The final weekend for the United Wildlife Cooperative, guided youth turkey hunt was probably more fun than the first weekend, and that would be a very hard thing to do.

A brand new batch of youth hunters, including another young lady and every one of them so excited their faces would of had to have been bigger to keep the smile contained.  I’d have to say, they had a VERY good time.

The weather was perfect for this outing.  Not overly hot, but not real cool either.  Our camp setting was at the Middle Fork Wildlife Management area and it was a great spot for this weekends activities.  Two wall tents were set up for the guests, the camp fire pit was loaded with wood and cooking facilities circled.  What a wonderful environment.

Kaitlyn (the young lady hunter) didn’t have much time to hunt as she had other commitments and had to leave early on Saturday, but I believe she got to see a gobbler or two.  The others had chances and two of the three scored on their birds.  I was not able to get a picture of Cody with his bird, but he not only bagged a very large bird with a 10 inch beard, but also was awarded a free mount by Darin Gardner Taxidermy.  Here is a picture of his bird.

And, although it wasn’t as big a bird as Cody’s, Issac tagged a really nice young tender bird and is proud as proud to show it off.

These young hunters really proved to me that we have an outstanding group of  honest and ethical hunters coming up behind us older hunters in the field.  They hiked harder than most people would hike while in pursuit of their game.  They hunkered down when the situation called for it and they ran up the hills like billy goats if that was the call of action.  It was a real pleasure to be there and witness the events unfolding down below.

We got to see a lot of wildlife while on spotting duty.  Moose-

Deer-

Turkeys-

Elk were also around, but I was not able to get pictures of them, we saw many.  I was also able to capture the escape of some turkeys from the crafty hunters in pursuit of them.  Notice the hunters with their backs to the birds which are running fast away from them.

We all had the time of our lives on this weekend hunt and combining both of the past weekends and seeing all the kids enjoying the out of doors was a real treat.  No smart phones, no toggling of game playing, no texting.  Just down home, plain old outdoors fun!

Camp fire songs, smores, jokes and good times were had by all.  Does it get any better?  I think not.  We even had Darin Gardner come in to camp and give us all a lesson on how turkeys think, how to hunt them, what to wear, how to call them.  A hearty thank you to Darin, sometimes referred to a “Tex-O-Bob”.

Well, that about sums it up.

I encourage all of you to join the www.unitedwildlifecooperative.org as soon as you can, it’s free.  What a great bunch of folks.

Bears Butt

May 14, 2012