Bwana
Well-known member
Have to say even I was a bit surprised last week when my wife told me she wanted to go turkey hunting on Mother's Day. It was the last day of the season and she hadn't gotten out yet so plans were made.
Turkey hunting, like everyone here likely knows, involves getting up at o’dark thirty in order to be in place long before the critter(s) make their appearance. When there is a three year old involved in the hunt though, certain things need to be modified. So instead of being in place by 5:45 am (when shooting time was) we were just leaving the yard at 7:40 am. Given that we had a 50 mile drive to make before getting to the ranches we had permission to hunt on, this put us a BIT behind our usual schedule.
I had gotten a hot tip from one of the landowners telling about all the turkeys he had been seeing on the other rancher's place and told me that we should definitely go there if we were able to obtain permission. Having that wonderful piece of information, I (being the follower that I am...not) decided to take a look elsewhere first which caused the Missus to question my guiding abilities. Just as I finished explaining the method to my madness and assuring the hunter that we would head to the “honeyhole” next, my superhuman eyes spotted a turkey a distance ahead. Actually it was a only about 50 yards away strutting in the middle of the prairie trail we were driving down.
An attempt to sneak on the birds failed but we found them again within minutes and thanks to some raging birdy hormones the Missus filled her tag after making a nice shot.
After lunch the boys grabbed their BB guns and went looking for smaller game followed closely by my three year old bringing up the rear with her “baby gun” as she calls it. Although the little hunters came back empty handed they chased one little cottontail around the countryside for quite some time before it finally disappeared down a hole but not until a fair number of BB’s were sent in its direction.
The turkey turned out to be a really good bird (at least for our area), weighing in at an even 23 pounds, an 8-3/4” beard, 15/16” spurs, and a pile of meat which has already been turned into several delicious meals for the family. I am mounting the fan for her using a new, cool looking method I learned this year so I hope it turns out alright.
Anyway, I hope everyone else had a great Mother’s Day too.
The Bwana Clan with the Mother's Day Bird:
The kid's with Mom's bird:
Ready for her turn:
The boys ready for action:
