Daryl Crawford
50 Cal.
This Saturday sees the opening of Pennsylvania's Spring Gobbler Season. I've had success in the past. When I returned home from Iraq in the Spring of 2005, my brother-in-law and I decided to hunt together in my little blind. To be honest, we were catching up after a year away. We went to our hunting club in Pike County PA and folks chided us a bit about sharing a blind. Jokingly I said "They said doubles couldn't be done, but these boys are doing it." I was hunting with a modern arm, but that morning was less about the hunt and more about just being out. I wanted that break. My family slept at the club house and we went out.
That morning was magic. We called in hens and gobblers but settled on 2 Jake's because we had simultaneous shots. Doubles were taken.
Fast forward two years and my brother-in-law and I are out together again. Sharing a blind again, in the same spot again. This time 2 long beards dropped with simultaneous shots.
Fast forward a few years and my son is on his first turkey hunt. Unfortunately, I was gone again with the Army. My brother-in-law took him. At the chow hall I get a text that my son scored. Pics of the smiling boy with his great grandfather's side by side 20 gauge, and only 400 yards from our last successful turkey hunts.
The year he turned 14 we trippled in that same area. We called in 4 birds, counted down and rolled three of them. If doubles couldn't be done, we scored triples.
For his 16th birthday he said he wanted trout on the fly line and a turkey. He had the Saturday of the youth season to hunt, because he turned 16 on Monday. We connected on both. My brother-in-law, son, and I sharing a hunt to get the boy a bird and he closed the deal with that side by side.
Last year my boy only got the first day to hunt. I retired from the Army and now he's in, stationed in VA. We scouted, set up, and called a gobbler in, almost exactly where I shot mine in 2005.
He missed, but 40 minutes later and he shot one that came in to our decoys. Our hunt was done! I wanted a bird for him and we got it.
He got a pass for this weekend and we're heading north together again. My smoothbore 20g is going with me and he'll use my modern arm.
I think on these previous hunts as I'm getting gear around. My success doesn't matter to me like it once did, but getting to talk to those gobblers fires me up. The chance to get my son on a bird motivates me to find them and talk sweet to them.
I'd venture that many of us think about those old hunts before going out. I bet a lot of us take as much or more joy in other's success than we care about our own.
A busted up old CSM will sit in the blind with a 20g smoothbore flintlock next to a young SGT with a modern arm. Here's hoping that young man connects! Maybe afterwards my fusil will sound off in the woods of PA again.
That morning was magic. We called in hens and gobblers but settled on 2 Jake's because we had simultaneous shots. Doubles were taken.
Fast forward two years and my brother-in-law and I are out together again. Sharing a blind again, in the same spot again. This time 2 long beards dropped with simultaneous shots.
Fast forward a few years and my son is on his first turkey hunt. Unfortunately, I was gone again with the Army. My brother-in-law took him. At the chow hall I get a text that my son scored. Pics of the smiling boy with his great grandfather's side by side 20 gauge, and only 400 yards from our last successful turkey hunts.
The year he turned 14 we trippled in that same area. We called in 4 birds, counted down and rolled three of them. If doubles couldn't be done, we scored triples.
For his 16th birthday he said he wanted trout on the fly line and a turkey. He had the Saturday of the youth season to hunt, because he turned 16 on Monday. We connected on both. My brother-in-law, son, and I sharing a hunt to get the boy a bird and he closed the deal with that side by side.
Last year my boy only got the first day to hunt. I retired from the Army and now he's in, stationed in VA. We scouted, set up, and called a gobbler in, almost exactly where I shot mine in 2005.
He missed, but 40 minutes later and he shot one that came in to our decoys. Our hunt was done! I wanted a bird for him and we got it.
He got a pass for this weekend and we're heading north together again. My smoothbore 20g is going with me and he'll use my modern arm.
I think on these previous hunts as I'm getting gear around. My success doesn't matter to me like it once did, but getting to talk to those gobblers fires me up. The chance to get my son on a bird motivates me to find them and talk sweet to them.
I'd venture that many of us think about those old hunts before going out. I bet a lot of us take as much or more joy in other's success than we care about our own.
A busted up old CSM will sit in the blind with a 20g smoothbore flintlock next to a young SGT with a modern arm. Here's hoping that young man connects! Maybe afterwards my fusil will sound off in the woods of PA again.
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