting. Even though I am proud of her for her interest in what I enjoy, that means absolutely NOTHING, when it comes to eternity.
What I want my family to see me the most passionate about is my love for them and for Jesus Christ. I am the MOST PROUD of Emma for her acceptance of Jesus as her Lord and Savior. When she accepted Christ that was by far one of the best things that has ever happened in my life and hers.
Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If not, I challenge you today to make a decision. We have no idea if that gobbler will answer and come when we throw at him our best hen call, but I guarantee you that Jesus WILL answer and WILL come to you if you call upon His name today. “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”’ Romans 10:13
For those of you who do know Jesus, isn’t it awesome when a loved one comes to know Him...
Alan Davis
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