My name is Shannon King. I went on my first turkey hunt this past Saturday.

I have played around with a few calls in the past, but not much. A friend loaned me a H.S. Strut slate call this past Thursday. My wife was ready to kick me out of the house by Saturday morning, due to my excessive practice calling.

My dad and I took my oldest two sons, Blake (9 yrs old) and Colby (5 yrs old). It was not only my first hunt, it was also Blake and Colby's. We set up on our first bird right after daylight. I started yelping and he answered me about three different times. I quit calling and about five minutes later he was about 55 or 60 yards in front of me. I did not take the shot and he keep going over the hill. I tried to call him back but he kept going.

We moved to another spot I had seen turkeys back in deer season. We got out of the truck and I yelped softly. Colby answered mine with his version of a gobble. I laughed so hard I cried. I yelped a second time and got a real bird to answer me about 200 yards away. We moved through a pine thicket about a hundred yards wide. It opened up to a hardwood bottom that I had been deer hunting earlier in the year. I knew the turkey was in the hardwood bottom.

We set up about 40 yards inside the thicket. I yelped and he answered. The second time I yelped we knew he was coming. I quit calling and about 1 or 2 minutes later he was within 75 yards, but when he gobbled it sounded to me like he was going to walk by us just out of shooting range. I just saw this happen 30 minutes earlier. I yelped one time softly. He screamed his head off at me. I thought I got excited when deer walked under me bow hunting. I now know excited!

I got ready and about 30 seconds later I seen him coming. I let him walk up about 40 yards and I could not stand it any more. I made a clean one shot kill. He had a 9" beard, 1/2" spurs, and 18 1/2 pounds.

God blessed me with a perfect first hunt. I could not think of a better way to kill my first turkey than to have my dad and boys there. I am sure my boys will always remember their first turkey hunt. Here is a photo of the boys and me.

Tips for Taking a Child Turkey Hunting

Almost all children have three things in common: they are observant, inquisitive and above all, love to have fun. Hunting can bring out all these traits and is a great way for you to spend quality time with your son, daughter or grandchild.

Making the hunt fun is probably the most important lesson to remember. If three hours in a blind doesn't seem to fit your child's personality, try 30 minutes in the blind and follow it with a hunt for mushrooms or a search for crawly critters underneath a log.

Always keep in mind that you are on your child's schedule. Hunting is a great way to pass on the hunting heritage to our children. Be patient, hunt safely and the child in your life will be begging to return to the woods with you real soon.

Here are some additional tips to keep in mind when taking your child hunting:

1. Make hunting a casual adventure rather than a forced march through rough terrain.
2. Give a child his or her own turkey call.
3. Teach the child how to call, then let them call in the woods (do this where it won't interfere with or spook birds you plan to hunt later).
4. Teach a child how to blow an owl hooter call and explain why it is used.
5. Take a child while you scout or roost birds in the evenings.
6. Let a child locate a gobbler with an owl call. It's awesome for them to actually communicate with a gobbler.
7. Teach a child what turkey signs looks like. Teach them the difference between gobbler and hen tracks.
8. Watch tasteful turkey hunting videos together and discuss any questions or concerns the child may have.
9. When it's time to actually go hunting, make sure the child is dressed comfortably.
10. When setting up on a gobbler, place the child either in your lap or let them sit between your legs. This allows the adult to control the gun and whisper instructions with minimal movement.

The Chain-O-Lakes Gobblers sponsor over 300 Jakes each year. We believe that parents and children should spend quality time together in the outdoors and that providing free Jakes memberships is one way to do it. If your son, daughter or grandchild is not currently a Jakes member or has signup and has not received their Jakes magazine for some reason click on the Jakes page and register them today.

A different Kind of Snake Bite!

If you are a seasoned outdoorsman, and have caught many lunker bass, fooled scores of gobblers and/or taken more bucks than you can count, many of which were of trophy class, you probably have experienced what we in the South call being "snake bit".

This is not the literal term of being bitten by a snake, which would be correctly identified as snake bitten, but it is just as bad.

This condition happens to only good hunters and fishermen who have been trying unsuccessfully to harvest their quarry, and realize that no matter how hard they try; nothing seems to go their way.

The line tangles with their outboard and breaks, a tree falls and spooks their gobbler, the wind changes and the buck smells them, or they simply cannot buy a bite or a gobble.

In baseball they call it being in a slump, and like baseball, it only applies to those who normally do well. A novice cannot qualify being snake bit, simply because he cannot experience the pain the way one who knows success can. When you are in this unfortunate condition, everyone else is killing deer and turkeys, and catching monster bass. Children are bagging ten pointers, mobility impaired fishermen are catching ten pounders, and ladies are calling up monster gobblers. Everyone but you has taken at least one deer or turkey, and the fish are jumping in everyone else's boat!

Others are shooting turkeys or deer in the camp yard, or catching lunkers from the dock where your boat is parked.

I wish I could give advice on where to find an antivenin for this condition, but there is none. Only time and luck will change it.

Sometimes I think we all need to be humbled once in a while, so that we can appreciate our successes in the outdoors. Perhaps this is why the ole snake bites us now and then.

During last year's spring gobbler season, Jerry Brannen of Lake Panasoffkee, an experienced and successful turkey hunter suffered a severe case. He didn't bag "nary" a bird!

