Turkey Shoot

Last fall I posted about my recent enjoyment of pheasant hunting.  About four years ago that interest expanded into turkey hunting as well.  So, for the past four years I've had the pleasure of pheasant hunting in the fall, and turkey hunting in the spring.  As time has gone by, I've equipped myself more for both sports, and I actually have quite a good turkey hunting setup going, including my own ground blind, call, camouflage, and pretty much anything else one needs to hunt Ben Franklin's favorite bird.

So far, in my four years of turkey hunting, I have been successful once - my first year - which definitely set a bad precedent for each succeeding year.  But that's the way it goes.  I still enjoy the idea of potentially shooting a turkey even if I don't get one.

My trip this year brought me to Black River Falls, WI.  A friend of mine has some land there, and it turns out that out of state turkey licenses aren't too expensive.  After making our preparations, we took off and set up the blinds on a cold and wet Thursday evening.  As I mentioned previously, I was able to get my own blind this year, purchased with a gift card that I had received for my previous birthday, leaving the cost of the blind to me to be no more than $2.50.  I was pleased.

The first morning was cold and windy.  Temperatures were forecast to be around 70 for that day, so I dressed lightly - too lightly.  It was a cold morning, but thankfully things warmed up throughout the day - so much so that I was able to take a nap between 2-3 PM.

A tom turkey fanning out as
he walks with his hen.
Click to enlarge.

On the first day I saw a total of seven turkeys - three groups of two, and a lone hen who wandered by my blind in the afternoon.  Hens are off limits in the spring season, so I couldn't take her.  Four of them were approximately 150 yards away from my blind - much too far away to attempt a shot.  And when I tried to lure them with my slate call, most of them just looked my way but didn't find the sound tempting enough to investigate.  I did get one tom turkey to fan out though, which is always fun to see.  The picture doesn't do it justice, as like I said, I
was about 150 yards away.  I could see it more clearly in person.  But even though he fanned out and showed off for what he thought was an interested female, he didn't come my way. Another two were about 200 yards away from me in the late afternoon.  They likewise were more interested in the prospect of finding food than in a hen, so they kept walking.

My big break cam early on Saturday morning.  I thought it couldn't get much colder than it was on Friday morning, but it was.  And a lot more windy.  It's funny how, when you're hunting, you're trying to pay attention to the landscape around you, to watch for movement, and to become familiar with the land.  Hunting in a blind is a peculiar thing.  The goal is to blend in with the environment to the extent that the wildlife regards the blind as just a regular part of the land, and is therefore comfortable enough to walk on by.

It also needs to be noted that hunting can be a rather boring activity.  There are hours and hours spent being alone and quiet, with nothing much to do.  You can't really do anything else, actually, because you want to be focused on your surroundings.  On Saturday morning, it was around 7:30 AM, and I had been in my blind for about two and a half hours by then.  I took a scan of the area around my blind, and then began to day dream and look around at things, as is want to happen.  Throughout this time, I just casually looked in front of me, and there were three turkeys, right next to my hen decoy, directly in front of me.  I quickly grabbed my range finder to see the exact distance: 25 yards.

By this time, the turkeys began to wander away, seemingly realizing that my hen was just a pretender and not interested in mating.  I rummaged for my call, and began to squawk.  They froze, put their heads up and looked around.  Then they all began to come back to my decoy - back into my sights.

I had set up my blind next to a wood line overlooking a food plot, facing east.  This was a great spot, except it had one drawback - I was looking directly into the sun.  This meant that I was seeing more turkey silhouettes than actual turkeys.  With the bright light in my eyes, I wasn't able to notice any distinguishing features on the birds that would clue me in to whether or not they were male or female.  Tom turkeys (mature males) have what's called a beard - a long tuft of coarse hair protruding from their chest.  Hens do not have this.  Jakes (immature males) have very little beard, if any at all.  The older a turkey gets, the longer his beard grows.

What I knew for sure was that none of the three turkeys I was looking at had beards.  This meant that they were either hens, which were off limits, or jakes, which were fair game.  But with the sun the way it was, I just couldn't tell.  I decided not to take the shot rather than risk shooting a hen.

The trip ended that afternoon, and I left empty handed.  That's OK.  It was still fun to go, and it was a thrill to see the turkeys, especially those three up close.  I really enjoy turkey hunting, and hope to make it a regular part of my year.

Pheasant Season

For the past four or so years I have made a point of joining some other guys that I know in an annual pheasant hunt.  I first went pheasant hunting maybe four or five years ago, and quickly discovered that it was something that I very much enjoyed doing.  I didn't have a shotgun of my own, however, and was always forced to borrow one from a friend.  I have since purchased my own gun, some minimal hunting equipment, and have more than enough desire to put it to good use.  This year's trip was just this past weekend, on October 26-27.  This year I was able to shoot my fill of birds, and as a result I have five smoked pheasants in my freezer as I type.

