You have read on here about the United Wildlife Cooperative organization, www.unitedwildlifecooperative.org, and them pulling all the stops out to give 8 lucky kids a chance at bagging a turkey.  Providing a guided hunt on private property etc.

Last night I was invited to a meeting at the property and was informed of some of the items that needed to be done to make this all happen.  I met a couple of the guides and some of the R&K Outfitters who are also sponsoring this event.

I am impressed!  Impressed is probably not the right word for this.  These guys are really pumped up to give these kids the show of their life and hopefully a chance at bagging a turkey.

We discussed a lot of things and made some decisions that we think will fit into the kids and their parents plans as well.  I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you there won’t be any time for “lally-gagging” at this event.  They have it planned beyond planned!  Trust me on that.

After the jaw jackin, we went for a ride into the hills on part of the ranch where this event is to be held.  We were looking for turkeys getting ready to roost up.  I was with Mr. Dunkin, a gentleman about my age, who is with the R&K group.  We went to his home and loaded up his Polaris Ranger for our ride.  I don’t have a clue how many miles we covered in that little powerhouse of a side by side, but we covered a lot of ground.  Glassing meadow after meadow.  Looking for turkey sign where ever we thought there might be turkey sign.  That property is over 35,000 acres in size and covers from the valley floor to the top of the peak.  Snow still has the upper third covered and the lower portions are showing the new spring growth of the grasses.  The planted agricultural lands have yet to begin their growth.  The place is absolutely gorgeous.

Wildlife abounds in every direction.  Mr. Dunkin and I saw mostly elk and deer on our side of the mountain.  We arrived back at the meeting place about 9:30.  It was very much dark when we arrived.  In the parking lot were some of the other and they had seen a lot of game themselves, including turkeys!  These kids are in for a real treat!

I wish I could take this story with me for the next few days, but I won’t be able to.  I’ll just have to give you a blow by blow when I get back.  I’m leaving in the morning and won’t be back until sometime Sunday.  I can tell you this however, there are 4 lucky kids out there who are scheduled to come up tomorrow to begin their hunt and they are going to find a very special place, with some very special people pouring their hearts out to help them have a hunt of a dream.

And again, there isn’t scheduled much “dream time” in what I saw last night.

Bears Butt

May 3, 2012

P.S.

This just in.  Wapiti has volunteered to help the UWC with this event and the two of us have our assignments!  YES!

Weasel and I hit the hills today in search of a wild turkey.  We did see one but not able to identify whether it was a hen or tom as it was flying.  Some turkey with a shotgun scared it up ahead of us.

We also saw two moose and one deer.  Hiked for  6.24  miles (according to google earth measurement).  Oh, ya and we discovered a geo-cache, but we didn’t have a pen to write our names as finding it.

So, unless you are very interested in more of the story, you have read the Readers Digest version already.

We got to the parking spot about 7:45, our little secret spot.  See if you can guess where we were from the pictures.

We decided to leave the decoys because we had no idea what we were in for at this place, we had never been there before.  So off we went.  Several different trails could lead us up and away from the vehicle.  We chose a lower trail as it lead us toward the river (hint).

Just out of sight where the river makes a slight turn are the two moose we saw.  As we proceeded up the trail we ran into these things, whatever they are.

They looked like bundles of small bamboo sticks taped and wired to the tree.  There were a total of 10 bundles.

Off we went up the trail.  It was a wonderful hike and it ended when the trail crossed the river and there was no way to continue without getting our feet wet.  It was not worth that and so we turned around and headed back down.  Around a nice little bend overlooking the canyon, we stopped for a welcome Kippersnack break.

Weasels like kippersnacks and crackers.

While there we decided to test out his Grouse Wing Camo.  Can you find the weasel in this picture?

How about this one?This one?

Down the trail about half way back to the truck we stopped for a quick breath and found a geocache.  It was cleverly hidden in a broken off oak tree that had a small hollow place and they had placed a small rock on top of the cache.  An ear plug holder that contained a single piece of paper with a few names of people who had found it.  We didn’t have a pen to write our names on it, so we just took a picture and put it back.

We had a great hike and fortunately we did see the one turkey.  But we know there are others in the area.

We are not sure when the next chance to get out will be but until then, we have high hopes on locating the wiley birds and bringing a couple home.

I hope you have had a wonderful National Fire Day!

