June 2009 Updates page 9
17 June
John/Jon,
I wanted to take a few minutes and send you both an email regarding this year's turkey season. We were rewarded this season for all of the time we've spent scouting and learning the farms we visited. Most people have had those days were they may not have scouted or even walked a particular farm but they luck into the right area and are successful. To be consistently successful you have to put in the time to study the farms and the behavior of the game you're after.
My favorite hunt this spring was when I sat with my wife and the sole purpose of that hunt for me was to get her a bird. We arrived at the farm at 4:00 a.m. and quietly got set up in one of our favorite spots. Unfortunately the closest gobble that morning was 500+ yards away on the next farm. We were already set up close to the property line so we couldn't close the distance. Instead, I decided that I had to increase the volume of my calling and hopefully peak this tom's interest. After an hour of conversation this tom had closed to within 100 yards but remained out of sight. For my final trick I threw in a gobble call in response to him and that sealed the deal. This tom came in strutting and drumming while my wife worked to control her breathing.
After watching the tom put on a show for about a minute my wife dropped the hammer and collected her biggest turkey to date. 21 pounds, 1 inch spurs, and 9 inch beard.
Brad
Great story Brad, thanks for all the work we know you had to do to get another a successful hunt.
16 June
Land
A Missouri lease that has been in the Association for over a decade. It was originally leased as a quail primary farm with crp and crop. The trees have grown quite a bit, the crp was discontinued and it's mainly used for pasture with a lot of clover. The end result is this farm over the past 10 to 20 years, along with so many others, has transitioned into a deer and turkey primary lease.
Fifteen years ago this farm had 4 to 5 coveys of quail, the county was closed to fall turkey hunting and several years was not even deer hunted. Now, there are 2 flocks of turkey, a covey of quail rare and the deer hunting is high demand. Evolution of wildlife is tough to monitor and/or manage. We do our best to provide the best habitat as possible for what we seek, but it's a season by season challenge. The advantage to your Association is that we do have that flexibly to lease within any one region of a state rather than be locked into the driving distance around a hunting club house or lodge.
Time To Stand Up
From Matthew, an above average activist outdoorsman.
"here's a written piece from The Outdoor Wire illustrating some disturbing potential new developments in how our government intends on controlling and criminalizing aspects of our lives and our pursuits; specifically regarding the pocket knives we all carry and use on a daily basis and hunting and fishing. And the trend continues..."
Key points:
"...U.S. Customs has proposed revoking earlier rulings that assisted opening knives are not switchblades. The proposal would not only outlaw assisted opening knives, its overly broad new definition of a switchblade would also include all one-handed opening knives and most other pocket knives!"
and,
"The public comment period ends June 21, and all comments must be submitted in writing, either by FedEx/UPS or the USPS. If you're interested in protesting this latest attempted affront to our rights, you can see a model letter created by KnifeRights.org..."
and,
The original text legislation proposal all 64 pages of it plus analysis.
