My 11 year old son, Noah, and I went out the morning of Saturday, April 17th and sat in our ground blind hoping to fill our bow turkey tags.  Noah was hunting as part of the youth mentoring program.  We made it into the blind, located northwest of Gary, South Dakota just before 6:00 a.m. with tom’s gobbling in all directions.  At one point, Noah and I counted 20 visible turkey with 8 tom’s in full strut.  We managed to pull two tom’s away from the flock and got them moving into our decoys around 8:30 a.m..  It took about 30 minutes for the two tom's to cover the 300 yards from the flock to the blind but they eventually squared up with our Pretty Boy decoy (a tom in full strut) and were getting ready to engage in battle when Noah let an arrow fly. After hitting one of the tom's, it tipped over but managed to wander into the tree belt behind our blind.  We waited one hour before starting to track.  We stepped out of the blind and immediately spotted a fox approaching from down wind and figured he was on the turkey’s scent.  The fox walks to within 30 yards of Noah and I (he couldn't see us as we were both in full camo with the trees behind us)  when he stops, turns and dives into the brush.  The turkey flushes and starts to fly away with Noah’s arrow hanging out its side.  As the turkey is flying low and slow, the fox is leaping at it trying desperately to secure lunch.  Noah and I take off in hot pursuit (the fox chasing our turkey, me chasing the fox and Noah on my heals saying: don’t shoot him Dad, I want to finish him myself).  Eventually, the fox figures out he's being trailed and breaks away leaving Noah and I to try and figure out where the turkey went.  Two hours later, we had the tom in the truck while Noah and I both were left shaking our heads in disbelief.   It was an incredible morning…and an amazing accomplishment for an 11 year old hunting turkey for the first time with his bowJ  The tom weighed 24lbs, had a 9” beard and 1” spurs.  It is a memory he and I will never forget and testament to the value of the mentoring program and the incredible outdoor opportunities that exist here in the great state of South Dakota!