The last sunrise in Texas was bittersweet. Chrissy, Jasi and I had made good friends and we were enjoying hunting big mature birds that respond and decoy.
Our mission for the rest of the hunt was to get Jasi her first turkey. It was the day before her fourth birthday and I was wanting her to have success. She had faithfully hunted with me last year while myself and mom killed three easterns in front of her. She had practiced by shooting two raccoons with her .22 and a squirrel with her little Rossi .410 in Maryland. Chrissy and I decided that she was big enough and mature enough to handle the task at hand.
I had settled on the Browning TSS shells in number 9 shot. They pattern well and they turn a .410 into a 30 yard gun. My goal however was to call one right into her face which would allow her to shoot him in his face.
We started at what had been our lucky tree for the hunt. We could hear a bird gobbling about a mile away, we tried like heck for an hour with no response. I quickly made a command decision and we packed up to drive 10 miles to the other side of the ranch.
We quietly walked into the next spot which I scouted the first day. I had seen a live oak near a ranch road intersection that just looked like a strut zone. Turkey tracks, droppings and some drag marks had confirmed that.
I quickly set the avian x full strutter and breeding hen up. As I walked to the tree, Chrissy told me she heard a gobble about 500 yards away. We sat up and I put Jasi on my lap in her shooting position. I called on my Longspur Hen O the Woods call. Sure enough I heard a double gobble from a long ways away. I really got loud and excited on this bird. He gobbled hard and started moving our way.
Little Jasi was being a trooper. Face mask on, gloves on and snuggled into Dad’s lap.
I continued to hammer this bird hard. He loved the sweet cutting that my custom call was making. He closed from 500 yards to 100 yards in just a couple minutes. At the 100 yard mark he hit a brick wall. He hung up and held tight. 10 minutes turned into an eternity with Jasi sitting still, much better than I ever did even when I was 20 years old.
I cut hard at him. He gobbled and low and behold two birds gobbled behind us a good 200 yards away.
Chrissy’s eyes got big as she asked me “now what?”. I explained to her there could be nothing better than this. I told her it probably would be a race to the decoys.
Sure enough he gobbled just a bit closer. I was whispering to Jasi where she could shoot, where her window was at. It wasn’t long before I heard the pfffffftttt of a spitting bird. Another few seconds went by and I saw glimpses of a strutting bird. The next thing you know a beautiful strutting Rio was 30 yards out and spitting and drumming hard for the Avian X strutter.
I helped Jasi with the hammer on the Rossi and whispered to Chrissy, “ whatever happens, don’t let him get away.” I have learned over the years to anticipate a first time miss with kids.
I sighted behind Jasi and she looked to be on the birds wattles as he closed the distance to 20 yards. I whispered to her that she could pull the trigger when ready. CLICK!!!!! The Rossi has a bar safety and I forgot to turn it to fire!!!! I saw Chrissy flinch and she said “now what?!”, I told her to hold off, the bird didn’t even know anything had happened.
I turned the safety off and went through everything again with Jasi. She sighted and I gave her the go ahead. BOOM! And with that Jasi dropped her first turkey!
I cut on the call real hard and set Jasi to the side. I picked my gun up and tried to entice the two birds behind us to come in and flog their brother. No such luck!
We all made our way to JasiBug’s bird. She was excited and very elated. I told her to show me some spurs. She showed me the 3/4 inch spurs of a two year old. I told her to flip him over and let’s look at his beard. As he strutted I knew he had the heaviest longest beard of our birds. She flipped him over and geez!!!!! This bird had 4 beards!! She killed a quad beard bird for her first one ever! I was in total amazement. We had managed over the last 48 hours to take 3 Rios. A double beard and a quad. Two birds with longspurs. What an amazing trip.
We took plenty of pics and hurried back to the ranch. Our new friend, Justin, was taking off for home in Minnesota and wanted to see Jasi’s bird.
As we crossed the ranch, I looked out in the distance and saw wild hogs! I hit the gas and closed the distance. I slammed the truck in park and bailed, grabbing my 870 as Chrissy handed it to me. I racked three Kent #4’s into it.
Pigs started scattering and I shot at a 30 pounder! Direct hit but she kept going so I fired again! Squealing the pig kept going. I sent a third round downrange!! That little wild oig kept going! I quickly went to my trusty pocket knife and grabbed her by the hand legs and pulled her out of the mesquite and with a quick stick finished the job! Holy crap! What excitement! I thought for sure I could knock down three smoking size pigs and ended up with just one! Tough critters for sure!
We loaded up and went to the ranch. We took more pics and skinned a pig. We had filled Cory’s walk in cooler up!
We cleaned up and went on one more hunt. We sat at the same tree and Jasi fell asleep across Chrissy’s lap. Wouldn’t you know I called in 5 hens and a Jake right to the decoy! If Jasi wouldn’t have been so tuckered I would have let her have a go at her second Rio of the day. Chrissy and I just smiled as we allowed the young Jake to walk off. We had an adventure like you wouldn’t believe and we were blessed to take 3 birds, a buffalo and a wild pig. So many memories were made and we vowed we would return to Archer City, Texas. Home of Larry McMurtry and Lonesome Dove, also home of new friends and of course the Rio Grande wild turkey!
longspurwv 