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I have been very Blessed with many memorable turkey hunts, including two consecutive Single Season Grand Slams with my brother Matthew in 2015 and 2016, which were both amazing. But before that, in 2013, I had a hunt I will never forget.

I had hunted every Virginia Youth Day for as long as I could remember, but for one reason or another, I could never connect.  One year, it snowed about six inches the night before youth day, other years the wind was gusting, with trees swaying like crazy. Youth day just never worked out for me, and I was down to my last one.

As was typically for me on youth day, my Mom and I had hunted hard all morning, and had not heard anything.  After a quick lunch we went to a blind that I had set up down in the hollow, and hadn’t heard anything.  So, we were counting down the minutes until my youth day career was over, I just started running through my calls, just to pass the time.  Then, out of frustration, I hit a glass call really hard and loud.  A gobbler sounded off about one hundred yards away, and Mom and I looked at each other in complete disbelief.  Then, we started to shuffle around the blind like the Keystone Cops, so I could get into position, because the gobbler was on Mom’s side.  Somehow, I ended up sitting on Mom’s lap.  Then, there they were.  Not one, but two gobblers!  One was farther away and walking away pretty quickly, but the other was only about ten yards away.  The farther gobbler had an awesome beard and was huge, but I didn’t think I could get a shot on him. A gobbler in hand is better than a longbeard in the bush, so I decided quickly to take the closer shot.

The shot rang out, signaling the last minutes of my last youth hunt.  My Mom has always been my Good Luck Charm!