So what do you say we start at the beginning? I met my boyfriend five years ago and he’d just moved up from Oregon. He was quite the sportsman and cowboy and I couldn’t resist his black hat and wranglers. Soon he introduced me to ‘Buck’, his five point Muley buck he had sitting in his living room. He hadn’t quite got him hung yet and truthfully there the ceiling wasn’t tall enough anyway. We began spending every available afternoon cruising the hills on all the little back roads. I showed him the few places I knew, but we found much more than I had ever explored. Every time we went out we saw elk and deer and I was loving it! I had found my element. As a side note – we drive those same areas now, and we are extremely lucky if we see a deer and if we do, we see them by the highway or close to residences. Something is chasing them out of the woods…. Hmm, I wonder what has been introduced in the last five years or so..
Ok, back on track. So along with riding the back roads and singing old George Jones, we found a great spot to target practice and I found my perfect friend. His .44 magnum, Virginia Dragoon, 7.5″ barrel. Can you hear the Angels sing?? I did. I fell in love! What an amazing rush that was!! He warned me. He said ‘now bigger men than me have broke their noses with this gun cuz they thought they could handle it and they couldn’t’. I said ok, tell me how to handle it. He did, and I did. Smooth and steady like a rocket leaving my hand and bullseye!! Man! I love that gun! For about a year I had paper targets up on the walls just to show off the big damn holes in the center!
Majority of the time now I carry his .38 special because it works with my pack and is light but I did take the .44 out bear hunting and tent camping with us not long ago and it is one heavy sucker to pack all day. Not complaining though. I’ll pack it again any day.
So Kim is an avid archer too and right off the bat he got me in to archery. We got me a Diamond Infinite Edge by Bowtech from the local sportsman shop. Nothing top of the line for sure but all I could afford at the time and still what I pack through the woods today. The site needs to be replaced and I need a new set of practice arrows, but all in all it still kicks my butt if I don’t practice it. I’d love to have something that is easier to pull but maybe that’s just me getting older….
I digress… So I got my bow and right away I started practicing and I couldn’t get enough of shooting. I think I caught on pretty quick and was ready for hunting season. We went out turkey hunting the first season and we only had one shotgun so I took my bow. I honestly had total faith that I could shoot a turkey with my bow if given the opportunity. That, therein, lies the problem. The opportunity. Lets go to turkey season!
So every experience out in the woods, at this point, is new for me. I’ve never owned a piece of camo clothing in my life and all of a sudden I find myself covered in it with only eyes showing. We head out for turkey, spring season, and we get to this gorgeous clearing with a creek running nearby. Kim sets up his decoys and I’m thinking ‘are the birds really gonna think those are real?’ We snuggle up under a tree at the edge of the clearing and he tells me they have eyes that can catch anything so don’t move and cover all skin. So I sit and watch and wait and he calls. It hurts my ears and is so screechy. But then there’s a gobble. A real live gobble back! ‘You gotta be kidding’, I think. Now my heart starts pumping at the thought of a big turkey being out there somewhere.
After much coaxing, he decided he didn’t like us enough to come in to us. Pretty soon he wasn’t responding at all. We sat back and watched and waited and continued to call. In the stillness Kim tapped my leg slightly and motioned toward the side of him. I shifted only my eyes and saw a doe and her two fawns that had come down from behind us and were heading to the clearing. They had no clue we were there. The slight breeze was at our back so they didn’t smell us so we just watched. They strolled past us and followed the tree line a bit before disappearing back into the trees. I couldn’t believe it! Less that 5 feet away and they didn’t know we were there. How could that be!? Amazing! I was loving it!
We saw quite a few turkeys that year, all on private property. There was one morning we parked the truck and headed out. Found our spot and sat all day hearing turkeys around us but we just couldn’t get them to come in. Finally we started chasing them. That doesn’t work. But I’ll tell you what would have worked. Sitting in the truck! Got back to the truck and there were big tom tracks around the truck that were not there in the morning when we left it. Aggravating.. But the interactive hunting. That’s what I love. And that’s why I love elk!
Every time we go out it’s a great adventure, even if we’re just bumping along the back roads seeing what we can see and singing some Jones. That’s what it’s all about. Experiencing the wonders that lie beyond the asphalt.
Archery and Camo 