AZHunter
Iowa Boy At Heart
We left last Wednesday morning for the Kansas turkey hunt that Syd won through the NWTF. We had such an amazing experience. Its a long story, but its worth it, especially when you see what all happened to her on this hunt. We (she) hunted Thursday and Friday last week. She is working on getting caught up at school, so she asked me to post the story on her behalf. I'm sure she'll chime in when she gets a chance. And what we didn't know until we got there, was that the property manager is an outdoor writer, working for the Wichita Eagle newspaper. He did a story on Sydney and it published Sunday. I'll put the link at the bottom. It has some amazing pictures in a link at the end! A huge thanks to Mike Pearce for the article and pictures!
Thursday was almost nonstop action-packed turkey hunting. The birds started firing off on roost at 6am Thursday morning. Not long after that, there were close to 30 birds in the field about 400 yards from our blind. Toms were strutting and gobbling. Toms were chasing Jakes. Jakes were acting all tough…until a tom showed up. Hens were chasing hens. Toms were chasing hens. Birds were gobbling like crazy. At one point, there were 10 mature toms in full strut. We had birds gobbling in the distance behind us, but on property we didn’t have permission to be on.
Long story short, she ended up missing three birds on Thursday. She was bummed, but took it in stride, especially when we all started sharing stories of missing birds. After the third miss, tears started and hearts sank all around, but Syd actually got mad and demanded a solution. We talked a bit and Mike and Syd’s guide suggested we stop hunting for the day, get some light loads, and go practice. Syd learned that there are three types of turkey hunters: 1) Those who have missed; 2) Those who haven’t missed yet; and 3) Those who are lying about missing.
Syd’s guide, Melinda, is a shotgun instructor and Mike has years of experience as well. Syd shot one and we quickly figured out the problem: flinching at the trigger pull. Melinda had her do some dry fire exercises and worked with her on shooting a shotgun like a rifle. We figured out that Syd has been shooting her rifles and mine with extremely light triggers for so long, I never stopped to think that the heavy shotgun trigger would be a problem. After 5-6 dry fires, she had the hang of it and made one last shot with a live load, hitting the mark at 20 yards! Her confidence was back up and we had a plan for the morning!
The evening dinner was great, but we were glad when it was over. We were tired and ready for bed. They auctioned off 15 limited-edition Preston Pittmann custom box calls made specifically for this hunt. Syd wanted one in her lucky number 7, but when the first call went for $1100, I told her I’d get in so much trouble if I bid on one! I noticed that the landowner bought one for either $400 or $600, but it slipped my mind shortly after that.
We walked into breakfast at 4:30 Friday morning and there was Mike with a box call in his hand. “Ramon bought this for you last night, but didn’t see you after dinner was over. He kind of likes you!” I was speechless, dumbfounded, and amazed! This guy has a reputation for being as grouchy, stubborn old man, but secretly has a heart of gold when he likes you and he loved Sydney! She found a sharpie and asked Michael Waddell to sign one side of it for her and he gladly obliged. Not long after that, we took off and were walking into another blind in a light rain. We had to be even more cautious and quiet because this blind was set up less than 100 yards from the roost site. We got set up just in time, too. The rain really started coming down. By about 6am, it started to let up and about 10 minutes later, we heard the first gobbles. The rain had them sleeping in that morning. Around 0620, I looked out my little corner window and saw a big strutter out in the field about 80 yards away and I let Melinda know. I looked back to see two strutters and a couple of hens. Then four total strutters and more hens. Melinda started calling and the two closest strutters started heading our way, walking wing-to-wing, strutting the whole time. They never gobbled, but they never broke strut and came closer with each set of calls from Melinda! Syd had her gun up and ready. I heard Melinda, who was looking over Syd’s shoulder, say “Whenever you’re ready.” About three seconds later, I heard the BOOM followed by seeing the bird on the right drop straight in its tracks! The second bird ran right in front of the blind, but Syd missed it as it was running crazy. We tried to call the other bird back, but he ended up walking off with the other hens, back where they came from.
