Note: During California's fall wild turkey season, you can harvest both toms (males) and hens (females) unlike in the spring when only bearded birds are legal.
Caleb and I were heading to our hunting area where we were planning to set up a blind and try to call in some birds. Shortly after entering a small valley, I spotted a gang of turkeys feeding in a sloped meadow off to our right. (Yes, the proper term for a group of turkeys is a "gang" or a "rafter." Fortunately we were armed and prepared to defend ourselves... :-). I handed my son his Remington 870 youth model 20 gauge and told him to try to stalk closer while using a large bush to conceal his movements. My job was done and I could only watch and hope I'd trained him well enough to get it done.
Caleb crept about 50 feet closer to the turkeys using the bush as concealment as far as he could. I thought he was waiting too long as the turkeys were picking up speed as they began to move away. Caleb later told me he had to wait for a clear shot so he didn't inadvertently hit more than one bird. I saw him take the shot at about 25-30 yards and watched a hen go down. He yelled, "I got one." I hurried up to Caleb and he handed me the shotgun. I then took off up the hill to the right where I'd seen two of the turkeys go after branching off from the rest of the gang. I was able to take a clean shot from about 40 yards at the trailing hen. The hen went down and in a space of under a minute we had each harvested our ever first wild turkeys! It was an amazing experience to share with my son...something we will both remember and cherish for a lifetime.
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