Time for Turkey

I know for a fact that less than half of the people who read this blog have any interest in hunting. It is either because of, or in spite of this fact that I must post on the upcoming turkey season.

The fun starts next Saturday morning (April 14th), 30 minutes before sunrise, which in the area that we hunt is about 6:30am. You may have seen the countdown clock that was previously in the right-hand column on this blog (I removed it for aesthetic reasons) which was giving a running time until the season opened. I am so excited that I can hardly handle it and I thought I should take the opportunity to explain why I enjoy hunting this elusive bird.

I will begin by explaining that there are safely rules in place designed to protect hunters in the woods which are necessary but nonetheless somewhat annoying. During any Colorado hunting season in which rifles are used, it is required that all hunters wear no less than 500 square inches of blaze orange clothing above the waist, to include some hear gear which can be easily seen from all directions. The rational for this is that while the orange is clearly visible to humans, it does not significantly increase the hunter's visibility to the supposedly color-blind game animals. Part of the joy of hunting is getting all geared up in your cammies (that is, camouflage clothing) for slinking around in the woods and having the requisite orange takes away from the feeling of being "sneaky". During fall hunting (deer,elk,antelope) I put up with this because hunting with a firearm is the method that I can currently afford and enjoy.

This brings us back to turkey hunting. Since spring turkey season requires a shotgun (as opposed to a rifle during the fall turkey season), the blaze orange rules no longer apply. This means full concealment and plenty of sneakiness. While I concede that the joy of being armed and hidden in the woods is a boyish obsession, I would contend that it is considered so because frequently it is the young who are most honest about these desires. I think most men (by God's design) want to be:

1. Dangerous, in a knight-in-shining-armour kind of way.
2. Capable of providing for the physical needs of themselves and their family.
3. Able to tame nature.

Hunting fulfills all three to these innate desires. On top of that, it is challenging and communal when done with friends or family; I hunt turkey with Marshall, Tim, Mike and someday I hope to teach Campbell.

The Merriam's turkey that we have in the Colorado mountains is a wily prey. Their eyesight is extremely good, their hearing is sharp and we are only helped by their lack of a keen sense of smell. Additionally, they are very sensitive to hunting pressure and though not intelligent, are instinctively suspicious. When you consider these traits and the fact that they are physically tough and nearly impervious to shots outside of 40 yards (sometimes inside this distance as well), it is not surprising that as we enter my 4th spring turkey season, I have yet to be successful. This is a blight on my short hunting career which must be rectified in the next 8 weeks if I want to return to Michigan for the holidays with my head held high.

If you find this subject at all interesting, I am willing to supply autographed pictures of me in my "hunting outfit" to anyone who sends an addressed, stamped return envelope and $5 for my hunting fund.