One Hundred and Eighty Degrees

Went hunting for turkeys and didn’t score (but the neighbor did thanks to me). I picked up my gear and found a mushroom. Went home and put my gear away and started looking for mushrooms and jumped some turkeys. OK, I get it! I’m being teased.

Spent half of the day in Peoria and came home hungry, so I sat down and ate a bite. Walked into my office and looked out the window and saw a turkey 30 yards from my window just taking a walk in the afternoon in broad daylight. I walked out on my balcony to look at it and it just looked around not concerned a bit from my presence. I even simulated shooting it with my bow just for fun and it didn’t flinch.

I went back in the house and just shook my head. I give up!

The Unwritten Rule

Sometimes common courtesy trumps any written rule regarding hunting ethics. Today was a great example of selfishness on the part of another individual who happened to be in the woods while I was calling a turkey in for a friend. Here’s what happened:

The alarm clock went off at 3:00 am. and I literally dragged myself out of bed. For some reason I couldn’t sleep last night, so the 4 hours of sleep I got wasn’t nearly enough. After gathering my gear, I drove 35 minutes to meet a friend of mine who wanted me to call a turkey in for him. After the initial set-up, we waited for Mother Nature to lift the curtains. At the crack of dawn, I heard a horrible sounding imitation owl call. That was the first clue that there was another human being in the woods. After I got a gobbler to call me back, I worked that bird for nearly 45 minutes until he was just about 50 yards from me. In the meantime, I heard the other guy getting closer and closer to me as he was walking in the timber. I just knew what he was doing! He was going to attempt to take the bird I was working! Sure enough, a loud bang came from behind me and the bird fell. Just like that, it was all over.

The scenario was this. We were on private property and the property line was at this 50 yard mark I mentioned previously. So the bird was technically on the other side and just steps away from being on our side. There was no doubt this other guy knew I was working this bird because he heard me calling this Tom and knew the bird was coming towards me. I’m not even sure if the other guy had permission to hunt there as he went through 2 different properties to get where we were.

So what do you think? Was this guy being an opportunist and doing the right thing or was he a creep by taking advantage of us and our hard work? One thing for sure, he knew what he did was not cool as he picked up the bird and quickly took off. I would have never done such a thing ever, which is why it bothered me so much. A good day gone bad in the turkey woods.

Some people have no scruples.

How to get the girls involved!

Year after year fall hunting season comes around and the family gets abandoned. Then spring arrives and it happens all over again. How does one avoid the headaches associated with hunting addiction? Try “pink”! It works!

My family has always been very understanding regarding my hunting endeavors. As the children grew up, I introduced hunting to them and tried to get them involved so we could remain a tight family. For the most part, they enjoyed it but not nearly as much as I do. When mushroom season got here, that always helps but that only lasts a few weeks. Although my son enjoys shooting his bow with me, my girls never seemed interested until .......PINK came along! Yes, pink bow and arrows are the answer to getting the females interested in target shooting and bow hunting!

I was speaking with Bear Archery at the Archery Trade Show in Columbus, Oh. earlier in the year and was introduced to the new Bear Apprentice covered in pink camo. After showing my wife and 2 daughters the pictures, that was it, they had to have one. I went ahead and ordered two of them and when they showed up, you would think it was their birthday. We got them set-up last night and I’m here to tell you: I couldn’t get those bows out of their hands! Now it’s “Hey Dad, can we shoot tomorrow? Next weekend? Next week? When can we hunt? It’s amazing.

All of a sudden (after several decades of watching me with my bows), they are interested in bow sights, arrow rests, releases, carbon, aluminum, etc, etc, etc. WOW! All of that because of a color? Yes, women are a different breed.

If that’s all it takes to get my girls interested in something, I’ll have to remember that! Maybe I’ll be able to persuade them to help me with other things down the road…as long as I can come up with a way to get “pink” involved.