This is when things got really interesting! We texted Mike (sitting in another blind across the field watching) to let him know we were ready to be picked up. He had asked us to stay put so as not to scare any other birds away for future hunters, but also because he wanted Syd’s genuine reaction for his story. Right after texting him, we heard gobbles fairly close so I texted him back real quick telling him to wait. Syd and Melinda started calling and I saw two turkeys pop out of the trees directly across from us. Both were toms and one had a huge beard. Then a hen walked out with them, followed by two more toms about 15 yards from them. We were really concentrating on those birds, with Melinda doing her best to lure one of the toms over, when Sydney blurted out “Oh $h!t! There’s a big tom right here!” and that’s when we saw the big tom 5 feet outside the blind, walking the gravel road. She stuck her gun out, shot, and missed. The bird was surprisingly clueless, kept walking like nothing happened, and Syd racked another shell, but missed the second shot. That’s when it got really good! The bird started running directly away from us and, rather than switching to the bigger window, Sydney ended up leaning halfway out the smaller corner window with her left leg kind of flopping for balance and fired a third shot. The bird face planted hard and skidded about three feet in the mud! It flopped a bit more than we wanted it to, but it eventually died and we had two big toms on the ground within 30 minutes of each other. We were done hunting by 0710!
Mike finally made his way to us and that’s when we discovered that Syd’s first tom had a double beard! We took the trophy pics and then headed into the check-in station. Her first bird weighed 20 lbs, had 1-inch and 7/8-inch spurs, and 10-2/8” and 6-5/8” beards! It ended up scoring just over 74” and she gets to enter it into the Kansas Trophy book because of the double beard! For scoring purposes for the hunt, only the longest beard is scored and she had some points deducted for the previous day’s misses, but nobody cared about that. We cared that she had her first bird! Her second bird was 22.94 lbs, had 1-inch spurs, and a 10” beard. As we were getting ready for more trophy pics, she saw the landowner and ran over and gave him a huge hug. He was so excited for her and it was one of the best things I’ve seen.
At the banquet, when it was time for her essay recognition at the banquet, everyone went crazy cheering for her when she was announced. Dr. James Earl Kennemer asked her to talk about her experience. After her speech, they presented her with the gun she’d be bringing home. It is a Weatherby Vanguard 7mm-08 and the 2014 JAKES Gun of the Year. Even better: it is #1 of 190. Even though she already has a 7mm-08, she’s excited and has made it clear she’s keeping it forever and can’t wait to hunt with it!
Wichita Eagle Story: http://www.kansas.com/sports/outdoors/article144772629.html
First turkey, double bearded tom
Second tom, doubled up within 30 minutes
Her Double
Thursday was almost nonstop action-packed turkey hunting. The birds started firing off on roost at 6am Thursday morning. Not long after that, there were close to 30 birds in the field about 400 yards from our blind. Toms were strutting and gobbling. Toms were chasing Jakes. Jakes were acting all tough…until a tom showed up. Hens were chasing hens. Toms were chasing hens. Birds were gobbling like crazy. At one point, there were 10 mature toms in full strut. We had birds gobbling in the distance behind us, but on property we didn’t have permission to be on.
Long story short, she ended up missing three birds on Thursday. She was bummed, but took it in stride, especially when we all started sharing stories of missing birds. After the third miss, tears started and hearts sank all around, but Syd actually got mad and demanded a solution. We talked a bit and Mike and Syd’s guide suggested we stop hunting for the day, get some light loads, and go practice. Syd learned that there are three types of turkey hunters: 1) Those who have missed; 2) Those who haven’t missed yet; and 3) Those who are lying about missing.
Syd’s guide, Melinda, is a shotgun instructor and Mike has years of experience as well. Syd shot one and we quickly figured out the problem: flinching at the trigger pull. Melinda had her do some dry fire exercises and worked with her on shooting a shotgun like a rifle. We figured out that Syd has been shooting her rifles and mine with extremely light triggers for so long, I never stopped to think that the heavy shotgun trigger would be a problem. After 5-6 dry fires, she had the hang of it and made one last shot with a live load, hitting the mark at 20 yards! Her confidence was back up and we had a plan for the morning!
The evening dinner was great, but we were glad when it was over. We were tired and ready for bed. They auctioned off 15 limited-edition Preston Pittmann custom box calls made specifically for this hunt. Syd wanted one in her lucky number 7, but when the first call went for $1100, I told her I’d get in so much trouble if I bid on one! I noticed that the landowner bought one for either $400 or $600, but it slipped my mind shortly after that.
