Outdoor Type: Walker and the first turkey hunt, in his words

Awhile back I approached my 15-year-old grandson Walker with a proposal that he write a column in my place. His first turkey hunt was in the works, and I figured it would make compelling reading, coming from the young hunter himself.

My son Aaron proved to be a capable tutor, as years ago he had successful turkey hunts. Now the torch was being passed.

Here's Walker's account of the hunt in Owen County, complete with lightning, thunder and pouring rain:

I've had an interest in hunting turkeys for the last few years, and with the knowledge that my dad used to hunt turkeys over 20 years ago, I had always thought of it as a possibility. One problem we faced until recently was having a spot to hunt with a good turkey population, but with recently gaining access to two properties with promising turkey populations, that problem had been solved.

One of the first things I learned about turkey hunting is that I knew next to nothing about turkeys. I tried to expand my knowledge about the species, their behavior and how to hunt them whenever possible, whether that be asking my dad questions, reading articles or searching the internet for tips.

With each new piece of information learned, I would gain a piece of confidence. But no matter how much you read or how confident you are, one cannot simply walk into a field up to a turkey and shoot it.

So next would come the preparation. My dad and I were in possession of a few trail cameras from deer season that we had left out and moved around to find where the turkeys on this property frequented.

With the knowledge of our best locations for turkeys, we would then need to pick areas on the woodline to trim in order to be able to sit in out of sight of the turkeys, but also to see and shoot out of. We selected multiple spots so we could have options in the case that we would need to reposition, but we made sure that our spots would provide a wide view with the best possibility of an in-range, ethical shot.

We would also need to acquire proper clothing. With our current camouflage selection being for deer season, there were few items we could also use for turkey hunting, because of warmer turkey season temperatures.

It was also supposed to be raining on youth hunting weekend, so we would need to take that factor into account. With a few trips to stores and online websites, along with spraying our clothes with bug repellent and getting raincoats, we had proper attire.

With turkey season looming closer and closer, I had never used turkey shot, only deer slugs, so my dad purchased turkey targets and had me get comfortable with the twelve-gauge I would be using. He made sure I understood the importance of placing a pellet in the unfeathered head or neck region.

He explained that if a pellet does not come into contact with the head or neck, pellets to the bird's body would typically prove non-lethal. Being comfortable with shooting the gun and having our hunting spots and clothing ready, the last thing I would need to do before I was ready to hunt was learn to "talk turkey."

Being new to turkey hunting, I had only ever used whitetail deer calls before, so learning the basics of turkey calling was a foreign subject to me. My dad purchased both of us a mouth diaphragm – a small item used to call hands-free, and I found and collected his old box call and slate call.

My dad taught me how to use the box call and slate call which were the simplest of the three, but then I still needed to learn how to use the mouth diaphragm. Even with my dad trying his best to explain how to use it correctly, I just couldn't figure it out.

Only after many days and lots of practice was I finally able to start producing noises let alone sounds resembling turkeys. The more I practiced, the closer it got to resembling a turkey.

Now I was as prepared as I could be going into youth weekend. On opening morning of youth weekend, I woke up at 4:45 a.m.

My body was not as tired as I thought it would be, but instead full of excitement for what was to come in our hunt. My dad and I got dressed and drove to the hunting location which was about a 30-minute drive.

We started our almost half-mile jaunt with all of our equipment to where we would be setting up our blind. We finally got settled after placing the decoy Jake and hen duo and setting up our blind.

Once it became legal shooting time, it was only a few minutes until we heard two gobblers sound from their roost in the distance around 300-400 yards away. Soon after, we heard two far closer gobblers sound from their roost around 150 yards away.

My dad called back to try to spark their interest and get them to investigate the decoy. Later, hens joined the Tom's vocalization in their roost.

With a little more encouragement from my dad's calling, we finally convinced a Tom to step out of the woods about 150 yards away on the woodline of the field. With full sight of the decoys, we let him strut around and we were going to wait for him to approach the decoys on his own timing.

Then the skies unleashed. A streak of lightning and deafening boom of thunder struck as the rain started pouring.

I was discouraged and assumed the turkey would hunker down elsewhere. My dad and I sat there watching the storm for close to 15 minutes when I heard him whisper, "He's right there."

I looked over and sure enough there was the lone Tom still far off, but making a beeline for the Jake and hen decoys. I discreetly shouldered my gun and held aim on the turkey as he at first was hesitant but then walked quickly towards the decoys.

As the gobbler neared the decoy, another streak of lightning lit up the tree line straight ahead. The Tom walked closer to us and went straight for the Jake decoy, in full strut, going nose to nose with him.

He needed to show him who was the boss of the neighborhood. Once he stopped moving, I pulled the trigger.

The turkey dropped and after some flapping, lay motionless. It was still pouring, so we waited until a break occurred in the storm to retrieve what we soon discovered to be a large Tom.

After we took some pictures, I started the challenging task of walking the near half a mile back to our truck with the large bird on my back. We left just in time, with the rain picking back up substantially once we were on the road, making it difficult to even see.

We arrived at our house to check it in and took measurements of my first-ever turkey prior to harvesting the meat. The gobbler came out weighing 24.5 pounds with an 11.5-inch beard and 30-millimeter spurs.

I was pleasantly surprised at this early success in my hunt. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have been able to start my turkey hunting career in such a manner and also to be able to spend time with my dad in the woods doing something we both enjoy.