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I had the great opportunity this past weekend to take my 10 year old son on his first turkey hunt. This really has been a hunt he has been getting ready for the last 10 years. From the time he was 1 he was going with me to the NWTF national convention watching the national calling contest, seeing my pot calls in the call making contest and meeting the primos crew who he had seen on the truth turkey hunting DVD’s so many times. He has been to 3 national conventions. He has also been fortunate to join me in turkey camp so many times through the years. He has been with me in the shop watching me make so many turkey calls and picked out the wood and the size and surfaces for the calls he wanted me to make for him. He is always asking me to make him something new. I started making the smaller sized pot calls (3” instead of 3 1/2”) to fit in his hands better. He has also attended with me to so many fund raising banquets all over Arizona and even volunteered and helped set up, clean up and run prizes to the winners at the last East Valley Toms banquet. 4 years ago he joined me at a turkey camp helping other youth hunters. On the first evening of the hunt he started experiencing really bad pain bellow his stomach. He ended up taking a helicopter ride from Show Low to Phoenix Children’s hospital because his intestine had developed a small hole and was leaking into his body. After 3 very painful weeks in the hospital and several procedures later he made a full recovery. I am so glad he pulled through and this experience has really helped me appreciate all the time I get to spend with him and his two younger brothers. This hunt started a little rough when getting out of our vehicle on opening morning in the dark to the wind howling. We just had to go from past experience hunting this area because we would not be able to hear them. It took an hour or so of calling and moving to locate them but we found them and had them coming in to our calls. We had a fence between us them and some were hanging up not wanting to cross. Two hens and a jake did cross and just as the others were getting ready to cross a vehicle came driving by and scarred the flock in the opposite direction. Later that morning we were able to call the two hens and jake to our setup but the jake never gave him a shot opportunity. The first evening had us trying a different area on the other side of the unit playing cat a mouse with a strutting tom and three hens. It was fun to watch him strut but the closest we could get him to come was about 50 yards, good enough for my 12 gauge with 3 ½” shells but not for the 20 gauge 3” he was using. No shot taken. The second morning we thought we had the perfect setup after seeing the birds travel pattern on opening morning. The turkeys had a different plan in mind and went the opposite direction. Knowing where they would probably be heading we left our decoy and setup and hurried on a quick mile hike to get in front of them. After a few minutes of calling it was confirmed we had made the right move with gobbles not to far off and sounding closer each time. The hole flock came in and he was able to make a great shot on the strutting tom at 10 yards. He was so happy and excited. I have been apart of over 40 birds being harvested all over the country but this is my new favorite most exciting turkey hunt I have been on. I am so happy for my son. I would like to thank Steve AKA Cactus Jack and his son for letting us borrow his youth 20 gauge. He was nervous about the recoil and didn’t want to use any our 12 gauges. Sorry for the long read, just glad I was able to be apart of this hunt and share a little of it with you.

A few other pictures with him.

Headed to our first ever turkey hunt, with the youth camp in unit 1. Hope we have some success but either way it should be lots of fun. 🤞🦃 Update: Saturday morning my son tagged out. We had the best mentor from the youth camp in unit 1. All around great guy and hunter. He had roosted some turkeys the night before. We hiked in before sunrise, we heard 3 different gobblers around us. We got in as close as we could. My oldest son and I sat under a tree and my other son and the mentor sat about 10 yards to our left. We were right on the edge of a canyon. The sun started to come up and they were gobbling close. One flew out of the tree right above us down the canyon (side note, I had no idea they flew or they sat in trees). Our mentor started calling, we saw a hen to our right, then about 45 yards in front of us came a tom over the hill puffing his feathers. My son asked me if he could shoot it, I told he let's make sure he had a beard first, as soon as I saw it I told him to shoot. Great shot about 40 yards away, another Tom came right up and started fighting with the bird my son just shot. I was trying to signal to my other son , but it happened so fast. The mentor thought it was the same bird so he was trying to tell us to shoot it again. I found out later they didn't have as good of view as we did. Such a proud moment for me and even the mentor 😂. We tried the rest of the weekend but couldn't make it happen for my other son. It was a great weekend, the boys learned so much but so did my husband and I. My 6 yr old can't wait to hunt! Thank you to the youth camps, volunteers, and mentors. (Don't mind my son's hair 🙄)

I’m down to 191 lbs today, just have another 12 pounds to hit my goal to the 170’s. Then I’ll try to bulk back up shy of a 200lbs.

