Skip to main content

Turkey Season 2.0

Here we go! Turkey season has kicked off in Maine and as Dad and I are getting ready to head out with my friend Brian, I can not help but think of where we were a year ago.

I wanted to shoot a turkey while I was pregnant so that I could say that I got both a deer and turkey while waddling around in the woods.  It didn't happen but Dad and I learned a lot about this new critter that we were hunting, which is why I asked Brian to take us out for a day.  We need to learn how close they need to be to us in order to take a successful shot and we need to learn how to get them to come to us.  We were successful last year in having them call back to us, but we were not able to get them to come to us.  I think (hope) that is the missing piece.

New this year, Mainers can hunt all day (instead of just the am) and can take two bearded birds.  We have SO many turkey here that this is necessary to keep the population somewhat under control.  Dad has been seeing them around the house and has taken our box call and had great responses from three turkey up on the hill behind his house.  Still, nothing has come down to check out this new "turkey" in the area.  Last year, we saw a handful of jakes and a hen.  I want to see a big Tom with his feathers puffed out gobbling!  And then I want to see him dead ;)

Our turkey decoys from 2013
My friend Robin went out on opening day and within an hour had sent me a picture of her turkey - almost 18lbs with a 9.5 inch beard and about 1 inch spurs.  Seriously, she is an awesome outdoors woman and sets a pretty high standard for what all of us should be and could be doing!  If you have not read her blog, you should and experience for yourself what it's like to be an outdoors woman in Maine.

Back to turkey... Friday is the day we head out.  The weather should be good and I have new camo pants this year.  Last year, I was scrapping together my hunting clothes, partially because to deer hunt, you dont need camo (so I didn't own any) and partially because I was 9 months pregnant and couldn't fit into my hunting pants.  This year, I will be head to toe in camo, with a new shot gun that Dad bought (our current guns are useless) and with a guide to help Dad and I learn this new hunting style.

Wish us luck and hopefully come Monday, I will have a picture to post for all of you!



Labels:

Comments

  1. Born in the wrong CenturyMay 07, 2014

    Erin good luck, I hope you have success or at the very least enjoy your time in the outdoors

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....
15 comments
Read more

Do Outdoor Women need to toughen up?

I hope you get shot out in the forest and wolves gnaw on your dying corpse…..WHILE YOU’RE STILL ALIVE I’d like to rip off your f*$%ing head and pour gunpowder down your f*$%ing throat and light it on fire Only c*%t’s shoot animals and take pleasure in it. I hope you die a horrible painful death As I began to look at how female hunters were being bullied, I had to ask myself if it was because we were easy targets as women or if we needed to just toughen up a little. Once I started asking my fellow female hunters about their experiences, the things that they sent to me as examples of what they deal with daily made me sick to my stomach.  I’d like to meet you outside someday with a gun in my hand, I would shoot you several times and laugh over your f*$%ing body as you die like you do to those poor animals that can’t defend themselves.  MURDERER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Generally threats are basic name calling. They include sexist remarks, racist remar...
12 comments
Read more

Wanted: Mr. Sportsman

A friend of mine sent me this link and asked what I thought about it.  I had seen it before and was honest when I told him how degrading I felt it was.  Not only was the title of the "Miss Maine Sportsman" application in pink* but the questions were incredibly insulting to those of us that are fighting to be taken seriously among our male counterparts. Questions like, "Do you clean your own kills/catches?" would never be asked if it were Mr. Maine Sportsman.  It would be assumed that yes, of course men clean what they kill.  Why is that assumption not made of us outdoor women?  Another question, "Do cook [ sic ] what you catch/kill? If so, what’s your favorite recipe?" would never be asked of men.   My friend asked me what sort of questions I would ask if it were a Mr. Maine Sportsman pageant.  I came up with a bunch of snarky questions (Do you bait your own hook?) but then I thought about the questions that could have the most impact on the men t...
12 comments
Read more