This year, on opening day of the first Half Moon hunt, Jerry took a Jake, and a lot of ribbing from all of his hunting buddies. He did nothing wrong, he just needed to break the jinx, even if it was on a young gobbler.

The following week, Jerry got the last laugh, and a long awaited award by taking the best over all gobbler ever taken in the history of Half Moon Management Area.

The gobbler, which made the Florida Registry for trophy Osceola turkeys, had spurs that were 1.25 inches, and a huge 11 and three eighths inch beard. The beard was an inch thick at the chest.

Jerry must have found the antivenin!

If you care to share any of your stories of success or failure, feel free to email me at .

Turkey Season Begins Successful

Things are looking good for this year's spring gobbler season.

On the two public areas that I surveyed, both had a harvest over the first weekend that equaled or exceeded their entire season's harvests of last year.

In Sumter County, Jumper Creek hunters harvested six gobblers from the two check stations at the walk in areas, and usually it is safe to double that number for the river check station. This number would indicate that about one in seven hunters took a bird, which is a good ratio for an area that did not require a special permit.

I happened to hunt in Lake County's Seminole Forest where hunters holding special permits bagged eleven birds the first two days. Seminole hunters had h an impressive success ratio of one in four hunters per kill.

There were some "first" Toms bagged on the Seminole hunt, including a couple of youths, one of whom bagged the best overall bird.

Austin Shivers of Lake County took an impressive 18.75 pounder that sported a ten- inch beard and had spurs measuring 1.5 inches. His father, Ed, was on the hunt, but being more of a deer hunter, he left the calling of his son's bird in the hands of Ed's friend and pro caller/guide Ray Moses of Sumter County. I'm not sure who was the most excited, Ed, Ray or Austin!

Far from being a youth, Jason Williams of Leesburg took his first turkey, and this also happened to be his first turkey hunt. The Tom wore a set of sharp, hooked spurs that exceeded 1.25 inches. One cannot call it beginner's luck, as his cousin and legend turkey hunter Roger Pearson of Marion County had assisted Jason in setting up his calling location. Roger had coached Jason on turkey calling prior to the season, so Jason was able to call his own bird on opening day.

A couple of hunters bagged their season limit of two birds at Seminole, so their season is over. One of those hunters took the Tom with the longest beard of the hunt so far, and the his other one had spurs approaching 1.25 inches, so he doesn't mind either calling for other people or doing some fishing the remainder of the season. Perhaps, next week he can find something else to write about other than turkey hunting! Sorry folks, I did need my 15 seconds of fame!

South of here in Osceola County's Bull Creek Management County, Eldridge Miller of Riverview took what will likely be a record Florida Turkey. The Tom had five beards ranging from 10 to 5 inches each, totaling over thirty inches of total beard length.

The season has just started, so if you were planning to take up the sport, this year would seem to be a good year to start!

For questions on where to go and season dates, you can log on to MyFWC.com, or as always, feel free to contact me at .

Wheeling Sportsmen in a League of Their Own

A few weeks ago I informed you of a banquet to be held in Wildwood that would benefit disabled sportsmen. Several of you came, and for those of you who did, you will agree that it was a successful event, and a very humbling experience.

Mike Blanton, the master of ceremonies and regional coordinator for the Wheeling Sportsmen did an excellent job.

The food, catered by The Speckled Butter Bean, was delicious and plentiful, and the fellowship was as special as the men and women who attended.

The "guest" speaker, if you want to call him that, was Kirk Thomas, the national coordinator and founder of the Wheeling Sportsmen.

Kirk gave his testimony on how he became confined to a wheel chair, and did it in a way that you didn't feel sorry for him, as a matter of fact; in ways you would find yourself envious of him. Obviously no one would care to be confined to a chair, but most of us will never attain the quality of a human being that he became due to his situation.

Cindy Chevrolet and the Chrome Shop were the two largest sponsors, but there were also dozens of other sponsors of various levels, as well as local sporting goods stores that donated many of the door prize, raffle and auction items.

Over one hundred people attended, and many of them came with their wallets and purses armed to the teeth!

No one was there for a bargain. I watched in awe as two men battled to be the one to send a disabled hunter on a Texas hunt. The hunt sold for over $3,000. A couple of gentlemen waged war over the purchase of some guns, and when the high bid was concluded, they not only gave the money to "the cause", but they held a drawing for the youths at the party, and the winners were given the guns.

There were ladies and children who also participated in the auction, and like the men, continued to bid until they won the prize.

Several thousand dollars was raised, as were my eyes to other things, such as the generosity of The Southwest Florida Water Management District. SWIFTMUD has opened thousands of acres for "disabled only" hunts, and several of the "chair" guys at the dinner shared their success stories and expressed their appreciation.

I cannot think of any organization that is more giving, or fulfilling, that has the character of men and women that the Wheeling Sportsmen has, and I'm honored to be a part of it.

I urge you to attend one of the banquets, or even volunteer to assist on one of the hunting or fishing trips. If you do, you might find yourself joining the WS as I did!

For more information on the Wheeling Sportsmen, log on to the National Wild Turkey Federation's website at www.nwtf.org, Mike Blanton's at .

The way it was.

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-Aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because . . WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day, and we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......... WE HAD FRIENDS, and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with Sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!