Bears Butt

May 2, 2012

About a week ago the hearing in my left ear went way south.  If I plugged my right ear, I could just barely hear anything out of my left ear.  Of course being a guy, I did the guy thing and said to myself…It’ll go away…..Today I went turkey hunting and with only one ear to hear with it was not really that fun.  Constant ringing in the left ear, no sounds on my left side at all, only on the right, and so I favored looking right.  Did birds pass by me on the left and I did not hear them?  I doubt it, but they could have.

Well, we had our hunt.  Did manage to spot a gobbler high on a hill and it was interested in mating real bad.  So we made an attempt on his little butt.  Moved in and set up.  Brandon up high, and me low.  Called a seductive sequence on the slate call and he gobbled.  YES!  Another seductive yelp and a closer gobble!

This is going to be fun!  Yelp!  Gobble.  And on it went until he was somewhere very close to Brandon, at least that is what my right ear was telling me.  But no boom of the shotgun.  And then he would not answer my seductive yelping, not even with the wing bone call.  Silence.

Later, discussing the event with Brandon, he said the bird was so close he could hear it “cluck” as it walked away, but he could not see it.  In order to hear the cluck he had to be within 20 yards.  The oak brush it thick and you can only hope the bird comes out into an opening for a shot.  Otherwise he is the winner and you go home with loaded shot shells.

Not being able to hear is not a fun deal.  And so after arriving home and taking off some of my hunting clothes, I call the docs office and got an appointment.  I hadn’t even had time to get a drink of water before I headed off for my appointment…an immediate opening!  I was a happy guy.

The doc took on look and said “Yep, ear wax”!  Then he proceeded to irrigate the inside of my ear with a high pressure washer and hot water.  You know the kind of high pressure washer you use to clean the gunk off an old rusty engine or the driveway?  Well that was the kind he used and believe me it hurt like heck.  He was all happy and grinny until I finally made a groaning noise from the pain he was inflicting.  Then he stopped.  Looked inside and said “Clean as a new born”!  And when he said that, I could hear STEREO!!!!

Stereo is good!

Bears Butt

April 30, 2012

I’m always looking for good hints and things to help me in the pursuit of whatever it is I’m after.  This time of year it’s turkeys.  I recall a wonderful spring day last year when Dry Dog was on his first ever turkey hunt.  You can read the whole story on this site.  Search Dry Dog and the story will come up.  Any way, I remember at first light a gobbler that was roosted very high up on the mountain, nearly a half a mile away, came sailing down.  An awesome site for me to witness.  Well, the following bit of information I found lends itself very well to what I have learned about turkeys the past few years.

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Usually you won’t find a turkey roosted very far from a water supply and if they can find a tree situated over running water, that is ideal. In any area, look first at the large trees with good horizontal branches near water. In my neck of the woods, that means large oaks and sycamores and further west, cottonwoods. If the terrain is hilly, try and find trees right below the ridge tops that are on the leeward side of the prevailing winds for that time of year. If they can, turkeys like to climb up above the roost on the ridge top and fly down to their roosting tree. They then will usually glide down below when they fly down in the morning. Many times the turkeys in my area will utilize large cedars or occasionally pines when available to further escape cold winter winds.

It is also possible to locate roosts by doing lots of walking through an area and looking for the large wing and tail feathers which often fall out when the turkey is flying up or down from the roost. You can also look for piles of droppings which can be quite large when a turkey uses a roost tree consistently. Droppings usually last until they are rained on which will also help you determine how long ago turkeys were in the area.

Perhaps the easiest and surest way to find roost trees is to get there either first thing in the morning or at sunset and listen for the birds flying up to roost or calling on the roost. Most people have heard of the term “roosting a bird” and this means you have been out that evening and found out, by owl calling or just listening, the tree a gobbler has roosted in.

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How much truth is in what this author has said has yet to be determined, but I for one have got to believe most of it.  We will find ourselves at or very near the same spot Dry Dog was in last year.  Hopefully that well educated bird will come winging down into the same place only this time a “heavy load” of gobbler getter will take him down!

Bears Butt

April 29, 2012

Utah’s open season for turkey hunting starts Monday April 30 at o’light 30 and the Weasel and I are going to be there.  For the occasion I picked up a box of special shells and will share them with the Weasel.  Of course he only gets one.  It only takes one.

These babies come with an unwritten guarantee they will knock the block off a big old gobbler should it get within range.  And so, on this site you will be seeing a couple or three nice big gobblers posted up by the time the season closes.

Take a good close look at these shells.  They look like they mean business!

Agreed?

Bears Butt

April 28, 2012