Dad’s Best Hunting Day… EVER!

Forget big deer, pheasants in South Dakota, and even hunting in Alaska - it just doesn't get any better than this for a dad!

After hunting for 35 years from the coastal mountains of Kodiak Island, Alaska to the cornfields of South Dakota to the jagged peaks of the Colorado Rockies to the beautiful wooded ridges of the Ozark Mountains, how do you determine your best hunting day ever? As a young man in early 1990’s I thought it was the day that I harvested my biggest buck after calling him into an opening with a new-fangled noise maker called a grunt tube. I had spent $5.00 on the crazy thing and figured I had wasted my money. Dad laughed at me and said, “There’s a sucker born every day.” Later that season after seeing an 11 point bruiser slip into a densely wooded creek bed in front of me I figured I had nothing to loose and I pulled out the call and grunted. To my great surprise the buck grunted back and I heard the leaves crunching. As I crouched in the high blackberry briers and grass, he walked out of the woods and into the brushy field in search of the source of the grunt and the rest is history…and he’s on the wall. At that point in my life it was the most exciting day of hunting that I had ever experienced… and my dad went out and bought a grunt tube! But, that day is now far surpassed.

"Dad, are you kidding?! I can't carry this crazy bird and the gun all the way back to the truck by myself!" 1st time spring turkey hunter, Coleman Stephens with his first turkey at 6 years old.


I started taking my kids to the woods in 1996. Just taking the kids hunting and seeing the excitement in their eyes surpassed anything I had ever achieved in the woods. My oldest son, Jason killed his first turkey and deer in 1997 and my outdoor life was forever changed. Taking my next oldest son, Mitchell proved just as an exciting experience as we saw strutting gobblers around every turn. He and I joke and laugh to this day about all the near misses! My next son, Alex, found success early in his hunting career, harvesting his first deer at 5 years old and his first gobbler at 6 years old! Finally, my youngest son, Coleman, started his hunting career last fall at age 6 during turkey and deer season. I have been blessed with the good fortune of teaching my children to hunt. These experiences are each ranked equally at the top of the list of ‘best ever’. How could you possibly ever surpass a ‘best day hunting’ with anything better than spending it with an eager child? Well, how about two of the children harvesting their quarry on the same day – opening day, on two different hunts and while you are right there with them. For a dad that would rank as the best day hunting ever…and that is just what happened last weekend.

2-shot Coleman Stephens with Dad and Lucas Adey posing with Coleman's first score in the spring turkey woods.

Coleman and I had the extreme good fortune of having the greatly accomplished turkey caller and turkey call maker, Lucas Adey, of Bean Creek Outdoor Products, Licking, Missouri tag along with us. Lucas loves to take young folks to the woods to see them harvest their first turkey and he was coming along with Coleman and me to tag-team on the calling chore. After narrowly missing an opportunity on two gobblers just after fly-down we relocated to a spot where a woodlot, a brushy field, and a clean field all come together with a fence separating each habitat type.

Nothing like waking up from a good nap to find a big gobbler 35 steps in front of you! Alex Stephens with his 1st 2011 spring gobbler - still one to go!

As we sat to call we had gobblers in front of us in the clean field in full strut and we had jakes answering from behind in the woods. As Lucas and I teamed up cackling and cutting back and forth with each other the gobblers and jakes were working into a frenzy. The gobblers in the field were thundering with each call from the Bean Creek 3 reed v-cut that I was using and the 2.5 cutter Lucas was using. The jakes behind us were gobbling and squawking as they circled around into the bottom field below us.

As we watched 5 jakes at 75 yards down the fence file into the open and attempt to gobble and strut I was getting excited. I soon understood that Coleman was going to need more excitement as he yawned and whispered back to me, “Dad, can I have a snack?” I was as nervous as a pet coon during a high fur market year and he wanted a candy bar! Either this kid has nerves of steel and was going to be a great hunter or he’s going to need bungee chords and parachutes to get him excited. Anyway, the jakes finally made their way to our decoy set and as Coleman sat between my legs and aimed the H&R youth model .410 at the lead bird, at 15 steps he squeezed off a shot…and missed! The jakes immediately started putting and walking away when Lucas realized Coleman had missed and he started cutting and calking. Lucas’ calling relaxed the birds a little as I, over Coleman’s shoulder, broke open the single shot shotgun, reloaded it, cocked it, and whispered to shoot again. At 25 yards Coleman pulled down on the same jake that he had just missed and at the crack of the gun down went the young gobbler! My 6 year old had just bagged his first turkey with two shots from a single-shot shotgun! You don’t get that opportunity too often.

The proudest hunting daddy in the world! The One-Eyed Hillbilly with sons, Coleman and Alex and their opening day, 2011 gobblers.

As soon as we got back to the farm house my oldest son, Jason and my 13 year old, Alex came in from the woods. They had heard many gobblers and had some close to them but had not made the connection. I took Alex and went back to the same spot we had just left. We were met with utter silence as we sat down and called to the birds that I knew were still close by. After about an hour Alex started nodding off in the warm sun and I wasn’t far behind. I called every 15 minutes and scanned the field. After about 2 hours I had nodded off for a few minutes and lifted my head to call. Out of nowhere there he was, 40 yards out in front of us – a big gobbler! I whispered to Alex, “Wake up, there he is.” Alex opened his eyes wide in hazy disbelief! Without being told, he then displayed true turkey hunting maturity and waited for the gobbler to put his head behind a tree and he then lifted his gun into position. As the bird came out the other side the 20 gauge roared into action and at 35 steps down went the big tom. He weighed in at 23 pounds with a 9 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs. This was the culmination of my best hunting day EVER.

Grandpa's only hope to best his current 'Best Hunting Day EVER'. Addison Jean Bass in her urban camo...she had a neon pink Cricket .22 rifle the day she was born - You go girlfriend!

That night I was almost in distress. As I lay in bed wondering about the next 40 or so years of hunting that I hope to do I couldn’t help but be disturbed about how I would ever top this day – two young sons harvesting turkeys on the same day and I was there calling for both of them. And one of them harvested his first bird ever. Then I remembered – I’ve got a grand daughter and another grand child on the way! Grandchildren trump children, right! And then great-grand children trump grandchildren. Man, I’ve got a lot of BEST EVER hunting days left! So says the One-Eyed Hillbilly.

Greg Stephens is a 35-year veteran & life-time student of the great outdoors. His column appears weekly in print & online publications. You can email him at gregstephens@one-eyedhillbilly.com. For more columns go to www.one-eyedhillbilly.blogspot.com.