Well we are 4-4 on his last tag. Hes 17 now and just needed wind do go away. Called him out of roost and he came in hot.

Would like to sell a reproduction 1873 Springfield trapdoor with 22” barrel made by H&R. Mechanically and cosmetically in great condition. Shoots blackpowder and smokeless loads great. Asking $845. Located in show low and would be willing to ship as well if necessary.

Great work. Nothing better than being with your kids turkey hunting.

shut it down until Dec 1st!

Great write up. We were glad to help him.

Good stuff…huge congrats!

time to shut the forest down

Nice gun 😉

No chance he won that.

Fuel prices

It took 2+ years, but this thread finally got good.

You own land in Kansas? So what are you doing for dinner tonight?

Definitely not Trphyhntr. Trphyhntr is better looking

The difference with elk is they are all draw tags, so easier to manage. Deer has OTC combined with draw tags. My guess is they want to try and keep the deer rifle tags #'s relatively flat with only small changes in tag numbers each year (easier for budget and objective planning), while still selling as many OTC tags as possible (to optiminze budget), all while not killing too many archery deer that will drastically affect next years rifle tag numbers or buck:doe ratio negativley. And they think 20% works. Just simple management. So the OTC archery tags are cut first, since the rifle tags are more difficult to manage and plan for. In other words the OTC tags take a back-seat. They assume you will hunt another unit that is open, or not hunt at all. I don't like this idea, it's just what I've come up with, after many years of sitting glassing for archery deer, while wondering the same thing as you.

Why do they need to increase the cap?! Currently, nobody has ANY CLUE how many deer are killed during archery season. The only estimate I’ve seen way WAY over, something like 3600 archery deer killed in Arizona. Which is laughable. Start with mandatory reporting and go from there, at least they could pretend to have an idea what they’re doing

Be mad at birdman that’s cool, but don’t be an asshole to us because you screwed up your own font.

I am all about elk and mule deer and a lion— I just don’t know squat about drawing tags or points— I am a Texan= blunt object— our solution is to throw money at a problem that being said, I havent found a good elk hunt for less than 8k with a reasonable amount of success — here its all private and for exotics— heck I can hunt them at night if I want to. I’d get kinda silly for a good elk hunt with good people=— but I am a fat guy so not sure how good of an elk hunt I could get ? Lol — Elk is a bucket list item— a real elk— not one of the escapees i see every few years— I really appreciate it guys your a good group here— i thought you might be. I always do what I say I will do — if we cut a deal and I am on the losing end— so be it— my fault— but I of we cut a deal— bet the farm I will live up to my part— My word means something always has—Always will. I do what I say I will do no matter what — we agree its agreed period — If I cant— (has not happened ) I’ll call you and we will figure out a solution so that you walk away thinking I was fair — if we cant / or you dont I will refund the cost of doing business with me. I feel thats the best I can give-you .... my Word— it’s doesn’t mean much to most but it means everything to me

heck, man, offer to taking him out deer or elk hunting here in AZ. Your crazy bionic eyeballs will find him an elephant if thats what he wants to hunt here!

Hey Tex, since im "the guy that wishes he was a guide" if you can make it out for the January archery hunt i will personally take you to my honey holes where you can get a chance at a nice coues. Plenty of P&Y quality bucks to be had. And i expect NOTHING in return. Just a dude helpung another dude out To the rest of the forum, the he wishes he was a guide comment is what i had in the forefront of my mind when i called him priveleged, yes i acted petty about it (i was self medicating in my defense). But yeah the only way i can get paid to do what i love is to guide, maybe 2 to 3 hunts a year tops would be enough to scratch the itch. I've done it enough for free but as the sole provider for a family of seven i cant be out every year for a week or more on multiple trips and not bring in some income, especially while im leaving her home with all the kids. I offered to help plenty here, some took me up on it and some havent but volunteering doesnt help pay the bills. For what its worth, i was actually gonna apologize to birdhunter but he kept bringing my name up, so I decided he wasnt worth the apology. For anyone else ive irritated over my tit for tat argument with him i do apoligize.

I heard elk the first year we bought the ranch, but havent heard them since— shot an auodad last month and we have sika and black buck regularly and the very occasional red deer in the back— but whats dependable is Whitetails, axis, pigs, and turkeys. Here are some of our deer—. We are low fence— but I feed a ton of protien to grow and to hold the animals we have— here are some of our whitetails