I was with my grandson, Lane, on opening day of Kentucky's youth spring turkey season. We had scouted and had trail cam pics of several turkeys in the area of the hunting location, and we had placed our blind for the hunt a couple weeks prior to opening day. Lane and I were all excited about going hunting because we had seen some nice gobblers on the trail cam pics and had heard turkeys gobble on roost close to our blind.
Finally, opening day arrived and the weather was not spring-like at all. It was 30 degrees, the wind was at 20 mph, and it was snowing hard. However, we got our buddy heater and headed to the blind. Once we got settled and the heater going, we were ready to hunt. Slightly before dawn, we heard a gobble approximately 200 yards behind us. The turkey flew down and gobbled a few times on the ground, and after 30 minutes or so, we heard a hen yelping at our hen calls. As the hen got closer, we heard him gobble closer as well. Lane was very excited, and we had his 20 gauge Mossberg on a Caldwell Max tripod pointed toward the Avian X 1/2 strut jake and hen. When the gobbler saw Jake with the hen decoy, he ran to them and attacked the jake decoy as I videoed the whole thing. The GoPro was five yards from him also videoing it all. As soon as he presented the opportunity for a lane to shoot through, Lane was able to make a great shot to harvest a huge gobbler - 25.2 pounds, 1 9/16” spur, and 10.5” beard . We were grinning from ear to ear with excitement.
Lane had previously harvested three gobblers in Tennessee and got two in Kentucky. He went on five hunts and harvested five gobblers. It was an exciting year making memories in the outdoors that God has created.