Steve Merlo: A big year, and banquet, on tap for wild turkey hunters
| Thursday, Mar 05 2009 10:59 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Mar 25 2009 06:17 PM
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HUNTING PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Miranda Millar, 11, of Wasco, shot this goose on a guided hunt recently with her dad in Yuba City.
The 200-yard, stumbling-in-the-dark "stroll" to my brush blind had me mumbling bad words.
The faint glow to the east, the one signaling the approach of daylight, offered little in the way of assistance to keep invisible branches from painfully slashing at my face again and again.
I knew the route, but at 5 a.m. on a moonless night, I needed the flashlight I carried but dared not use lest the beam alert them.
I finally found where I was going, set out my hen and jake decoys and slid onto the bucket I had placed there the night before. Before me, the decent-sized clearing among the oaks would afford a good view when the approaching daylight came. As quietly as possible, I loaded my shotgun and sat back to await legal shooting time, shivering and snuggling deeper into my hunting coat in the pre-dawn, listening to the world around me slowly come alive. Coyotes yip-yapped in the distance, owls hooted in the trees, wood ducks squealed overhead and a host of other birds twittered both good night and good morning calls.
Twenty minutes later, the first booming gobble nearly startled me off my seat. Roosted a mere hundred yards away, a big tom turkey pronounced to all the world that the Kinghad awakened and was ready to take on the world. Again and again he gobbled, the thunderous call silencing every other creature in the forest.
I mouthed my diaphram call and began a slow series of quiet hen yelps, and immediately received the hoped-for response. Each time I yelped, the gobbler resounded, and within the first series, I heard him fly down from his lofty perch. Shooting time had arrived, and, gun in hand, I called again. When he blew off the next time, I knew he was coming. 75, 60, 50 and then 40 yards away, I heard him thrumming his wings in excitement, and the moment he stepped into the clearing, he puffed up and spread his tail feathers into full fan.
I could easily see him, and when he turned to dance and show off, I saw his very legal, nearly foot-long beard silhouetted against the green grass behind him. When he saw the decoys, his instant curiousity suddenly turned into a red-hot rage over the jake's insolence and dishonorable rudeness to His Majesty. With fire in his eyes, his head pulsing with a patriotic mass of red, white and blue wattles, he sidled into range to assault the one that would dare invade his private realm. I slipped off the safety, took careful aim at his head and pulled the trigger, sending a 2-ounce load of No. 5 shot heading his way. He went down without so much as a quiver.
Retrieving my great eating prize, I marveled at his feathered beauty and size of the 20-pound bird. As I admired him, I remembered that founding father Benjamin Frankin once championed the cause for the wild turkey to be our national bird, but other, less informed folks, decided on the bald eagle, notably pretty, but a fish-eating scavenger.
Despite his unusual looks, the turkey is a fierce fighter, bold and noble as any eagle, and a whole lot better on the table, or so I've been told.
The true hunting scene I just related will be repeated nearly a million times this spring when hunters across the U.S. flock to hill and dale to do battle with the wily wild turkey. With nearly 8 million birds on tap nationwide, hunters will have plenty of opportunities to bag at least one of the regal birds each. But it was not always so, and thanks primarely to the efforts of the National Wild Turkey Federation and the people supporting it, the birds have made an incredible comeback from the brink of extinction.
Saturday evening, March 14, the local chapter of the NWTF will have its popular annual banquet and fundraiser. This one of the top-three NWTF events in the country will feature an open bar, steak dinner, outdoor trips, raffles, live and silent auctions and a barrel of fun for everyone present at the Kern County Fairgrounds. More than 70 guns will be given away, along with tons of outdoor gear and wildlife art.
Under president Lee Johnson, the local chapter has continually finished in the top three of all chapters across the country, contributing many thousands of dollars to worthwhile causes.
Proceeds from this occasion go to help build and support wildlife habitat, encourage our right to keep and bear arms, assist the needy through domestic turkey holiday donations, sponsor the largest Women in the Outdoors event in the US at Tejon Ranch and provide knowledge and education for the JAKES, a 17-and-under youth program dedicated to our hunting and wildlife heritage.
Cost for the event runs $60 single, $85 for couples and only $30 for Jakes. A number of sponsor and patron tables are still available, but interested parties need to hurry because the event traditionally sells out of each. Leftover tickets, if any, will be sold first-come, first-served at the doors. Contact Lee Johnson 661-333-3395 or Gene Krauss at 661-747-1271 for tickets or more information to this fun and exciting family event.
