On Saturday May 10, 2003, my second day afield, I was sitting with my dad and grandfather at 4:15 a.m. in my blind with 3 hen decoys and a jake out in front. I anxiously awaited for sunrise so we could start our fly down calls and simulated landings with my hand wing. Upon our first call we were answered with a gobble in the distance which had me all excited. We called again and heard in the distance a second gobble. We realized this was going to be a difficult bird to draw in.

After several more calls and almost an hour gone by, there was still no sight or sound of a bird. We decided to walk a couple hundred yards and give a good yelp of which we heard a gobble. We quickly got back to the blind and tried to work him. Again there were no more responses and it was beginning to get windy.

Around 7:00 a.m. my dad went upwind of our blind about 100 yards and let out a yelp and instantly a gobble was heard. Another yelp another gobble...another yelp another gobble, we knew we had an interested bird. We quickly went back to our blind and decoys and picked up for a new set. We started to sneak through the woods to an adjacent field and carefully glassed the field and about 250 yards up was a big turkey just staring down towards our direction. We gave him a call and he gobbled.

We went back about 75 yards on a small road that led to a small field next to the big field we just spotted him in. We set the blind and 3 hen decoys (we didn't set the jake because we weren't sure if the turkey we saw was a jake and didn't want to intimidate him). We immediately starting yelping with the box call and he gobbled the full distance to every yelp we made. He was getting louder and was evident he was going to come down the little road. He eventually popped up on a rock wall to my right and gobbled and displayed his fan. I could not shoot due to the brush obstruction but I had my gun up and ready to shoot when the target was right.

My dad started using the plunger call with a few little contented purrs and he started gobbling and getting closer...he was hissing and spitting while fanning and strutting. He then started his move to get closer to the decoys. It was obvious he saw the decoys and was frustrated that they wouldn't respond to his full display. He started ever so cautiously (which seemed like an eternity) to make his final approach.

I knew the next time he extended his neck and gobbled I was going to pull the trigger. Earlier my grandfather said he would buy me an ice-cream if I shot a turkey that day. Well, as I was about to take my last deep breath to shoot, I mouthed in a faint whisper "Ice-cream, ice-cream". The bead was on the base of his neck and as he gobbled all we heard was the crack of my 3" magnum sounding off .

I had my first turkey at 12 years old. It took almost 45 minutes to the final 14 yards before I got my prize.