Special Rum Creek WMA Hunt As Youth Gets Two Gobblers

My son Kasen Gurr, 14, of Danville, was selected for the Rum Creek WMA first youth quota hunt of the 2020 turkey season. I haven’t hunted turkeys much, so we had a family friend Craig Pearce ride up to do the calling for us.

While standing there awaiting sunrise, we shared hunting memories of a good friend who entered the Gates of Heaven back in July 2018 and talked about how much he is missed. As it begin to break daylight, we said a prayer to enjoy God’s Creations and for a safe and successful hunt. We then moved about 50 yards from where we stood to start trying to locate a gobbler.

We located a gobbler at 7:26 that was in the direction we had just moved from, so we hurried back to that location. As we got there and set up the Avian-X decoys, minimum calling was needed due to this bird being on the ground and making his way right to us. By 7:57, the gobbler had made his way to within 25 yards for Kasen to make a shot. The bird had an 8 1/2-inch beard and 3/4-inch spurs and was his first ever turkey.

Kasen Gurr killed his first two turkeys on the March 21-29, 2020 youth turkey quota hunt at Rum Creek WMA.

On Sunday morning, we returned for the second day with another family friend, Tyler Dennis, to do the calling. Someone had beat us to our spot from the previous day, so we moved down and across the road to try our luck. Once again our prayers were said, and we began to try and locate a gobbler.

At 7:20, we had two that were hot. We quickly moved toward them and set up to wait. Kasen had to listen to these guys gobbling for 30 minutes while they made their way in, which had his adrenaline pumping, and he was very anxious. As he got situated to be aimed in the right direction, the dominant bird broke away and headed toward us. The gobbler made it to about 50 yards from Kasen and seemed to not see what he was wanting. He let out two clucks as he acted like he was going to leave, and Kasen made his shot. The bird had a 10 1/2-inch beard and 1 1/4-inch spurs.

To say I had an excited kid is an understatement. Everyone who was involved in making these hunts successful was just as excited as the other. Words can’t express how thankful and blessed we are to have these opportunities!