My New Hunting Partner

When my youngest son Seth left for the Army last October, one of the reasons it was so hard on me was that I had lost the last of my family hunting partners. I enjoyed my times afield with Seth immensely because he is as zealous about the outdoors as I am.

Those first few times afield without him were rough! I had pretty much resigned myself to spending most of my days alone. Trying to find someone as zealous as I am is pretty difficult these days.

Last spring break, as we were on a little get-away, my wife and I started talking about hunting. She has always been very supportive of my outdoor adventures but never really showed any inclination. Her most oft used words were….”Don’t expect me to clean it!”So imagine my surprise when she said, “I wouldn’t mind killing a hog….maybe a turkey, but not a deer. They are too cute.”
So, my wheels started turning on how to get her ready for turkey season. First, a gun. I knew I did not want her shooting a 12 ga. I also knew that a gun with a red dot scope on it would be the best. I took my son’s 20 ga. and equipped it with a B-Square cantilever mount and an NcStar holographic scope.

The next step was target practice. The long story/short of this is that she is a natural. At target practice, she never missed. I felt confident that out to 40 yards she would get the job done.

We anxiously awaited the start of turkey season. It came and the weather could not have been worse. It constantly rained for the first two days of the season.

On the Wednesday that the season opened we headed out to the woods. We were hunting from a blind so once we got into the blind we would be protected from the elements. We got settled in for what turned out to be an afternoon of off and on downpours. We did see some action and in fact came close to scoring her first turkey. About an hour before dark a tom showed up and fed to the right of us about 100 yards away. I was hoping he would move our way on his way to roost. However, he instead kept directly behind us and never offered a shot. My wife was a real trooper. She sat there for 4 hours in a cold, damp downpour in less than ideal turkey hunting conditions and said she enjoyed it.

The next day we went out to my son in law’s place. The conditions were the same. We saw turkeys but none had any interests in our calls or setups.

On Friday, I took one of the girls from our Academy back out to my son in law’s. The weather had improved and so did the hunting. For the first time I laid eyes on a turkey we called “The king” (discussed later in a different blog). Taylor almost got her turkey that night. The “king”……came our way but passed by with his harem of hens just out of shotgun range.

I decided at that point to move our blind to a corner where we had seen a lot of action that evening. It turned out to be a good move.

The next day I had some obligations in the morning, so we opted for an afternoon and evening hunt. I had my eyes set on the “the king” so I knew we needed to get to the field early. My plan was to drive to the blind. I have found through the years that if there are turkeys in the field or just inside the woods, the best thing to do is drive the field……and then move into your blind. The turkeys will come back. However, if you just walk out in the field, it is likely to keep them from coming back that day.

I drove to the blind and dropped her and the equipment off. As I drove back to the area I park in I noticed a tom in the field next to us. It was not “the king” but it was nice one. Upon seeing the car he ran into the woods behind the blind. “Perfect” I thought.

I made it back to the blind. I put out a single hen decoy. After we got settled, I pulled out my I-Phone and began to look over my sermon for the next morning.

I had barely gotten into it when my wife reached around, grabbed the calf of my leg and dug her claws into it!!!!!!!! I had instructed her that if she saw something not in my field of view to just tap me on the leg. Well, by the intensity of her digging I could tell she saw more than just “something.”

I looked up and she pointed to my left. When I snuck a peak around the corner of the blind I was surprised to see standing there about 50 yards away a tom in full strut on the edge of the woods. It was probably the one I had spooked out of the other field.

I asked her if there was a hen with him and she said no. That was good. I knew he was strutting our decoy. I gave a very low, seductive series of yelps and that was it. Here he came!!

He strutted the whole way in. I told my wife she was going to have to forget about the shooting sticks and shoot the gun off-hand. Fortunately we had practiced this contingency.

Even though at one point I knew he was in range I told her to let him keep coming. He made it all the way to the decoy at about 15 yards. I had also taught her not to shoot when the turkey was looking straight at you in strut so as not to ruin the fan. We waited for him to turn. When he did I said, “Shoot him.” Boom!!! Dead!! No flop…flutter or anything. It was a perfect shot.

I knew I was going to be excited but I was thrilled to see how excited she was too. She is now officially struck with “the fever.”

It was a great turkey….a nice two year old with 10.25 inch beard and 19 lbs.

The next day she said, “When WE go deer hunting this year….” WE???????

It would appear that a bit of a void in my life that developed when Seth left has been filled. I’m looking forward to sharing more time afield with my new hunting partner!