by: Bob Reccord
For the turkey hunter there’s nothing like Spring! Budding trees and flowers, grass greening and weather warming is all fine and good. But, nothing takes the place of foggy dawns, the sound of an owl call, and the shrill, rattling retort of a gobbler for your alarm clock.
So, needless to say, I couldn’t wait for the season to get here this year. I prize two Rio gobblers I got a couple of years ago in Texas and now I’m on the hunt for an Eastern and an Osceola. And I just knew this Spring would be it…the next step in a turkey hunter’s hat triple play. And I was off to middle Georgia with a friend who is a great hunter and who had recently bought 200 new acres of hunting land! What more could a guy want?!
I have been pretty decent with a slate and glass turkey call, as well as the wet box call. The yelp, the cluck, the gobble…I’ve worked on them all. And I diligently work on improving it any time I can learn, because one thing I’ve seen of good hunters, they never stop learning. But the one thing that has given me fits is the reed mouth call. I marvel at the folks who can replicate the wild turkey calls just by manipulating that little reed, air flow and jaw movement in their mouth. But I had been practicing this year.
Arriving at the land late afternoon, we unloaded our gear, fired up the ATV and set out to determine roosting patterns so we would know where to be at daybreak. And…just in case, we loaded our weapons. After all, who knows!
Threading our way through the logging roads we paused on the ridge and let go with some crow calls. After a pause, came the turkey calls. And then the listening. And more listening. Hearing nothing we moved on…until we had worked our way down to the creek bottom. There we would repeat the process…and then started talking to catch up a bit on each other’s lives and families.
It was on the way back to the lodge that it happened. Making our way back up the ridge, suddenly a loud commotion-like something hurtling down through a tree—followed by a loud thump and flying leaves. I would only catch a fleeting glimpse, little more than my partner caught, and then he was gone. A TOM! And it was over before we knew it. We had gotten too lax, weren’t expectant, and had let our attention wander. It would turn out to be the only shot we would have a possibility for the entire hunt.
Looking back on it, I’ve reflected how often not being alert and losing opportunity in relationships and families reveals skills we need to further develop and hone. It’s the unexpected moments that sometimes bring the greatest opportunities. Times like…
When a teen comes home from a date and while casually drifting toward the bedroom says, “I’ve sorta been thinking about…â€
When a spouse inquires, “Got a minute?â€
When a child interrupts, “I’ve got a question…â€
When a daughter says, “I’ve got a friend who’s having a problem with….â€
In every instance, we had better be alert. An invaluable life skill is to be ready for the unexpected and don’t ever stop learning what to be listening for. And it usually won’t happen in convenient times. It is a must for good hunters…and it’s a must for good spouses, parents and friends. Maybe that’s one of the applications of what James cautions us, “be quick to listen and slow to speak…†(James 1: 19). And what we need to hear will often come in the most unexpected moments, so STAY ALERT!