A few weeks ago I was fortunate to have the opportunity to go turkey hunting.  Months ago we put in for the drawing to get a turkey in the Southern Region of Utah.  What usually happens is that someone else in the family gets a tag at the same time that I do.  This year I was the only one who drew out for a turkey tag.  The pressure was on...
Ray and I loaded up the trailer and headed to Beaver, UT for our hunt.  We spent days getting everything ready, I was excited to get away and have a really fun adventure in the outdoors.  We were almost to Fillmore and I suddenly remembered that I hadn't brought my turkey tag.  This is a HUGE problem - you need a license to hunt these amazing birds and that was the whole reason for the trip.

Ray said to call Kelli and see if she could go to our house and get us the number off of the license.  Lucky for us she was getting her hair done just down the street.  We were hopeful we could get a duplicate the next day.

To make a very long story short we ended up having to drive to the main office of the DWR in Cedar City (about 60 miles away) to get the duplicate.  Needless to say the first day of hunting was spent replacing the forgotten license.  So grateful that Ray was patient.

That evening we decided to sit in a river bottom and try to call some turkey's in.  About 7:30 pm we heard the distinct gobble of a big Tom.  Ray called him in to about 100 yards away and then he changed course and headed back up to a ridgeline above us.  We heard him gobbling for about 30 minutes and started following him.  It was getting dark and we lost him.

The excitement of seeing one and getting the opportunity to call him in got us excited to try again the next day which was Saturday.  We took a long walk in the morning and didn't see a single bird.  We went back that evening to our spot from the night before and sure enough he came right back over the same ridge.  He was gobbling like crazy and once again Ray got him to answer and start to come down to where we were sitting.  Then we heard "someone" calling him down the canyon and he turned and headed in that direction.  A hen flew down in the trees right next to us and we were hoping that she would call him in.  We decided to follow him again and as we snuck down the road the hen in the tree started clucking and getting very agitated.  Before long she flew down right over our heads like she wanted to scare us off.  We kept going and before long we saw the Tom on the ridge with about 10 hens that he had gathered up.  The "someone" who had been calling him had been this whole flock of hens.  LOL!  Again it started getting dark and just as the sun had set and dusk became dark the whole flock of turkeys flew over our heads and into the trees on the other side of the river to roost for the night.

Sunday we decided that we would have a rest day and not go hunting.  I took Oliver for a walk around the little lake by our campsite and as we were heading back to the trailer I heard that wiley old Tom gobbling in the river bottom below us.  Ray and I decided to walk down.  As we came to the stream I saw movement in the brush and cocked my gun.  I started to walk into the brush and the turkey flew out  and across the road.  I didn't get a chance to shoot him. 

Ray decided that we would go for a ride and maybe do a little gold panning up the canyon so we headed back to camp.  As we were driving down into the river bottom again that turkey once again flew across the road.  There was steep rocky embankment that he scurried up and Ray told me to try and follow him.  I got about halfway up and started to slide back down.  There was no brush or anything to hang on to.  I turned around and started sliding back down to the road and that turkey flew right over my head and deep into the rive bottom again.  So frustrating!

We decided that we would stake out our spot on top of the ridge later that night and maybe out fox this wiley bird.  So we got back in the truck and headed up the canyon.

About 5 miles up the canyon Ray spotted 2 Jakes (young males) strutting along a little stream.  He slowed down and I got out of the truck and pumped a shell into the chamber.  I aimed at the bigger of the 2 birds held my breath and pulled the trigger...all I heard was a big click!  I hadn't locked the pump into place.  I hurried and pumped another shell into the chamber and aimed at the turkey as he was diving over the bank.  Boom!  I got him! 

It turned out that he weighed about 13 pounds and we are excited to eat him!  I hit him in the backside so the only meat that was compromised was one of his legs.  It was a wonderful experience and I was amazed that I could actually "bring home the bacon". 

I learned alot about turkeys from this experience and I also learned alot about myself.  I loved interacting with that wiley old Tom, I loved seeing and enjoying the habitat that tukeys love so much, I found out that turkey's are pretty smart creatures and that they are blind at night and have to be roosted in a tree before dark to protect themselves from preditors.  I had the opportunity to walk through the river bottom on a cool crisp spring morning and watch the world wake up.  I was able to breathe in fresh air, and smell the glory of rain washed trees and meadows.  What an amazing experience.

I truly loved the time I was able to spend with Ray in the calm, peaceful surroundings that truly heal your soul.