Andrew L.
Well-known member
Hello All,
I hope everyone is having a great start to the spring season as things are thawing out and the off-season projects kick into full swing.
Banquet season is beginning to slow down and I have finally found a place to call home in Peoria, IL. It will be nice to not call the Baymont Inn & Suites home after living there since I started work in late January. I think Austin is much more thrilled than I am to have a backyard. Even though I have only been on the job a few months I have already found great reward in the people I have been fortunate enough to work with and absolutely love what I am doing.
Now on to the fun stuff. A young man by the name of Noah has never hunted a day in his life, nor has anyone in the family hunted, except grandpa who used to squirrel hunt a bit as a young adult. However, he still expressed great interest in hunting to his mom. Mom was fortunate enough to meet a NWTF member at a school function and he told her about the NWTF JAKES program and youth hunt opportunites the NWTF had to offer. She ended up getting a hold of me asking if there was anything I could do to get her son out hunting. I was fortunate to line Noah up in a hunter safety class that very next week and a local committee member graciously volunteerd to host Noah and I for the youth hunt on his property this past weekend.
Noah passed hunter safety with a score of 100%, beating both his grandpa and mom as they took the course along with him, I don't think they will ever hear the end of that!
Saturday morning our host, Noah and myself hit the woods early. We had suspected to hear some gobbling but with overall colder weather that has prevailed we warned Noah to not have his hopes to high as birds were still grouped up and likely not gobbling much. We could not have been more wrong.
With some free, close by, locator calls in two owls 5 Toms were gobbling fiercely from the moment we walked into the woods. Getting as close as we thought we could Noah and our host found comfort under a large oak while I found a place just behind them to get comfy and call from. We were able to see a few of the turkeys get down from the trees and shortly later we received quite a show. All 5 toms and at least that many hens were 50 yards out. Strutting, drumming and gobbling at anything that made a noise. I have not even seen a show like this before and was thrilled that Noah was about to get an opportunity to take his first turkey. However, just as quickly as they appeared they disappeared. We lost sight of all the turkeys and heard not a single gobble for a solid 15 minutes. However, we remained patient and a short time later a Tom appeared. He was excited and repsonding well to our calls. The rest of the group followed him as again we were able to witness all of the Toms in full strut. This time the lead bird decided to come just a little to close and Noah made a fantastic shot on him a split second after he gave out his last ever gobble!!
A beautiful bird it was, epsecially for a first time hunter! It was great seeing a volunteer spreading the word about NWTF to a mother and being able to witness the finished product. I think we have created a life long hunter and more importantly a conservationist!
Good luck to everyone this spring season and hunt safe!
I hope everyone is having a great start to the spring season as things are thawing out and the off-season projects kick into full swing.
Banquet season is beginning to slow down and I have finally found a place to call home in Peoria, IL. It will be nice to not call the Baymont Inn & Suites home after living there since I started work in late January. I think Austin is much more thrilled than I am to have a backyard. Even though I have only been on the job a few months I have already found great reward in the people I have been fortunate enough to work with and absolutely love what I am doing.
Now on to the fun stuff. A young man by the name of Noah has never hunted a day in his life, nor has anyone in the family hunted, except grandpa who used to squirrel hunt a bit as a young adult. However, he still expressed great interest in hunting to his mom. Mom was fortunate enough to meet a NWTF member at a school function and he told her about the NWTF JAKES program and youth hunt opportunites the NWTF had to offer. She ended up getting a hold of me asking if there was anything I could do to get her son out hunting. I was fortunate to line Noah up in a hunter safety class that very next week and a local committee member graciously volunteerd to host Noah and I for the youth hunt on his property this past weekend.
Noah passed hunter safety with a score of 100%, beating both his grandpa and mom as they took the course along with him, I don't think they will ever hear the end of that!
Saturday morning our host, Noah and myself hit the woods early. We had suspected to hear some gobbling but with overall colder weather that has prevailed we warned Noah to not have his hopes to high as birds were still grouped up and likely not gobbling much. We could not have been more wrong.
With some free, close by, locator calls in two owls 5 Toms were gobbling fiercely from the moment we walked into the woods. Getting as close as we thought we could Noah and our host found comfort under a large oak while I found a place just behind them to get comfy and call from. We were able to see a few of the turkeys get down from the trees and shortly later we received quite a show. All 5 toms and at least that many hens were 50 yards out. Strutting, drumming and gobbling at anything that made a noise. I have not even seen a show like this before and was thrilled that Noah was about to get an opportunity to take his first turkey. However, just as quickly as they appeared they disappeared. We lost sight of all the turkeys and heard not a single gobble for a solid 15 minutes. However, we remained patient and a short time later a Tom appeared. He was excited and repsonding well to our calls. The rest of the group followed him as again we were able to witness all of the Toms in full strut. This time the lead bird decided to come just a little to close and Noah made a fantastic shot on him a split second after he gave out his last ever gobble!!
A beautiful bird it was, epsecially for a first time hunter! It was great seeing a volunteer spreading the word about NWTF to a mother and being able to witness the finished product. I think we have created a life long hunter and more importantly a conservationist!
Good luck to everyone this spring season and hunt safe!