Pheasants are one of my favorite animals to hunt.  I have tried deer and small game hunting before, but have 1) never had any success, and 2) I am not a fan of sitting around in a tree all day, doing nothing, waiting for the deer to come to me.  There's a lot more action with pheasant hunting, and even if you don't flush any birds, at least your walking and moving around constantly.  This helps with keeping warm, and it just makes the hunt go faster.  I've also had the chance to hunt turkeys a few times, and have been successful once.  Turkey is also a very fun animal to hunt, but for different reasons that I'll save for a post after the next time I go turkey hunting.

Plus with pheasant hunting, there's just more going on at one time.  Pheasants are usually hunted with dogs.  Dogs run through corn and tall grass, trying to scare pheasants out of their hiding spots.  A pointing dog will find one, and when he does, his whole body will freeze, with his snout pointed toward the pheasant.  Watching this whole process happen is incredibly interesting.  It's fun to see these very well trained dogs do their thing.  And by all accounts, the dogs enjoy the hunt more than the people.

Also, pheasant hunting is easy!  It's got to be one of the easiest kinds of hunting out there.  Even people who don't particularly shoot very well can find success in pheasant hunting.  Pheasants are rather large birds (about the size of a chicken) and they don't move very fast, making them rather large targets.

It's a good chance to get together and hang out with other guys who enjoy the sport.  Our hunts usually consist of an overnight trip, which means we stay at the lodge the night before the hunt.  This night is usually full of good conversation, a lots of laughs, and card games.  This year was no exception.  The lodge we stayed at had a game dinner all set up and ready for us when we arrived.  We had pheasant, duck, mashed potatoes, dressing, and coleslaw.  It was fantastic, although I can say that I definitely prefer pheasant to duck.  Even so, very tasty.

Pheasant is very good eating.  There are many types of game that don't taste very good.  We have been conditioned to basically only enjoy corn-fed beef and chickens who have been fattened on quality food.  What an animal eats matters - it affects the way it tastes when consumed by humans.  Pheasants, however, have a naturally very good taste.  They taste like, you guessed it: chicken.  But they are wild animals that taste like chicken, and you don't get that too much when eating wild game.  The club that we hunt with offers to clean and smoke the pheasants we shoot, which I've always taken advantage of.

I enjoy this new found past time of mine, and I hope to keep it up for years to come.

A Couple Things

There were a couple things on the interwebs that caught my eye today, which I want to comment on here (an A la Carte of sorts).  I usually run into all kinds of interesting things on the internet each day, but these things today especially got me thinking.

1. John Piper posted a bit about the Olympics (it's actually an excerpt from a 1992 sermon of his).  I've shared before about how I love the Olympics, and also how my respect for Olympic athletes has dwindled as of late.  This sentiment from Piper, however, brings out a neat way of thinking theologically about the Olympics.  Take a look.

2. The second item is not necessarily from the internet, but from an episode of the Wretched Podcast I listened to today.  Todd Friel asked the question, "Is hunting for sport an OK thing to do?"  By "hunting for sport" he means killing animals not for their meet, and not to beneficially control their population, but just for the sake of killing an animal.  He finds at least these three reasons for why killing animals is permitted: killing for the sake of food, killing for the sake of taking dominion of the earth (like when animals disturb the human population, e.g., gophers digging holes in your yard), and killing to control animal populations (such as deer that would starve to death due to overpopulation).  All three reasons have significant theological implications.  He could not, however, think of a biblical justification (based on the charge from God for human beings to take dominion of the earth) for killing animals for sport, and therefore, I think his opinion was that killing for sport was wrong.  I'm not sure if I agree with him or not, but it has me thinking about it, and that's never a bad thing.

This got me to thinking, as I have taken up both turkey and pheasant hunting in the past few years.  I even purchased my own shotgun (as opposed to having to borrow from friends or family) this past year so I could go hunting with my own equipment.  I have to admit that these hunting experiences I've had over the past 3-4 years have been some of the funnest times of my life.  There's no rush like a tom turkey responding to your call from a hundred yards away, and then having him inch closer and closer until you can get a good shot at him.  I've been turkey hunting three times but have only only been able to shoot one once, and it was one of the most thrilling moments of my life.

In all the hunting experiences I've had, I've always harvested the animals for their meat.  That is, I've always used them for food (smoked pheasant is pretty tasty, although you have to make sure you don't swallow any lead shot as you eat it!).  But I've never been in a position where I would go without if I hadn't hunted these birds.  That is, I didn't have to shoot them and eat them in order to survive.  The primary purpose for my shooting the birds was for the thrill of the hunt, not out of a need for food.  Is that immoral?  Again, I'm not convinced that it is, but it's a good thing to think about.