The morning started off very early organizing the five
youths for their first ever spring gobbler hunt. The youths and the guides
where paired by a youth drawing their guide's name out of a cap. With the
sun quickly rising everyone gathered together and headed off to their zone
location. Fulfillment is broken down into five zones for hunting safety.
As the sky broke to lightness a roar from far distance could be heard, a
sly gobbler sounds off. Twenty minutes later another gobbler awakes the
woods with his thunder also off in the distance. We walked and made crow
call, once in a while we would yelp, cut, pluck, and purr. After traveling
over a mile and half, we came across fresh turkey signs. At the edge of a
field we felt the birds where feeding close so we set up decoys, and made
soft calls. Our patience was being tested, after 45 minutes of waiting. OH
YEAH! a roar of the tom sounded off cross the field on the ridge across
from us. Quickly we gathered the decoys, and moved to the other ridge
behind where we heard the bird. With sprinkles of rain falling on us, we
set up again. After an hour of waiting for our sly buddy to awake the
woods with his presence… well it just didn't happen. From dawn to noon
we heard three gobblers, and each only sounded off once. The youth with
me, Austin got to see deer, deer signs, turkey signs, a great day of
learning about the great outdoors, and hunter safety. As the five groups
came together after their morning hunts for MR. TOM, we told stories about
our morning adventures. One group told a story about an owl answering the
call, and came in to visit the group for awhile. Another group had
gobblers flirting with them, a couple of groups herd birds, and one group
came back with nothing. Each youth learn it's not the harvest that counts
for a successfully hunt, but thrill of being in the outdoors; so put down
those game system controllers, turn off the television, and join us for
adventure and fun in the great outdoors.
Much Thanks to the Ike Wright and his guides at
Fulfillment Farms for putting together a great youth hunt.
Next Saturday we are off to Buckingham with the
Virginia Wheelin Sportsman program, as we try once again to fool the big
boss man!
