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It was my daughter’s first turkey hunt (March 21, 2009), she was excited and had her mother drive her the four long hours to meet me in Central Florida. Hopefully she would arrive in time to shoot a big gobbler before the sun went down. Two months before, she won the St. Marks National Wildlife Heritage youth turkey calling contest in North Florida. This made her more determined to hunt a real gobbler, so she practice her turkey calls daily. Many afternoons we practiced different hunting scenarios of the wild turkeys in our backyard. For this special, Opening Day she knew how to call a turkey and shoot her .410 shotgun that her grandpa gave her for Christmas. After 10 minutes of waiting and intermittent calling, she asked me when will the turkey come. I was surprised by her question and told her that sometimes they don’t come and you just have wait and be patient. Just after saying that, I looked across the large field and saw a big black gobbler coming toward us from downwind. He was almost running, at times he would slow down to raise his tail-feathers up and drop his wings to the ground to strut and gobble. When she saw this, she began to tremble with excitement. For all the calling exercises and Osceola play hunting scenarios that she had practiced had not prepared her for this, now the real gobbler was coming toward her. She put the box call down, grabbed her shotgun and shaking pointed toward the gobbler that was rapidly closing the distance. Her heart was pounding loud into her chest, the facemask now was no longer a problem, and the numbness in her legs from the uncomfortable seat was not an issue. Mary Frances slowly pulled back the hammer and slipped off the safety, then she steadied the orange bead on the gobblers head. The gobbler came into the turkey decoys at a full run, he stopped and looked around; I was holding my breath waiting for her to shoot, for the large Osceola was less than 20 yards away. The gobbler looked at the decoys and then at us with his head stretched out. He was pondering who was in his territory, then just at that moment…Boom….
Florida Hunts

NWTF Youth Hunt at RV Griffin Reserve
Big River Longbeards first ever WITO event held Sat. May 15th. The event was a firearms safety course which qualified each women to apply for their Florida Concealed Weapons Permit.
Big River Longbeards - Blountstown











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