I was home for a mere few hours before I was on a plane and headed back to Wyoming. This time however it was my younger sister and I flying solo. The situation gets even better. We were going to be hunting with outdoor legends Michael Waddell and Brenda Valentine. I was both nervous and excited; I was given the hunt of a lifetime, twofold. We hooked up with Michael at the Rapid City airport and while we waited for the other party to arrived we made a trip to Cabela’s. A Cabela’s trip on its own is an amazing experience, but to put my hero in the setting was simply euphoric.
The first morning we got up at three in the morning, I was too excited to get much sleep, I jumped out of bed and woke up my sister, we finally were ready and headed out to our perfect spot to slam my sister her Merriam’s turkey. The turkey call crew was set up; Danielle was fully camouflaged with her back up against a tree, not making a movement. Michael sat behind her to give direction. The morning was cold and crisp. The breaking sun kissed the horizon and danced its way across the sage brush of Wyoming, it was still and quiet like the whole world was a sleep except for us. A toms gobble shattered the silence, Michael began to work his magic. The gobbler kept coming closer and closer, it felt like a done deal. Then the gobbler stopped, and seemed to be hung up. Michael, started sneaking away from us and the turkey, continuing to make a hen call, the gobbler finally decided it would chase “the hen”, as I watched, unable to contain my goofy grin, my sister nailed her gobbler at 30 yards away.
Watching Michael move like that opened my eyes to an entirely new way of turkey hunting. Most people would sit and call until they turned blue in the face. When a turkey is that close people freeze, he taught me never be afraid to try new things, you never know what the result will be. In this case it was a very nice Wyoming Merriam’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment