My My how things quickly change……………
To be honest I was elated with yesterday’s hunt, and had one of those “I’m where I’m suppose to be, and all is ok in my world” type of days. This morning started out much the same, it is the late morning portion of today’s hunt that is the subject of this post. As you’ll read further it will quickly become a holier than thou rant. I am giving fair warning that I am climbing up on a big ol’ soap box, and I’ve got some things to say.
To preface this wonderful occurrence, I have to omit names of certain friends and families and the location of property in question. I am a guest on the property and the family we are good friends with are the only ones with permission to hunt it. Located somewhere 30 minutes north and east of our home in East Homer New York, it is a huge farm with lots of wild game, great land features, and one that I have had the privilege to step foot on. Todays hunt would start out on different properties and would yield little to go on as high winds made it difficult to hear anything on the roost. The young gentlemen that I hunted with had to head off to school, so I opted to hunt an upper portion of the property and set up in a location where birds had been seen loitering in previous days. I am not much for field hunting as most of my gobblers are dealt with in patches of woods or my favored ridges. Given that the woods are still very open,and high winds, I settled on a corner of a long field where several trails come in and out, and was a likely funnel for birds drifting through the area. From 8am until the end of the morning I would catch a gobble here and there in between wind gusts. Not sure where, but glad to hear them just the same.
Somewhere around 9:30-10AM I notice a recent year Black Chevy pickup stopping along the road and was obviously surveying the property I was on. I am certain my two decoys were spotted as they parked directly above me for a good 12-15minutes, whereas they would spend 8-10 minutes at the most working their way up the road. As the morning was creeping toward the end and well after 11AM, I notice two gobblers with visible swinging beards coming in hard and fast to my hard left. My guess would be 150+ yards out. Not sure if they came across the road or along the woods I was in, and swung high to gain a vantage point. I had heard gobbles behind me and to my left. As they closed to within 100-120 yards and almost as far from the wood line, BOOM!!!!! Yeah it rocked my world and how. The shot was withing 60-80 yards from where I was sitting. It was apparent that a trespasser had snuck in, knew where I was, and proceeded to cut me off in order to grab a bird. No idea how the trespasser figure they could beat me to the bird, and evade me, and not become the main participent to a hugh impending asswhooping I would be more than willing to dish out. I got up,and was yelling some words I’ll not repeat here. I did yell “I’m a hunter” in there somewhere in the profanity and ran to about where I thought the shot came from. The woods roll up and over,and apparently whoever it was, decided to leave quicker than they snuck in. Being a distance runner, I would have made good on catching them if I could have seen the direction they took. At the shot, both gobblers ran down the hill, passing me roughly 60 yards out, and doing their best rendition of the FTD man at top speed. Neither bird appeared injured or molested. I thought it odd that they hadn’t taken flight. I guess they thought the deeks might run along with them. I found myself shaking from being that upset and angry at what took place. The time and effort to play out a strategy, and patiently work the setup to its conclusion to be disrupted from unethical and unsafe decisions by those I would call and accuse of being poachers.
Not getting a bird that was so close is not really a big deal, it happens due to so many other valid things such as hens coming in, predators, farm equipment, making the wrong call, and or making a poorly timed movement. From my perspective of filling tags year after year, it is not a huge deal. Go back at it again the next day. What has me more than upset is that between us was an old logging road that the gobblers could have turned into had they decided to circle the decoys first. Not my first choice, but I have seen them do it in the past. Had that occurred, I would have been pointing a loaded firearm at a camouflaged hunter whom had snuck in, and that I was not aware of. The likelihood of picking them out in my foreground or background of my sight picture would be non existent. I could also have been the recipient of the same gun pointing, except I believe whomever it was, knew my position. The possibilities for a worse than bad day were through the roof when this person decided that property rights don’t matter, ethics don’t matter,and fundamentally, my safety or theirs did not matter. All this for a damn bird. Same goes for deer, elk, whatever your animal of choice is. As much as I love turkey hunting, and deer hunting, I would be mortified to be branded as a trespasser or for violating a pile of game laws, much less shooting someone. I have yet to see how the taking of any game species could be worth making such terrible choices while afield.
One of the very discussions I had with the two young hunters with me this morning, was that when I look at a set of spurs, a taxidermy mount or maybe a tail fan display, I want to remember the epic quality of the hunt, the things I sensed and experienced while in pursuit. I cannot wrap my brain around on slamming a trophy animal by shooting it out a truck window, or trespassing when I think no one is around, or some other unethical act. I view each animal I take as one of god’s creatures that provides me with the emotional aspects of the hunt, and table fare that my wife and I enjoy immensely. It is a matter of respect to hunt ethically and fairly. As a hunter we owe it to ourselves, the animals we pursue and to our fellow hunters as well. To the individual that did what they did today, you are not a hunter, you are not a sportsman. If anything your actions reflect a very negative light upon our sport, and as a fellow human being.
I know my wife will not be happy reading any of this, and I can say very little about it. I am grateful that the rash of terrible choices made by this person did not end up far worse, and for that matter it might have been best they evaded me in their hasty exit, otherwise I might be blogging this from jail. Blessings even in awful stories such as this one.
Thank you for enduring my rant and a less than positive post. I normally want to keep things on the bright side, but that is not the case today.
© 2014 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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I have lived your story more then once my friend, and if NOT for the grace of God and knowing better, a person would have been killed by their actions and lack of respect for what belongs to others! NO GAME animal is worth dying for….Glad your day turned out for the better…