Dad's been sitting on a Fall Turkey tag since November but just hasn't been able to come down this way and try to get his first turkey. The tag expires at the end of February so he finally made the trip on the last weekend. It would've been so much easier before there was 3 feet of snow on the ground, but now we're relegated to the roads and right around the house. Luckily, we've been seeing turkeys but I knew that waiting them out without many options would be quite the test for my Dad who's more impatient that I am.
Thankfully Dad didn't come down at the crack of dawn, but instead waited until mid-morning to arrive at our place. Did I mention that there was a bit of snow? Dad found out that we weren't kidding when his truck got stuck in the driveway. Attempts to get his four wheel drive engaged weren't successful so we used a chain and pulled his truck out with ours. It wasn't a huge project, although getting our truck out of the garage without sliding into Dad's was a little bit of a trick.
Once Dad's truck was taken care of we took a little ride to see if any birds were around and saw quite a few, but none where we could hunt them. I think it drove Dad nuts to sit and wait for the birds to come to us, but we'd been seeing them by the house in the afternoon so we played it smart and waited. Sure enough, the birds worked up the road and Dad waited for an opportunity where he could make a good shot and be sure to only hit one bird. Not quite like calling them in during the Spring hunt, but still pretty fun. I was happy for Dad and it seemed like he had a good time. Turkey strips for dinner and a notched tag felt pretty good.
Hope you're as lucky,
Kidder
