Thursday, March 13, 2014

Spring Season


With spring approaching, my all out favorite season of all is on my mind....

Just ask my better half and you will find all the confirmation you need of my addiction, obsession, pre-occupation, with spring turkeys.  If I could hunt spring turkeys 24/7...I may fore-go all those other outdoor activities that I love so much, to me it is more than a bird and an excuse to get out in the "off-season," and less of a notion of the actual kill being important.  It's about those experiences, that are so much the same, and so different each year, that is what the spring turkey season is to me...

Spring season means a majestic gobbler pushing a young hunter's heart rate to the limit, as he charges across 300 yards of open terrain, stopping only long enough to display, but urgently closing the distance to avoid any competition.  Almost comical to watch as he tries to hurry AND take his time strutting at the same time.  The memory of a proud youth laying eyes on his first longbeard, after only minutes of hunting, and having  little understanding of how wary they can really be...and later learning that hunt was the exception, not the rule.

Spring season is the privilege of helping others close the deal on a bird that has been months or years in the making, and understanding those that I share the woods with appreciate it like I do, or one day hopefully will.  


Spring season is the site of a veteran hunter shaking like a rookie after an incredible hunt...and realizing he wasn't even the one that pulled the trigger.  It is the joy of tricking a bird and the frustration of a bird that does something different every morning...seemingly to spite you.

Spring season is a time of rebirth, mother nature gives passage to spring and it is simply a great time to be in the woods.  Everything is new, vibrant, and full of life, and the smells alone are refreshing to the body and the soul...and that is before the ole bird you are set up on opens up the morning with a thundering gobble.

Spring season to me is knowing the shot is the final piece...sometimes...but the experience is what I am really there for.  The guesses and second guesses, decoys/no decoys, slate/mouth call, set up here/there, sit tight/move, where will he come?

As it all comes together, the broad spectrum of dogwoods, red buds, and the colors of spring are reduced to a minute area down the barrel, painting a circle on the canvas of nature in perfect rhythm with my pounding heart.  When that tail fan appears or that white bobbing head, I am always overcome with a sense of completion...as I know the rest doesn't matter.