Turkeys,12 Gauges and 12 year olds

USA Outback host Denny Snyder with 12 year old Rebecca
and 2009 opening day gobbler


Indianapolis, Indiana- To me, there is nothing more exciting than hearing the ol'kettle rattling of a boss tom gobbler at daylight. One of THE best places in the USA to hear just that is the heart of Missouri.

Myself and Genesis Lamp VP of Sales Mark Zukowski recently traveled to the "show me" state of Missouri to share our skills with a sibling pair of girls- only 12 and 14 years old- for the opener of the youth turkey season. If someone had not told me any different, you would swear these two girls were twenty year veterans.

After roosting birds the night before, the stage had been set for what we all hoped would be a successful hunt. One of the hardest things in the entire world to film for an outdoor television show is a turkey hunt. In most cases, there is a shooter, a caller and a cameraman who all must be in synch to avoid detection by the 270 degree turkey radar vision. In this case, my shooter would be 12 year old Rebecca - her sister Victoria would be hunting with my hunting partner Mark Zukowski of Genesis Lamp. Mark had hunted the area for over 14 years and pointed us in the right direction to pin-pointing gobblers at first daylight- thus ensuring us of a successful first day's hunt.

At only 5:35 am, the first long beard started gobbling- and then another - and another until we counted a total of six different birds we could potentially go after. A quick survey of the land had us setting up on the north face of an open field overlooking the valley where we thought the birds would fly down to at first light. A big cedar acted as Rebecca's backstop while I would call and film from just behind her location.

It wasn't long before a lone hen appeared to investigate who the other "hen" was making the commotion in her neck of the woods. The seductive purrs and clucks I made with a Butski diaphragm call in combination with a Knight and Hale slate had every bird in the valley fired up but she was the first to appear. At only a mere 10 feet away, the hen eyed up the strange bush that consisted of Rebecca and myself. Rebecca remained steadfast as the hen tried to catch the slightest movement from this odd conglomeration sitting at a stone's throw away. More than one hunter has joined the alarm putt club by getting busted by an alert hen. The entire sequence is all captured on camera for our new season of USA Outback TV.

It wasn't long before the hen was followed by a pair of jakes- one being quite a bit larger and trying his best to strut which eventually lead to his demise. At less than fifteen yards away, the pair of jakes strolled over to the decoys to make friends only to be introduced to some not so "friendly fire". The Browning 12 gauge roared, the bird was down and another 12 year old had a severe case of "permagrin".

Turkey hunting isn't fishing by any means but I think Rebecca is now "hooked for life" to the wonderful sport of turkey hunting. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Turkey Hunting- or is it the Boogey Man ?

"The Fab Five"

Rocky Branch Manager Diane Hafford & USA Outback host Denny Snyder

Billy McCoy & Paul Butski

Back- Bob Walker

Indianapolis, Indiana- Today I saw my first robin- certainly a sign of spring and the upcoming turkey season.

The groundhog was wrong- I hope.

It has been quite a few years since I have been spring turkey hunting with my good friend Bob Walker of Walker's Game Ear fame. We have been on many hunts together but there is one particular morning that specifically stands out. While listening for the distant gobble of an ol' long beard, Bob made the following comment. "Turkey hunting is like going after the Boogey Man- you know he's out there - and then he's coming for you."

If you know how to "speak the language"- quoting the tagline from Will Primos.....mimicking those soft clucks and crying purrs made famous by guys like Paul Butski & Billy McCoy, the Rohm brothers, the Kirbys, Knight and Hale, Ray Eye, Donny Shipp and Larry Shockey,Walter Parrott...the list goes on........by learning from these masters of the art of turkey calling- the Boogey Man will certainly come for you to.

This brief lapse in the hunting season is almost over and I get excited thinking about investigating new territory. There is nothing like the Butski/McCoy strategy of run and gun gobbler hunting to get the blood pumping on a cool morning in the Alabama woods or Sullivan county hills of Pennsylvania- or anywhere else for that matter.

Smelling the damp earth beneath your feet as you go stumbling through the dark to reach that highest morning vantage point before day breaks. Hearing the crashing of a whitetail bumped from its bed- listening to the trickling of a spring as it gurgles down the mountain carrying with it sluggish worms to the mouths of hungry trout waiting at the merger of the runoff. Coyotes yip and cry in the distance as they return with their pack to the den.

Adding to this spring sonata are the raspy caw caws of crows chasing an owl who(get it...who..who.....LOL)is returning too late from its nocturnal hunt. It is then that this aerial ruckus is dwarfed in volume with a throaty gobble. A mature tom declares that this portion of the world is his and damn anyone for disturbing his roost. The ol'man gobbler you spooked last spring made it through yet another winter. A group of his bothered ladies join in with their own clucks and tree yelps.

The jakes half-hearted attempts at gobbles are almost comical when the ol' man cuts them off with his bellowing gobble that reverberates the very ground where you stand. The fog starts to lift off the green field at the edge of the woods making way for the rising sun.

This experience happens every spring. My senses are all in over-drive- sensory stimulation in Mother Nature's high definition.

This my friends is the essence of spring turkey hunting. Share this experience with someone close to you so they too can see why we hunters are so passionate about our sport. Trust me on this one- they WILL get it.

Squeezing the trigger is such a small part.

Try to get the Boogey Man and just maybe- he'll come get you.

Denny :)
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