Joshua Keller is a 10 year old young man from Minonk, IL.  I bought him a Remington Youth model 1100 .20 Gauge shotgun with black synthetic stock last year. This is a beautiful gun and he is so proud of it. The Woodford County NWTF called Joshua to let him know that he was chose to be this year’s youth guided NWTF wild turkey hunt recipient. Better yet, the President of the Woodford County NWTF Chapter Mr. James Pierceall would be taking him for the hunt.  

Joshua had never killed a wild animal in his life. A close personal friend Dewey Shaw coached Joshua on shooting with all of the adrenaline that he would be experiencing, and another good friend of the family Jerry Welch let us borrow a .410 to help Joshua build trust in a shotgun and his shooting ability.

It was 4:30 am, I got Joshua out of bed and he was already asking me if he could take a nap before baseball practice later that morning.  We met Jim at his house at 5 am. It had been raining and was really wet; we rode the 4wheeler in a mile or so and then walked up a hill to sit in our blind. I had bought new 3D camo hat, gloves, shirt, pants and boots for Joshua’s first BIG HUNT.  It was raining and starting to get light.

Joshua was all setup with a forward looking zip out of the blind, when all of the sudden Jim gets up behind us, and decides to unzip the side of the blind, and hoot like a great horned owl and scare the dickens out of both of us.  Just as he let out that big HOOOT, here came multiple gobbles, WOW was that exciting.  15-20 minutes later here came hen #1 flying down out of the tree, then hen #2 and #3 right behind and finally #4.  We heard other turkey flying down but we were sitting on a ridge and could not see the others.  Low and behold here came two large white heads peeking over the ridgeline in full strut.  

Jim told Joshua to get his Remington 1100 up and ready to go, being sure to take his safety off. Joshua raised his gun, one of the turkeys was in full strut behind a HUGE tree and he could not see him and the other had gone down the trail to follow the four hens, Jim let out a few hen chirps and here came the second Jake, back up the trail. Jim told Joshua to shoot, but we had to wait as they were both in full strut right in front of us at 32 yards away, right behind each other. They were next to each other and we did not want to take two birds with one shot. Finally one of the birds walked to the right, Jim told Joshua to shoot, Joshua asked, which one?  Jim said whichever one is in your sights son!!!  Josh pulled the trigger and bagged his first wild turkey, with a perfect shot to the head/neck.

It was amazing to see the Remington 1100 perform so perfectly with the Remington Nitro Turkey Shotgun shell for a young man on his first adventure. If you have ever hunted wild turkey anywhere in the US before you know, one shot is all you get most of the time.  We allowed the second Jake and the four hens to head on down the trail for 10-15 minutes before we let Joshua out of the blind and go see his first TROPHY of a lifetime.  

Thank YOU Woodford County NWTF and Mr James Pierceall, Woodford County Sharp Spurs President for taking my son on a truly great hunt of a lifetime.  Joshua was also presented with a special edition hand crafted wooden turkey box call, the 2010 Rick Cox Memorial Award" Rick Cox, from El Paso, IL was a long time friend and sponsor of NWTF and owner of "Topsies" in El Paso. There was also a camo NWTF hat signed by the one and only Michael Waddell’s from the famous TV series “Bone Collector”.

Notice in the picture the two orange turkey legs on Joshua's new lucky hunting cap. Please note the picture is not great due to the rain, but the smile on the young man’s face is worth a million bucks...............Signed Jeff Keller a very proud father and long time Remington fan and sponsor for NWTF and PF!!!!!

Josh is being recognized on Remington.com as a hunt memory of a lifetime.

Please vote for Josh, you can actually vote for him once a day everyday for the next week.................all votes are greatly appreciated!!!!!!  Voting ends April 30th.

Click here to vote for Josh Keller