We walked into breakfast at 4:30 Friday morning and there was Mike with a box call in his hand. “Ramon bought this for you last night, but didn’t see you after dinner was over. He kind of likes you!” I was speechless, dumbfounded, and amazed! This guy has a reputation for being as grouchy, stubborn old man, but secretly has a heart of gold when he likes you and he loved Sydney! She found a sharpie and asked Michael Waddell to sign one side of it for her and he gladly obliged. Not long after that, we took off and were walking into another blind in a light rain. We had to be even more cautious and quiet because this blind was set up less than 100 yards from the roost site. We got set up just in time, too. The rain really started coming down. By about 6am, it started to let up and about 10 minutes later, we heard the first gobbles. The rain had them sleeping in that morning. Around 0620, I looked out my little corner window and saw a big strutter out in the field about 80 yards away and I let Melinda know. I looked back to see two strutters and a couple of hens. Then four total strutters and more hens. Melinda started calling and the two closest strutters started heading our way, walking wing-to-wing, strutting the whole time. They never gobbled, but they never broke strut and came closer with each set of calls from Melinda! Syd had her gun up and ready. I heard Melinda, who was looking over Syd’s shoulder, say “Whenever you’re ready.” About three seconds later, I heard the BOOM followed by seeing the bird on the right drop straight in its tracks! The second bird ran right in front of the blind, but Syd missed it as it was running crazy. We tried to call the other bird back, but he ended up walking off with the other hens, back where they came from.
This is when things got really interesting! We texted Mike (sitting in another blind across the field watching) to let him know we were ready to be picked up. He had asked us to stay put so as not to scare any other birds away for future hunters, but also because he wanted Syd’s genuine reaction for his story. Right after texting him, we heard gobbles fairly close so I texted him back real quick telling him to wait. Syd and Melinda started calling and I saw two turkeys pop out of the trees directly across from us. Both were toms and one had a huge beard. Then a hen walked out with them, followed by two more toms about 15 yards from them. We were really concentrating on those birds, with Melinda doing her best to lure one of the toms over, when Sydney blurted out “Oh $h!t! There’s a big tom right here!” and that’s when we saw the big tom 5 feet outside the blind, walking the gravel road. She stuck her gun out, shot, and missed. The bird was surprisingly clueless, kept walking like nothing happened, and Syd racked another shell, but missed the second shot. That’s when it got really good! The bird started running directly away from us and, rather than switching to the bigger window, Sydney ended up leaning halfway out the smaller corner window with her left leg kind of flopping for balance and fired a third shot. The bird face planted hard and skidded about three feet in the mud! It flopped a bit more than we wanted it to, but it eventually died and we had two big toms on the ground within 30 minutes of each other. We were done hunting by 0710!
Mike finally made his way to us and that’s when we discovered that Syd’s first tom had a double beard! We took the trophy pics and then headed into the check-in station. Her first bird weighed 20 lbs, had 1-inch and 7/8-inch spurs, and 10-2/8” and 6-5/8” beards! It ended up scoring just over 74” and she gets to enter it into the Kansas Trophy book because of the double beard! For scoring purposes for the hunt, only the longest beard is scored and she had some points deducted for the previous day’s misses, but nobody cared about that. We cared that she had her first bird! Her second bird was 22.94 lbs, had 1-inch spurs, and a 10” beard. As we were getting ready for more trophy pics, she saw the landowner and ran over and gave him a huge hug. He was so excited for her and it was one of the best things I’ve seen.
At the banquet, when it was time for her essay recognition at the banquet, everyone went crazy cheering for her when she was announced. Dr. James Earl Kennemer asked her to talk about her experience. After her speech, they presented her with the gun she’d be bringing home. It is a Weatherby Vanguard 7mm-08 and the 2014 JAKES Gun of the Year. Even better: it is #1 of 190. Even though she already has a 7mm-08, she’s excited and has made it clear she’s keeping it forever and can’t wait to hunt with it!
Wichita Eagle Story: http://www.kansas.com/sports/outdoors/article144772629.html
First turkey, double bearded tom
Second tom, doubled up within 30 minutes
Her Double
