Looking for someone to help

Hello everyone,
As all of you can see I am new to this forum. I am here because I need help in finding a good guide or outfitter to take my son (age 9, will not hunt, just there for the experience) and myself out for our first Spring turkey hunt (2021). I have checked out some prices online and they seem to be overpriced for my budget.
I live in Ottawa and I am willing to travel up to 2 hours away to go on the hunt. I do have my firearms, hunting, small game and turkey licence. I just have not bought a tag yet for this year and I do not own a gun. I have never went hunting before and really do not know on where to go or even what to do. Yes I have educated myself by watching youtube videos but I learn better by doing and experiencing the hunt in real life.
I was hoping that somebody can take us out on a hunt for a day and show us how it is really done. We can provide our own food, transportation, clothes, mosquito repellent, etc.. but just need somebody to bring experience, gun and ammo. We also would like someone to show us how to properly process the turkey and how to use every part without any waste. Does anybody know somebody that could help us out or an outfitter that will not charge us an arm and a leg to get us started.
Please e-mail me back with info and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. I just want to be ready when the season opens.

You could try on book your hunt, good luck.
https://www.bookyourhunt.com/en

Canadian Gun Nuttz or a few groups on MEWE or Gunpost will have a good shotgun with a longer barrel and that has choke tubes. A quick look found this one from Mossberg new, make sure it has changeable chokes, and for turkey make sure to get the right shot size.
https://frontierfirearms.ca/mossberg...-purpose-12ga/

An Remington 870 or Stoeger Uplander are suggestions I would also make. You will need to check where/how it shoots and the pattern and good you are thinking ahead, can't help much but good luck.

there must be some crown land within 2 hours from you, no?

good on for for trying to get into it and brining your son along , my advice to you if you cannot find anyone to bring you for turkey is to pick up a shotgun and a box call plop yourself somewhere and go for it, you will only learn! this will be my second year going for turkey, haven't gotten one but learn something every time, dont be afraid to browse some of the other turkey posts for tips too there's lots of info in here, as for the processing, you should be able to find a decent video on YouTube, wild turkey's arent that hard to gut you usually want the breast meat more often than not the thighs are so muscular that alot of guys dont usually take them but to each their own some cook the whole bird i haven't gotten that far yet so i wouldn't be able to give you specifics LOL, good luck on your hunt for a guide and dont be shy to tell us your experience! best of luck. wish i could be of more help.

Im similar to bowjob, been out a few years now on crown land with no success. Of course you run into them when not in season! Have a look at the crown land atlas and start exploring the lanark Highlands which are inside that 2hr window of yours. I have been to a few places there and its a bit of a crap shoot since its lots of land to cover and not close to home to set up cameras and check on them frequently but it will get you in the woods. Maybe come up with a plan to hunt the early morning trying to hear if there are any gobblers coming out of their roost. Looks for spots with good cover near water (doesnt have to be a lake, a small pond works). Bring a call along to spook gobble them as well as a turkey call and hope for the best. Then if that doesnt work bring along some clays and a hand thrower and have some fun then maybe move to another location at last light. This way you make a fun day out of it.

Theres alot more into it than just harvesting an animal.
learning the animal behavior, learning the bush and water ... .

I feel like id miss out on those with an outfitter. but Ive never tried, so might be wrong.

Not sure if you have access to podcasts. This one might help you out.

https://www.newhuntersguide.com/cate...urkey-hunting/

I was lucky to shoot my first one with my experienced buddy.
I got skunked many years after before I finally connected on my own.
But I shot a few more by myself and some with my daughter.
It was a great learning experience.
I ended up watching lots of videos learning how to call.
Its all part of the learning experience.
I also live in the North so have to travel 6-8 hours to get to the turkey woods.
Just do it.....Good Luck

You are going to have to learn ONE major lesson for any turkey hunting...you must sit totally, completely STILL!!
Toughest thing for beginners to overcome is the movement. ANY small movements at all will give you away to any turkey within sight.
Best advice I can give you when starting out is buy a hub blind, which will help block the movements that beginners make...and wear a black hoodie and face mask when inside it to hide you....anything lighter than that will give your movements away.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by genec

You are going to have to learn ONE major lesson for any turkey hunting...you must sit totally, completely STILL!!
Toughest thing for beginners to overcome is the movement. ANY small movements at all will give you away to any turkey within sight.
Best advice I can give you when starting out is buy a hub blind, which will help block the movements that beginners make...and wear a black hoodie and face mask when inside it to hide you....anything lighter than that will give your movements away.

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especially if you want your 9 year old to come along. With all this the cost of a guided hunt might be reasonable considering all you need

Check this guy out, he may be able to help you.
https://www.facebook.com/LongBeardGuiding/

Wow, thank you to everybody for giving me some advice on this year’s turkey hunt. Thank you Mosquito for recommending me those sites, I have a better idea now on what type of gun would be good for the hunt at a reasonable price. I was seeing guns that were double the prices at other stores.
From all the comments, I have decided to educate myself more by listening to those podcasts that were mentioned by Cameracutter. Thank you Bowjob, deerhunter, Ata83 and CDN008 for encouraging me to just go out and explore what there is to offer with crown land. I actually really like the Lanark area but will have to check more closely with crown land areas. I will also get a turkey call box this weekend so my son and myself can practice. Thank you Genec for reminding me of getting a hub blind as I forgot how good turkey eyes are and I am going to check those Canadian Tire flyers for cheap camo gear. Finally, thank you smitty55 for the recommendation of Longbeardguiding- He was able to get in touch with me about prices but still waiting to see on what dates he has available. I also got some quotes from other guides and the prices were insane such as $750 for the day and I still had to bring my own gun. With those prices I could get my own gear and go multiple times. I saw some prices before covid 19 and most were $150 for the day and now that has doubled and most outfitters didn’t even reply to my e-mails.
I guess this will be a journey that will be self taught and thank you to all for helping me out. I will let all of you know later if this year was a success. Maybe, I will still get that person who is willing to take us out and spark a light to make us want to go out every year.
Scott

Quote:

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Originally Posted by genec

You are going to have to learn ONE major lesson for any turkey hunting...you must sit totally, completely STILL!!
Toughest thing for beginners to overcome is the movement. ANY small movements at all will give you away to any turkey within sight.
Best advice I can give you when starting out is buy a hub blind, which will help block the movements that beginners make...and wear a black hoodie and face mask when inside it to hide you....anything lighter than that will give your movements away.

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Good advice even for us old timers.

Just get out where and when you can and learn through your mistakes and near successes.

Don't get too hung up on calling, decoys, gear, etc. All you really need is a place to park your butt comfortably, a property choked shotgun and ammo (brass bead for sights is fine, turkeys hit the ground when it's light enough to see generally speaking). A box call is a good way to start, play with mouth calls too, they're nice for having hands free. With a child, your best bet is to invest in a hub blind.

A good spot makes for more success than exceptional skills, although exceptional skills will increase your success when birds are scarce.

It took me quite a few years to get my first turkey, mostly messing around on public land and having a few close encounters with wary birds, but now if I play my cards right I can usually get at least one bird per season depending on time.

Just keep looking, this site is pretty friendly overall. Make a few friends and acquaintances here and someone will take you out to learn the ropes.

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

Movement as busted more hunts than anything else. When you want to move to another spot because you talked yourself into it stay put for a bit longer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 410001661

Movement as busted more hunts than anything else. When you want to move to another spot because you talked yourself into it stay put for a bit longer.

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Ya I remember scratching my nose one time, friggin Turkey at 500 feet turned around and hightailed it out of there.. it was coming straight for me before that. Lol